Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Engines ( Chapter 10 )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Arc 2: “Mentality”

Chapter 5: “Engines”

Disclaimer: The concept of Teen Titans does not belong to me; it belongs to DC Comics and Warner Brothers. The specific characters of Nightstar, Mercury, and The Ravager do not belong to me; the first and third are owned strictly by DC and the second is jointly owned by DC and Marvel. Everyone and everything else, unless it's someone or something you recognize from DC canon, belongs to me.

Author's note: So the truth about Raziel has come out. No wonder he's a bit messed up. Things are just gonna get worse for him here and to top all that off, an old enemy will return. I won't say who; I'm sure you've all drawn your own conclusions since I first mentioned this. Just hang on for the ride.

Over the next week, Raziel recovered rather nicely. By the morning after he'd first entered the infirmary, he was ready to resume his normal life as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He was rather grateful that the Titans didn't treat him any differently now that they knew about his less-than-savory past . . . aside from Mercury hitting him up for tips on what to do should he and Beast Girl take that next step in their relationship.

“The most I can say is that you have to ease her into it,” Raziel had said. “Don't rush, or you'll make her uncomfortable.”

“I can be slow,” Mercury had said. “I can be slow just for her.”

“Yes and think about how taking your time with her will only heighten your passion for her,” Raziel had added. “It'll be like sweet torment.”

Mercury had blushed.

“Any other questions?” Raziel had asked.

Mercury had fidgeted, trying to figure out what else to ask.

“Everyone has to find their own rhythm,” Raziel had advised. “What works for me may very well not work so well for you.”

“Oh, ok,” Mercury had said. “Thanks!” He had sped out of the room.

“So, you ready to spar?” Bladefire had asked. “I bet I could teach you a few things.”

“Or the other way around,” Raziel had challenged with a slight grin.

One night, Raziel hit a café, just looking for a cup of coffee and some poetry. That night was open mike night, so anyone and everyone were free to get up on stage and embarrass themselves.

“Nice place, huh?” a familiar voice commented.

Raziel turned in his seat and saw Ariana sitting next to him. “What do you want?”

“To talk,” Ariana answered simply.

“You've recovered nicely,” Raziel remarked with hardly a trace of emotion in his voice.

“Why are you so cold to me?” Ariana asked. “Do you . . . hate me?”

Raziel chuckled derisively. “Hate would imply that I feel something for you.”

“Don't be like that, Raziel,” Ariana pleaded softly. “I know you still feel something for me.”

“And would you possess some kind of empathic or telepathic ability?” Raziel asked.

“No, but -” Ariana started to say but Raziel cut her off.

“Then you don't know if I still feel anything for you,” he answered coldly.

“I don't need to read your mind to know you still care for me,” Ariana declared.

“Your presence is a blight upon what remains of my sanity,” Raziel spoke, standing from his seat and starting to walk away, leaving his coffee unfinished. To his irritation, Ariana followed him, much like a lovesick puppy would follow her master. “Leave me alone. If you're going to kill me, get on with it. Just don't cling to me like a lovesick leech.”

“Why did you leave?” Ariana asked softly.

“Because the Brain Trust is an organization of filthy murderers and spies,” Raziel replied.

“We're better,” Ariana stated. “Don't you get it, Raziel? We owe nothing to normal humanity. Nothing. We have gifts and we have the right to use them.”

“Yes, but to protect those who cannot protect themselves,” Raziel countered, “not to kill and exploit them.”

“Normal humans had their day,” Ariana uttered. “It's our turn now.”

“These harbingers of a new world murdered my parents,” Raziel hissed. “They murdered my little sister!”

“They would have only held you back,” Ariana said. “Like the Titans are holding you back.” Her voice softened. “Come back to me, Raziel. Please.”

“No,” Raziel answered firmly, drawing three kunai and throwing them at Ariana at bullet speed. Ariana generated a thermal shield to block the kunai and drain their momentum. Raziel charged into that thermal shield and slashed it with his psychic blades. Ariana pushed the shield forward and knocked Raziel into a car.

Raziel rose to his feet with a smirk. “Nice . . . but try fighting me without your thermokinetic skills. We'll see how much you've improved.”

Ariana dissipated her shield and charged at Raziel, thrusting her flat hand at his throat. He moved his hand under hers and slapped it aside, then punched her in her exposed stomach. She grabbed his wrist and jabbed him in the gut with her knee, proceeding to chop him in the back when the force of the knee-jab made him bend double.

Raziel quickly recovered and swung his leg out, knocking Ariana's feet from under her. Ariana flipped back onto her feet as Raziel twisted into a maneuver that brought him back onto his feet.

Ariana jumped and did a spin-kick that Raziel caught with one hand. The redheaded thermokinetic simply kicked him with her other leg, but he blocked with his other hand. Ariana bent forward and rammed his head with hers, forcing him to let go. She flipped into a standing position as Raziel reeled from the head-butt.

The silver-haired psychic fighter was quick to recover, though, and he attacked Ariana with a series of rapid punches and kicks. Ariana blocked them to the best of her ability, but Raziel's speed and agility surpassed hers and more punches and kicks pierced her defenses than were deflected.

He finished with a kick to her solar plexus, knocking her into a car.

“Ugh,” she uttered as she pulled herself out of the section of vehicle that had been bent and twisted around her when she crashed into it. She superheated the asphalt beneath their feet and it exploded in a wave rapidly traveling toward Raziel. He jumped off the road and onto a nearby car, only for the street to cave in beneath him due to the intense heat channeled into it. He leaped from car to car, being forced to escape from each one as the street continued to cave in.

“Stop running from me, Raziel,” Ariana called out.

“Fine, I will,” Raziel said and charged down the sidewalk at her, moving faster than a normal human would be able. He slashed at her with a psychic blade, slicing her chest and one of the chains that connected her choker to her small top. Ariana touched the wound and melted it shut with her thermokinesis, hissing in pain as she did it. She heated up her fist and punched Raziel, leaving an unsightly burn mark on his cheek, one that immediately began to heal.

This time, she didn't give him the opportunity to recover, punching him again and again with her heated fists.

“Not so pretty, now are you?” she taunted.

Raziel caught her fists, relying on his aura to filter out the pain and jabbing her in the gut with his knee. Once she dropped, he looked at his hands, which were already beginning to blister. Cursing under his breath and thinking he ought to start wearing gloves, he tore the hem of his shirt and wrapped the fabric around his hands as makeshift bandages.

Ariana got up with a sinister smile, shaping her power into burning needles that sliced Raziel again and again.

“Go, girl!” a mocking voice shouted. “Tear him up!”

Raziel snarled when he heard the voice. “Wyndragyn.”

The masked assassin emerged from the shadows that had so carefully concealed him. “The one and only. Wow, Crestmore, never knew you were that much of a heartbreaker.”

“Stay away,” Ariana hissed, sounding more like a territorial feline than a human. “He's mine.”

“So you say,” Wyndragyn sneered. “Now, if you're done beating the crap out of that weak little bitch, you might want to take on a real warrior.”

The air suddenly rippled like water and waves of heat crashed down on Wyndragyn. “Nice try, but the suit's made to be fireproof.”

Ariana didn't give up, merely lashing at Wyndragyn with a fast spinning kick. Wyndragyn easily caught the kick and twisted her leg, making her spin sideways. She landed roughly but got up again, thrusting her fingers - which were surrounded by an aura of heat - at Wyndragyn's masked face. The Kokuryu assassin merely slapped her hand aside and chopped her in the throat, causing her to cough and gasp and choke.

“You're not so special after all,” he muttered in distaste. “I can't believe Crestmore has so much trouble with you.”

Ariana spat at him, resulting in a hard slap that knocked her into a nearby car.

“Men are always knocking me into cars,” she groaned as she extricated herself from the vehicle that had caved in around her.

Wyndragyn drew his katana and charged at her, aiming to slice her throat. Instead, his blade burst into a million pieces. This didn't really deter him, as he threw the hilt at her throat with enough force to cave it in.

“How pathetic,” he sighed as he watched her choke. “How very freaking pathetic.” He turned to Crestmore. “Your turn now.”

Raziel let out a furious yell and rushed Wyndragyn in spite of his injuries, slashing brutally with his psychic blades. The wounds quickly healed and he punched Raziel so hard that he landed next to Ariana.

“Ariana . . .” he murmured as he closed the distance to her.

She couldn't speak; her vocal cords had been crushed along with her windpipe. All she could really do was die.

He stared into her eyes, full of terror, sorrow, and bittersweet love. He knew, just from looking into those sad slate eyes, that she wanted her last words to be, “I love you.”

“It's ok,” he murmured. “I know. I know.”

Ariana's eyes glimmered slightly, as if she was saying, “You really do care.”

Raziel laid a gentle farewell kiss on Ariana's lips as she died, tears dripping down his face and onto hers.

“Now isn't that touching?” Wyndragyn mocked. “Now get up off that dead whore and die like a man.”

Raziel growled his vitriol and pulled a fistful of bullets out of one of his pockets, pumping them full of his psychic aura and throwing them all at Wyndragyn. The bullets moved swiftly, as though they had been fired from an actual gun, only for Wyndragyn to avoid them all with lightning reflexes.

“Come on, Crestmore!” Wyndragyn yelled. “I expected better from you.” He pulled out three shuriken and threw them at Raziel, who blocked them all with a senbon, just before he threw that senbon at Wyndragyn, aiming for the left eye-slit. The Kokuryu assassin barely caught the needle before it could pierce his eye. “You're improving.”

“Screw you,” Raziel spat and slashed at Wyndragyn with his psychic blades. Wyndragyn caught his wrists and kicked him hard in the chest, striking a particular wound left from Ariana's heat needles. Raziel stifled a cry of pain and dropped low, swinging his leg out to knock Wyndragyn's leg out from underneath him. Wyndragyn flipped into a standing position and Raziel spun upward to kick him in the chest.

The two warriors traded blows again and again with enough force to incapacitate, if not kill, a normal human. Raziel threw a punch at Wyndragyn, but the assassin caught the punch and threw Raziel at a nearby building. Raziel flipped in midair and kicked off the façade of the building, landing with a flying kick that impacted against Wyndragyn's mask. Wyndragyn caught his leg and threw him at a streetlamp. Raziel grabbed the streetlamp and performed an acrobatic maneuver that landed him on top of it.

He looked down at Wyndragyn and saw that his kick had broken the mask. It cracked in the middle and fell away as two unequal halves. The face that was revealed was a rather handsome face, almost feminine, only darker than Raziel's. Black hair and nearly-black eyes, pale skin . . . and a vertical scar below each eye.

“You're still alive,” the unmasked Wyndragyn spoke. “No one who is alive has seen my face.”

“Do you consider yourself too hideous to be seen by living beings?” Raziel mocked.

“Come down here and say that,” Wyndragyn snarled.

Raziel jumped down onto the street and repeated his question.

Wyndragyn attacked him again, this time with a kunai. Raziel drew his own kunai and matched him, the two of them battling as though they were in a knife fight. Their kunai clashed against each other again and again, as each wielder tried to get past the other's defenses. It was rather impossible; Raziel could read Wyndragyn's moves and Wyndragyn probably could predict his. Even when one managed to get through, the other would quickly retaliate.

Raziel swung at Wyndragyn's throat, seeming to miss, only to spin, lower his kunai arm, and slash upward, catching the assassin by surprise. He was barely able to react in time to stop the psychic martial artist from slicing him in half and that cost him his arm, leaving a deep gash there.

The two thrust their kunai at each other once again, impaling each other. Raziel had Wyndragyn's kunai in his gut, somewhere between his liver and kidney. Wyndragyn had Raziel's kunai in his throat, somewhere between his vocal cords and windpipe. That wouldn't kill either of them, though, given their respective healing capacities. Still, it would buy Raziel time.

Now . . .

“What happened to you?” Father Matthew asked.

“He murdered her . . . and I couldn't stop him,” Raziel murmured. “I couldn't save her.”

Father Matthew took stock of Raziel's wounds. “You need to go to a hospital, son.”

“No . . .” Raziel contradicted. “I heal fast. Not quite as fast as some people I know, but fast enough.” He tried to get up, only to be forced back down by the pain that flared in his gut. “I tried . . . so hard, to make myself a better man than what I was. To fight injustice and evil wherever I found it, to atone for my sins.” He laughed bitterly. “Was there a point to it? Am I any better now than I was then? I failed my family . . . I failed that man's family . . . and I failed Ariana . . .”

Father Matthew shook him. “You are not a failure, Raziel. You still have a family . . . the Titans.”

Raziel chuckled. “Ironically, I don't really feel all that familial when it comes to Nightstar.”

“Glad you admitted it,” a voice remarked from the back of the church hall.

Raziel turned and saw The Ravager, clad in her usual leather-chain mail-and-armor ensemble. She made the Sign of the Cross with a wicked smile on what could be seen of her face.

“Ravager,” he hissed. “What are you doing here?”

“We both want the Kokuryu out of business,” Ravager replied. “I suggest we join forces.”

“What happened to Wyndragyn?” Raziel asked.

“Dispatched,” Ravager answered, “but not before I got what I wanted from him.”

“And that would be?” Raziel prompted.

“Get up first,” Ravager sneered.

Father Matthew was about to say something, but Raziel stilled him.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked.

“Not really,” Raziel answered, “but the Kokuryu have done enough damage to me and my life.” He rose to his feet, his still-healing wounds making it painful for him to do so, and walked toward Ravager. “I'll see you again soon, Father.”

“May God be with you, son,” Father Matthew spoke.

Raziel smiled ironically. “God hasn't been with me in a long time.”

The Ravager drove her motorcycle, a sleek black demon, like a madwoman with Raziel hanging onto her for dear life.

“Why do you want the Kokuryu out of the picture?” he asked.

“My father,” Ravager replied simply.

“Would you be referring to Slade?” Raziel surmised.

“Yes,” Ravager confirmed. “Wyndragyn was his bastard child.”

This rather nonplussed Raziel.

“Not literally,” Ravager amended. “His abilities were essentially the same as mine and my father's, only stronger in some respects, particularly his powers of regeneration. Of course, there was one thing even he couldn't regenerate . . .”

“You mean his head,” Raziel uttered.

“My father disappeared almost twenty years ago,” Ravager explained. “His last job before that was for the Kokuryu. I found out from Wyndragyn that they used the job as a trap and once he was subdued, they put him in cryogenic stasis and used his blood in experiments to create super-assassins.”

“Now that's irony,” Raziel remarked. “The military made Slade into a super-soldier and his blood was used to create super-assassins. But I only saw Wyndragyn . . .”

Ravager growled. “It's not funny. The reason you only saw Wyndragyn was that he was their first and only success.”

“And that's why you want to take out the Kokuryu,” Raziel mused.

“I'm going to free my father and then we're going to massacre the Kokuryu together,” Ravager declared.

Raziel didn't say anything after that.

“I know what you're thinking, Crestmore,” Ravager spoke. “You're thinking of bringing down the Kokuryu and somehow stopping me from awakening my father. Think again. With those wounds, you won't be able to do too much to stop me.”

“Doesn't mean I won't make the attempt,” Raziel rejoined.

“Of course,” Ravager remarked. “You hero types are so much alike.”

They finally stopped in front of the Kokuryu's unofficial headquarters, which happened to be a nightclub with an office at the top and all kinds of things happening in the basement. Ravager set up the kick-stop and got off the motorcycle with Raziel. The two of them stalked toward the entrance, only to be halted by the doorman.

“Do you have an invitation?” the doorman asked in Japanese.

“Kiss my ass,” Raziel replied in perfect Japanese before roughly shoving the doorman aside. He and Ravager walked in, receiving stares from the patrons and hearing the sounds of Japanese rap being sung, oddly enough, by girls dressed in schoolgirl outfits. Raziel walked toward the back to the entrance to the basement levels. Several guards attempted to block him and Ravager succinctly disposed of them with her katana. “Did you have to do that?”

“Yes,” Ravager answered simply as she and Raziel walked down the stairway to the basement levels of the nightclub.

“What are we looking for?” Raziel questioned.

“This is where they've been keeping my father,” Ravager answered. “If you want, you can alert your fellow Titans.”

“Already did that,” Raziel stated.

“Oh,” Ravager said. “Oh, well. Won't they get an unpleasant surprise?”

“And so will you, bitch,” a voice answered from below them.

Raziel and Ravager looked down at the foot of the stairway and saw a squad of men in suits and sunglasses . . . all holding Uzis.

“Do our chances look good to you?” Raziel asked.

“What's the matter, scared to die?” Ravager asked.

“I'll take that as a yes,” Raziel mused.

“You've got about three seconds to turn around and walk away,” the apparent leader stated.

“Three, two, one - go time,” Ravager sneered, leaping off the stairway and into a hail of gunfire. Raziel leaped after her, despite the fact that he was still recovering from his wounds and unlike her, his clothes were in no way bullet-resistant. The two ducked and weaved between bullets and cutting through their foes. While Raziel mainly focused on their guns, Ravager severed either the hands that were holding the guns or the fingers that were pulling the triggers.

Soon enough, the gunmen were all dealt with.

Ravager smiled sadistically at the blood on her sword and licked it. “So are you going to give us trouble now?”

One of the gunmen began talking rapidly and fearfully in Japanese.

“I'll take that as a no,” Ravager spoke and walked away with Raziel.

The two martial artists descended to the lowest level of the club, which happened to be a laboratory. They could tell by the pristine whiteness of the walls and the high-tech scientific equipment. Ravager walked through the laboratory with the sole intention of finding her father, while Raziel followed her with the sole intention of stopping her.

They finally stopped before a half-cylindrical chamber that looked like it was embedded in the wall. It would have been clear if not for the cold fog that filled its interior. Despite the fog, both Raziel and Ravager could see a tall, imposing figure inside the half-cylinder.

Ravager turned around and swung her katana at Raziel, who moved his head out of the way only to lose a few strands of silver hair. He retaliated with a swing of his psychic blade, but Ravager smacked him in the wrist, throwing off his swing. She grabbed him by the throat and threw him aside. He somersaulted and landed on his hands, flipping onto his feet and pulling several dice and marbles out of his pockets. He threw them all at Ravager with the speed and force of high-caliber bullets. Ravager only deflected them with her sword, but one of the deflected dice struck the electronic keypad that locked the chamber.

Raziel muttered a curse. I just helped her free her father.

The chamber opened as the fog hissed out . . . and the man known to the criminal underworld as both Slade and Deathstroke stepped out. He was clad in form-fitting black Kevlar with chain mail around his abdomen and between his forearms and shoulders. Dark gray armor adorned his upper arms, shoulders, forearms, thighs, knees, shins, and feet. His face was concealed entirely by a mask that was burnt orange on the left side and pitch black on the right side, with four sinister slits for the mouth. The mask had a white lens on the left side, a lens through which a dark blue-gray eye that oozed malevolence could be seen.

“Who are you?” Slade asked Ravager.

“Your daughter,” Ravager replied. “I came to set you free and so I have.”

“Daughter?” Slade questioned.

“Remember a woman named Lillian Worth?” Ravager asked.

“Yes,” Slade replied. “I remember her very well . . .” Realization dawned in his single eye. “You're her child, aren't you?”

“Yes,” Ravager confirmed.

Slade turned his attentions to Raziel. “Who is he?”

“A Teen Titan,” Ravager replied. “And here's something you might find interesting: His leader is Nightwing's daughter.”

Slade did not spoke, but Raziel could just picture the chilling smirk that hid beneath the black-and-burnt orange mask. He reached into his belt and withdrew a small dark gray rod, pressing a button to extend it to a full quarterstaff.

Raziel pulled out six senbon, holding three in each hand between his fingers. He closed his eyes and when he reopened them, Michael was staring through them. “Come on, Deathstroke. Let's see how well you fight after twenty years of cryogenic suspension.”

Slade narrowed his one eye. “I think I'll let you go first.”

Michael launched all six senbon at Slade, who deflected them all by twirling his staff. Slade lunged at Michael and struck him in the side with the staff. Michael resisted the urge to cry out in pain from the still-healing wounds Raziel had endured on his way to this place. He chopped Slade's staff in half with his psychic blade.

“Impressive,” Slade remarked before dropping and swinging his leg out to kick Michael's legs out from under him. Michael jumped over Slade's leg and kicked him straight in his masked head, causing the assassin-cum-mastermind to stagger backward. Ravager moved to assist him, but Slade held his hand out as a silent signal to stay back. The masked man aimed a fast punch at Michael, who moved his head out of the way and threw a punch at Slade. Slade caught the punch and slammed his elbow into Michael's chest, nearly breaking a rib or two. He spun and threw the fighter at one of the lab tables, but Michael grabbed the table and used it to stop his flight, rolling off it and landing on the floor.

Slade stalked over to him, only to get sliced up the middle by Michael's psychic blade. Fortunately for him, the wound healed very quickly.

“Clever little brat,” he snarled.

Michael sprang to life and kicked Slade in the chest, spinning in the air to deliver a second kick to the gut. Unfortunately for him, Slade caught the second kick and twisted his ankle, which made him kick the mastermind with his other foot. Slade caught that, too, compelling Michael to bend forward and head-butt him, an action that hurt him more than it did the mastermind. It did have the positive effect of making Slade loosen his grip, enabling Michael to release himself.

It was this scene that the other Titans walked in on.

“Slade!” Nightstar shouted.

“What the hell?” Mercury asked. “Where the freak did he come from?”

“So you're the new Teen Titans,” Slade purred. “If this boy is any indication, you should be a fine challenge.”

Michael took his place beside the other Titans.

“You ok?” Bladefire asked.

“I'll heal,” Michael replied stoically.

“Would you all like to come at me at once or do you want to take me one at a time?” Slade challenged.

Nightstar lashed at Slade with her energy whip, which Slade caught and used to pull her toward him. The Titan leader was barely able to turn her unwilling flight into a flying kick that knocked Slade back several paces.

“I'm impressed,” Slade remarked. “But what else should I expect from the daughter of my former apprentice?”

“Is this what you wanted, Ravager?” Bladefire asked. “To bring back your father?”

“Among other things,” Ravager replied nonchalantly.

Beast Girl rushed Slade as a cat-girl, using her feline dexterity to evade his blows. She slashed at him with her claws but he evaded her slashes and grabbed her wrist.

“Beast Girl, correct?” Slade sneered. “So much like your father. All instinct. No forethought.” He casually tossed her aside. “Anyone else?”

Mercury gritted his teeth in rage and sped at Slade with extremely quick punches and kicks. The mastermind dodged as many as he could, but more of Mercury's blows landed than missed.

“A speedster,” Slade remarked. “I haven't fought one of those since the second Flash. Or was it the third?”

Mercury landed a kick that impacted Slade squarely in his masked face, the speed and momentum of the blow causing the mask to crack deeply.

“You're going to wish you hadn't done that,” the masked man hissed threateningly.

Mercury's answer was a series of punches that seemed to come from multiple angles due to the sheer speed of his movements. Finally, Slade pulled out a laser gun and blasted Mercury with it. Sadly enough, even Mercury couldn't dodge light.

Bladefire and Nightstar attacked Slade with energy knives and optic bolts, respectively. Slade dodged them rather efficiently and charged the half-alien duo. Slade delivered a whirling kick to Bladefire's exposed side and a punch to Nightstar's face.

“You know, little girl, it's not a good idea to leave so much of your body exposed, even if it is a tantalizing sight,” Slade remarked.

Nightstar hissed and fired an optic bolt point blank at Slade, knocking him back a considerable distance.

“Pervert,” she hissed.

“Oh, am I?” Slade asked as he got back up. He leaped back into the fray as Bladefire kicked him in the chest. Slade grabbed the red-haired boy's ankle and used it as leverage to throw him. Bladefire righted himself in midair and flew at Slade again as Nightstar tackled the mastermind from the ground. Slade blocked Bladefire's aerial punch and Nightstar's high kick and pushed his arms outward to toss them both aside.

Inferno shot a stream of flame at Slade, who jumped over it and kicked him. Almost immediately afterward, the mastermind was made to evade lab tables that were lifted by dark energy and thrown at him.

“You must be Raven's brat,” Slade surmised as he dodged the tables. Finally, he began leaping over them to get at Samara.

“Azarath . . . Terra . . . Infernus!” Samara chanted, summoning flame-like shadows that attacked the mastermind. The shadowy flames grabbed him and slammed him into the walls, ceiling, and floor in painfully rapid succession. By the time it was over, Slade was considerably battered.

“Vicious little wench, aren't you?” Slade remarked. “You must get that from your mother.”

Samara grinned almost sinisterly, whispering, “Azarath . . . Terra . . . Oculus.”

She pulled off her hood, revealing that her chakra gem had become an amethyst eye set in a hard ruby sclera. The eye glowed darkly and she stalked toward Slade, dark power writhing around her.

Slade drew his broadsword. “Come on, little girl. Give me your best shot.”

“Give me yours,” Samara whispered in a deadly voice.

“Samara?” Nightstar uttered.

“What the hell are you doing?” Inferno asked.

“Stopping him,” Samara answered.

Suddenly, the room exploded - literally - scattering all the Titans, Slade, and Ravager.

“What the hell was that?” Beast Girl asked.

“Firebomb,” Ravager replied, smirking. “One on every level of this place. The others should be triggered right about now.”

More explosions could be heard above them.

“You've known where the Kokuryu's inner circle congregates for some time, haven't you?” Raziel concluded.

“Yeah,” Ravager admitted unrepentantly.

“We're going to have to save these people, aren't we?” Samara concluded.

“Not if we can help it,” Ravager declared.

The seven Titans gathered together. “Titans Together!” Nightstar shouted.

Slade and Ravager, swords out, attacked the Titans, who retaliated with equal ferocity. Slade and Bladefire clashed swords, metal versus energy, while Nightstar and Ravager fought whip to sword. Bladefire blocked Slade's attacks to the best of his ability, but Slade was a far more experienced swordsman than him. Nightstar and Ravager were more evenly matched; while Nightstar had the advantage of a long-range attack, Ravager was just fast enough to slip past it and get in for the strike.

Beast Girl attacked Slade as a lioness, Slade wrestling with her for a few minutes before kicking her in her underside and thus knocking her off him. She morphed into a lioness-human hybrid and charged him again, this time using her human dexterity in conjunction with her feline agility and strength.

“Now . . . this . . . I haven't seen before,” he remarked, sounding almost impressed as he fought her.

Mercury and Ravager battled hand-to-hand, the speedster throwing his mind into complete overdrive. He figured that even if she could see his next moves, his own “hyper-mind” would boost his reflexes and reaction time so that she wouldn't be able to see them quickly enough to prevent them. For the most part, it did work, as he swiftly overwhelmed her. Unfortunately, he didn't anticipate a tranquilizer dart striking him in the neck.

Slade stalked over to him, having dealt with Beast Girl. “Knowing speedsters the way I do, you'll probably break that down in less than a minute. Gives me just enough time to do this.”

“MERCURY!” Beast Girl screamed as Slade slashed the tendons in the back of her boyfriend's knees. The blue-and-white-clad speedster collapsed with blood pouring out from the backs of his knees, staining the blue of his uniform.

The Titans gaped at Slade with horror, all of them tensing to attack in their own way.

“What are you going to do?” he asked. “This place is going to collapse soon enough thanks to the flames. You want to kill me . . . or save your friend?”

Beast Girl ran to Mercury and picked him up as Samara wrapped shadowy wings around all the Titans, transporting them to the nearest hospital.

“He needs help!” Nightstar shouted.

Immediately, doctors and nurses began running to them.

“What happened?” one doctor asked.

“He got slashed in the back of his knees,” Raziel replied. “Tore the tendons.”

The other doctors took him from Beast Girl and placed him on a stretcher.

“You can't anesthetize him,” Inferno told them. “His metabolism breaks it down too fast for it to really work.”

“Then we're gonna have to move faster than him if we want to save his legs,” another doctor stated before they rushed him into the operating room.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“If you believe that there is a God who might be persuaded to listen, pray,” Raziel replied tersely.

Silence followed, punctuated by whispers in Tamaranean and the word “X'Hal” emerging every so often in those whispers.

Hours passed before the other Titans got word from the doctors.

“So how is he?” Beast Girl asked apprehensively.

“He'll be fine,” the doctor answered. “He just needs to stay off his legs for a bit. If his metabolism works the way you say it does, it won't take very long for him to finish his recovery. You can see him now if you want.”

Beast Girl immediately tore into the hospital room where Mercury was, having tracked him by his scent.

“Quite . . . in a hurry, isn't she?” the doctor remarked in a slightly unnerved tone.

“Just the way she is,” Samara answered.

“This sucks,” Mercury groused. “I have to stay off my legs.”

“You heal faster than a normal human,” Bladefire interjected. “It'll take one day at the most and then you can run, run, run as fast as you like.”

“You'll have to be careful about running, though; too much and you might rip out your stitches,” Nightstar added.

“Crap,” Mercury muttered.

“Don't worry,” Beast Girl purred, literally. “All you need is some tender loving care and you'll be ready to take on the world.”

Mercury grinned. “I'm looking forward to that tender loving care.”

Samara tittered slightly.

“And here I thought you didn't have a sense of humor,” Beast Girl remarked.

Raziel just stared out the window.

“Raziel?” Nightstar wondered.

“She's dead,” Raziel muttered.

“Who?” Nightstar asked.

“Ariana,” Raziel replied. “Wyndragyn killed her. That's twice now I've been helpless to stop people from dying at his hands.”

Nightstar gently touched Raziel's shoulder. “Don't wallow in it.”

Meanwhile, Slade and Ravager walked down a tunnel.

“The red-haired boy called you `Ravager,'” Slade spoke. “Ironically, that's what my first child called himself before he got himself dead. What's your real name?”

“Rose,” Ravager answered.

“Rose,” Slade repeated. “Pretty as your name, but with enough thorns to be dangerous. Just what I'd expect in a daughter of mine.”

Ravager smiled softly.

“Come now, Rose,” Slade said. “We have an empire to rebuild and enemies to crush.”

Ravager's smile deepened into a sadistic smirk.

End Notes: For the first time, I've ended with a few loose ends. The Kokuryu syndicate has certainly been done in thanks to Ravager, but the Brain Trust is still running around and you readers probably don't know if Azazel was telling the truth when he called Raziel his son. That'll be resolved in an “aftermath” one-shot, which brings Raziel and the Titans into a confrontation with the Brain Trust.

Some of you already knew who the “old enemy” was going to be as soon as I started hinting at it, so kudos to you for figuring it out. For those of you who were surprised, I hope it was a pleasant one.

If you were wondering about Samara's Oculus chant, here's a short explanation. Her chakra gem is positioned on what mentalists would call the third eye, the core of psychic power. When she uses that chant, she loosens the gem's bindings on her darker powers. A side effect of that, as I think I implied, is that her demon side is freer. Thus the major difference between Samara and Raven: Whereas Raven clearly hates her demonic side, Samara revels (in a restrained way, of course) in her powers. You'll see more of that in the fourth arc of this story.

If I were to envision this story being made into an animated series, it'd probably be a combination of the animation style used for Teen Titans and the animation style used for Fullmetal Alchemist. The music would run a gamut of music genres and sub-genres: metal, gothic, industrial, trip-hop, and orchestral, among others.

That's enough out of me. Feel free to review.