"Raven! Heads up!" shouted Beast Boy as a cement mixer in the warehouse they were in nearly collapsed on her.

Raven caught the debris with her telekinesis along with several other objects she began to redirect towards Cinderblock.

"AHHHHHHH," cried the sentient rock as it took every blow, feeling very little of it, but somehow knowing it should to hurt.

Robin slammed the metal bar that was his chosen weapon into Cinderblock, only to find that the blow which normally knocked the monster back barely phased it now.

"GWAAH," Cinderblock cried as he slammed his fists into the ground where Robin had just been.

"You remember Cinderblock being this strong?" asked Cyborg as he and Starfire both peppered the monster with blasts to no avail.

"No. But since he's improved so much, we shouldn't disappoint him!" Robin smiled as he ran back into the fray.

Running faster than most Olympic athletes, Robin threw a small bomb, normally meant for getting passed locked doors onto Cinderblocks face. Sliding between the giant's legs, he threw another which stuck to the back of its head.

"Starfire! Cyborg! Hit him from both sides!" Robin cried as he took a hit from Cinderblock that sent him flying into a pile of broken machines and rusted metal.

Acting quick, Cyborg and Starfire stood on opposite sides of the rock monster and shot their blasts of energy at the small bombs on his head. With a satisfying boom, the bombs left the creature headless.

"Woah," Beast Boy said to himself as he changed back from the hawk he had been.

Starefire rushed towards Robin without looking at Cinderblock's remains.

"Robin!"

Regaining consciousness, Robin first saw Starfire standing over him. Slowly, the others materialized and he felt himself waking up.

"Woah, take it easy! You've got a concussion and you nearly broke your wrist," Cyborg said as his friend sat up suddenly.

"Where's Cinderblock?" Robin asked, looking around and seeing only a few factory workers cleaning up the aftermath.

"Cops came in and scooped up what's left of him," Cyborg said, eyeing Robin intensely with his human eye.

Robin thought for a second, "You mean we—"

Cyborg shook his head.

Robin looked at each of his friends. Raven was unreadable, looking unchanged and unaffected by the event. Starefire floated a few inches above the ground, staring at Robin with a worry-stricken expression. Beast Boy shifted his eyes from place to place as sporadically as he could.

Cyborg asked him, "You okay?"

"Yeah," Robin said, "I just need to think for a second."

Robin never meant to kill him. It just happened. Sure, he was no stranger to death, but being such a direct cause of it, even on a monster, was unsettling.

"We find out what he was after?" Robin said, finally.

"Cops have been askin' the factory workers about that. We'll know when they know," Cyborg said.

"Dudes," Beast Boy said, "I can't believe that just happened. We killed him!"

As Beast Boy said this, tears formed in Starfire's eyes.

"Star!" Robin cried, suddenly jumping up and grabbing her in a tight embrace as tears fell from her eyes. "It wasn't your fault. It was mine. Your blasts were doing nothing until we added my explosives. I killed him."

She continued to cry, although less so as she said distantly, "As a child on Tamaran, I was taught never to take a life, even of those who are a great threat to you. To do so is to become the judge of what is most precious."

"And that's not what we are," Robin reassured her, "We're not judges or executioners. We just used too much force on him."

Robin then realized something, "Wait...no we didn't! Those explosives shouldn't have been big enough to do something like that. They're just for doors. Even combined with both of your blasts, it should have at most knocked him out cold."

"You're right," Cyborg said, running scenarios through his processor, "Plus Cinderblock was even stronger than before. How did he suddenly become weaker?"

"Maybe he had like a shell on his outside or something and on the inside it was all soft and stuff!" Beast Boy said excitedly.

"Or whatever he was doing to make himself stronger wore off," Raven added in.

"Either way," Robin said, "I doubt he could have done that to himself. So I guess we have to assume he was working for Slade, since not many other people have those kind of resources."

"Woah, dude, you sure? I mean, Doctor Light or Gizmo could both pull that off too," Beast Boy said.

"Yeah, but do they work with Cinderblock regularly?" Cyborg said.

Robin felt dizzy and sat down as he said, "But why would Slade take the effort to augment Cinderblock's strength like that when his structure suffered? He had to know he couldn't win."

"Maybe he didn't want to," Raven added, "It's not like we haven't beaten Cinderblock before."

Starefire, eyes still glossed over from crying, said, "Does this mean that Cinderblock was meant to distract us from some greater danger?"

"I don't know, Star," Robin said in a pensive voice as he sat on the ground, head aching.

Slade looked at the screen showing the Titans' fight from a security camera, judging every move they made.

"A surprising outcome, but still a successful test I suppose," he said in a calculating, metallic tone to himself as he sat in his thrown of steel.

Slade considered whether he should have kidnapped the doctor and taken her to his hideout to make her take the pills. It might have attracted more attention than he wanted, but it would have ensured she took the pills and at the very least give him someone to talk to and torture.

But things were going according to plan.

Pausing the video feed, Slade picked up a revolver and filled five chambers of the six. Spinning the cylinder that held the rounds, he pointed it at the paused screen of Titans. He fired the gun and hit Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starefire. Stopping, he aimed the gun at his own head and heard the click as the empty chamber gave way to nothing.

Pointing the last bullet at Robin, Slade fired, hitting the image in the head.

thanks for the feedback twistedpremise! Loved your story Raven's Howl by the way. Will try to continue writing regularly.