Wow been a while since I wrote anything. I know I have so many other unfinished stories but bear with me. My obsessions fluctuate. Anyway, I have a full time job that takes up 80 of my life but I will be working hard on each chapter! An RP with a friend inspired this story really, so please enjoy! And if you have a problem with the pairing, please stop reading any more and leave. Please review and tell me how it is so far! Thanks!

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Chapter 1: The Return

It was a cool, balmy day for Jump City. With a few clouds in the sky, a warm breeze and sunlight, it was clear that spring had come. It was such a nice day even, that the villains seemed to have taken a vacation. All day, there were no emergency calls or villains causing ruckus in the city. Which meant, it left our young heroes with free time on their hands to do as they wished.

There were various shouts and complaints coming from two particular Titans in the living room, where a TV was blaring video game sounds. Robin was sitting on the couch trying in vain to concentrate on the newspaper in his hands and Starfire hurriedly running around in the kitchen and cooking. Raven had decided to come down from her room with a spell book in hand. She sat down on the end of the couch and watched Cyborg and Beast Boy playing their video games before flipping the book open and began to read it's coded pages.

It had been a nice day for Raven even though she didn't participate in a lot of the events. She did go swimming with her friends which was about the only thing she enjoyed. Until Beast Boy turned into a shark and scared the daylights out of herself and Starfire. After some words from Robin, Beast Boy knocked off the antics…but at least turned into a dolphin and amused the two girls (and didn't get him in trouble). After that everyone wished to play some volleyball which Raven had sat on the sidelines of, watching them. She smiled though because she was at peace. Perhaps not the nirvana she was striving for…but at peace since the prophecy had been stopped. Her father beaten and gone. One of the most stressful and foreboding events in her life had happened and passed. Why shouldn't she feel relieved and at peace?

"Aw man! C'mon! That was a cheapsh-"

All four of them perked their heads up and sniffed the air…and regretted a second later. Their heads all creaked around, looking to Starfire piling her food onto plates and humming happily. The gelatin looking food was a sickening pale green, with chunks of what looked like rotted fruit inside. The next platter of food looked like a cross between pancakes and…scrambled eggs. It was wrinkly and yellow, with small green blotches and gray bits in it. The four of them shuddered and quickly were thinking of excuses to avoid this potentially deadly meal. Cyborg was the first to jump up and make his own excuse.

"Well! What an exhausting day! I'm beat! And got work to do on the car tomorrow! C'ya guys!"

And he was gone. It was now a race to not be the last one left in the room with Starfire and the horrid poison she concocted. Beast Boy was the next one to come up with an excuse and was gone in a flash down the hall. It was now down to Robin and Raven. Both looked at one another. Then Raven looked to Starfire and spoke.

"I usually don't exert myself physically. Swimming all day has be tired. I need some rest."

And she was gone through the ceiling. Robin gulped and realized he was the last one left. Starfire gave him a hopeful look and sat by him, with plates made just for him. Robin grimaced at the food then tried to pull off a smile (which looked awkward). He wasn't going to be able to weasel his way out of this one.

Raven had placed her book on a shelf and fell onto her bed. The evening was melting away and night was finally coming. She turned her head and stared out the window to the sky. She watched as the sky became steadily darker, changing from oranges to reds, from reds to purples and finally dark hues of blue. Exhaustion didn't seem to have been too much of a lie once Raven felt the relief of being off her feet and lying on a soft bed. It was so quiet and peaceful in her room. Her eyes began to drift close as the body's exhaustion won and Raven fell into a gentle and peaceful sleep.

The alarm went off in the dead of night, waking every single team member up. All five of them came down sleepy eyed and yawning. Robin was alert and staring at the large screen and the blinking red dots. The names next to all three dots was a five letter word that always had a way of riling Robin up. The four teammates said nothing. They knew better than to object to what Robin was about to say. Without a missed cue, Robin was turned around and straight backed, staring at his teammates.

"We need to get him this time. No more letting him slip through our fingers! Nothing's changed since then."

As they all had suspected, Robin had began to reel off about how important it was to capture Slade and finally turn him in for his numerous crimes. While they all listened and gave serious nods, the four couldn't help but mentally roll their eyes and try and block out Robin's rants. It was always the same thing over and over. Beast Boy was even perfectly mimicking Robin's words. Once he was finally done, Robin began to give the assignments. As all three dots had the same name, the team had to be split up and given certain designations.

"Beast Boy and Raven, go to the harbor warehouses. Starfire and Cyborg, go to the museum. I will go to the Gyrocrome Laboratories. Titans GO!"

They all left the building and headed for their assigned designations. Raven tried not to think about this mission, as did Beast Boy. She flew toward the harbor with Beast Boy alongside her as a hawk. How long had it been? A year since they all had fought Trigon and defeated him? Her birthday had only passed not so long ago…so a little over a year. At least this birthday she didn't have to worry about some prophecy or curse. But it had been also a full year of no Slade until now. The past year had been consisted of capturing known fugitives like Mad Monty and Jumbo. Amateurish criminals. Not any masterminds like Slade. Maybe after a year of maturing and keeping sharp on their skills it would finally pay off.

Beast Boy and Raven landed on the harbor docks and looked around. Nothing seemed unusual. There were large, wooden crates full of imported goods stacked on the docks. Some were covered with tarps. There were a few trucks and forklifts, all of which were parked in a certain area. The warehouses showed no sign of forced entry either. Despite the obvious clues that there didn't seem to be any kind of disturbance here, why was a blip on their screen showing Slade was exactly here?

"Maybe we should check the roof."

Beast Boy nodded in agreement and the both of them got to the roof. They inspected the skylights to the building and saw no anomalies in the framing or glass. Beast Boy wandered off, checking the farther left of the roof while Raven continued to the right side of the roof and finding nothing strange. Perhaps this was a goose chase here and Slade was really at the laboratory. He probably planted a device here to send out a false signal…damn. They'd have to report to Robin they found nothing at the harbor warehouses later. And since her communicator wasn't going off, Raven was sure the other three weren't finding much of anything either. Raven scowled. Slade was apparently playing mind games on them all and she hated to be toyed with. Raven heard footsteps approaching and figured it was Beast Boy coming to tell her he found nothing as well. Once she turned around though, her eyes widened as she stared up at the tall figure staring down at her…

Beast Boy was searching but he wasn't finding anything. Leave it to Robin to take the more obvious place Slade might be. Truly, Beast Boy was getting tired of this vendetta Robin held for Slade. And why did THEY have to suffer hearing him complain about it all the time?! Slade had taken someone very special from him, which caused much pain…but he wasn't turning obsessed with revenge like Robin was! Slade would get his in time.

"Man, ain't nothing going on at this place…we should really get to that lab and tell Robin we got nothing…"

Beast Boy then blinked as he stared at a large, looming shadow overlapping his in front of him. He would have guessed it to be Cyborg but Cyborg was supposed to be at the museum with Starfire. So…who was this? Beast Boy started to turn around to see who it was but never got a chance. Before he could see his assailant, the boy fell forward knocked out. The figure made a tsking noise and picked him up, carrying him.

"AAARGH!"

Raven had Slade trapped within her dark aura powers and had slung him into the roof's exit. The small building crumbled, falling onto the assaulted Slade and burying him in the concrete and plaster rubble. Seconds later, Slade stood up and brushed himself off. Raven had her teeth bared and clearly had enough of this game. She exerted such powerful magic from her body and threw her hand out, channeling it onto Slade. It amassed into a huge blob of sorts and trapped Slade within it's hold. It kept squeezing him, tighter and tighter with Raven's eyes aglow with white light and controlling the magic's effects. Tighter the magic was forced to bind, visibly seeing him compress. Why wasn't he passing out? Then there was an explosion. The force of it knocked Raven down on her behind and her arms flew up to shield herself. Once the noise died off, Raven looked up to see that her power had exploded what she thought was Slade…but instead of a scary mess of possible human parts…she only saw cogs, ruined metal, springs and broken electronics. She stared at the half destroyed head of "Slade", and found it had been a robot. Typical.

"That power of yours is sure to get you in trouble on of these days, young lady. You should learn to control them much better than that."

Raven's froze at that deep, baritone voice. Slowly she looked to the left and there he was, standing there and watching her with his one good eye…and being held by his collar was a limp, unconscious Beast Boy. What could she do now? If she tried to attack Slade with her powers, she would end up hurting her best friend too.

Robin had fought off Slade or what he thought was Slade. After delivering the deciding blow in the fight, the robot broke apart and fell in an metal heap. Robin then knew Slade wasn't here at the lab like he would have better he was. He turned to head for the museum only to run into Starfire and Cyborg who all reported the same, that they only ran into robots.

"If they're all robots, then the harbor warehouses have to be the real location…"

As if on cue, the communicator Robin held began to vibrate and light up. That only meant one thing and that was their other two teammates were in trouble! All three of them hastened to the last location as quick as their bodies allowed. If the Slade at the warehouses was the true one, there was no telling how serious the situation could be.

Raven was frozen where she was and forced to not retaliate in fear of hurting her friend. All she could do was glare angrily at the man and demand what he wanted. It was nothing surprising, as Slade was the normal power hungry criminal. The only difference was he had more brains than most of them did and was much harder to capture. It made him formidable and he knew just how to control each Titan. Slade approached her but he knew well to remember her power and how to tiptoe around it. If it had just been himself, she would not hesitate to crush him as she did that unfortunate robot. He kept a firm grasp on Beast Boy's collar and stopped not far from Raven. He kept his single eye on her, wondering if she would do anything to strike back at him.

"You've grown weaker, Raven. I'd have expected an attack by now."

Raven didn't smile. She had called for her friends to come to this place and was only trying to bide time until they came to help. They had to surprise Slade first, and get Beast Boy from his clutches before unleashing a barrage of attacks on the man. It seemed to be taking them forever to get here though…

"Let him go! Quit hiding behind him like a coward. Face me like a man!"

Raven hoped this would rile Slade up at being insulted so boldly. That maybe he would release Beast Boy and come at her angrily. But that psychology didn't work. The tall man only gave an amused chuckle and stayed put How come he wasn't attacking her or angry at her for insulting him? Then Raven realized it. It was a feeble attempt. Slade was older than them of course and was probably used to people trying to use this tactic. It was in vain.

"Girl, I know you're simply saying that so you can get a clear shot at me. Besides, it is your friend who should have been more careful."

Raven felt the red hot anger in her swelling up, that demonic side that she usually kept very well buried. Thankfully, she didn't need to call on that power as her three remaining friends landed on the roof and Robin's voice calling out for Slade. Raven and Slade looked to them, Raven happy to see them and Slade mildly surprised. Before Robin and the team could make a move though, Slade held his hand up and snapped his fingers. All around, robots looking similar to Slade encircled the four and cut them off from approaching Raven and himself.

"How rude it is to have uninvited company."

Raven turned to him and blinked. Uninvited company? Robin and them? What did he mean by that? Did he really…want to only talk with her? There were no ancient markings on Slade from her Father, or other demons, and since then, Slade had become fully mortal. So what did he want with her? Perhaps he wanted…her power? Her demonic power…

"What is it you want from us?!"

Slade only gazed at her and laughed very quietly from behind his orange and black mask.

"I don't want anything from all of you…just you, Raven."