Fan Fiction ❯ Nightwing: A Dark Beginning ❯ A Hero Lost ( Chapter 14 )

This chapter is dedicated to JhyarelleDrakon. Keep writing my friend and forget the purist Nazis that hate non-canon fics.

 

I still want an artist to help me with drawings for this fic. Please contact me, I can't draw anything to save my life.

 

To all those reviewers who are used to authors not giving them the time of day, it's 3:57 am CST.

 

Now onto my acknowledgement of people who read this fic WAY back when I started it. Hope you're still with me. From MM.org: Lyncea; ahh, my prcecious Lyncea, so trusting, so loyal, so gonna kick my ass for not updating in over a year. I hope this chapter is as good as my others. Don't worry, I won't use a shotgun on you if you don't, I have an RPG for that (that's Rocket Propelled Grenade you Final Fantasy geeks). Randomravenfan; despite threatening me, I've given you another chapter. Kokuryu; this fic has been called movie-worthy before, but I think masterpiece is new. Thanks. Now onto FF.net: Tecna; my goal in life is to make everyone speechless so that no one can ever talk back to me again. Respect my authority! I hope this one also makes you speechless. Hound Archon; I wanted to go for badassness, so he got shotguns. I thought it worked. Hope you like the further badassitude in this chapter. Nuttin2dowidit; God I love that movie. Hope this one inspires you just as much as the last one. ISoundLikeARockstar; *arms RPG* you slap my wrist again and I'm pulling the trigger. I like evil cliffhangers, get used to them. Dlsky; I think you give me too much credit with my writing. I'll take the praise though. Kirbythesmiteyone; Did he really shoot her, or did I make you THINK that. Read to find out if you dare. Lady of Faerie; I'll have you know that Hell is nice this time of year. Let's see what you think of Rich this time. Kirril; I'm glad you liked the story. I guess he did kind of go Punisher last chapter, kewl. Shifting1; My story is addicting? AWESOME! Spawn of Darkness; Rich has gone out on a limb for a reason, when I figure it out I'll share it. She's not dead yet! Blissfulrain; glad you like my story so far, hope you like this new installment. Twilight moonshine; . . . . . . . . . heh, I like making them speechless. DarkLilo; assume nothing, except that you can't anticipate my next move because I don't know what I'm doing either. Fallengod667; I'm glad you like the story so far, sorry it took me forever and a day to update. SpottedShadow2947; glad you stuck with me and enjoy the pairing now. Foxboy193; Hope you still think this is the best fic ever. Jackson Walters; welcome to my fic. Darksunshine01; yes, you're insane, the longest word in English is PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS, 4749956, and the answers to your other questions may be answered in this chapter. Juppppy IV; I want more reviews, you want more reviews, but only the people can bring them to me. REVIEW PEOPLE! And don't whine about how long I take to update, I'm sensitive. GMastr56; glad you like it. Anime master Inu; glad you liked the chapter, here's another for ya. ~like it matters~; I love making people sweat it out for a cliffie. Enjoy the latest chapter. Slaughtergirl; *laughs maniacally* another convert to Robin/Raven. I'm glad you like my writing. I hope you enjoy this chapter too. Reaper; thanks, I believe revenge is not a dish best served cold but molten hot with lots of explosives. Lt. Doom; Sir, Yes I'll keep writing, Sir! Lyncea; ???? weren't you on MM.org? Ssgohan79; hope you like this chapter as much as the last. That's all of them. Now onto the rest of this kami-forsaken thing.

 

“Text” speech

`Text' thought

 

Disclaimer: If I'm too poor to buy music and have to pirate it, how could I possibly afford to buy the Teen Titans.

 

Chapter 14

 

The Teen Titans stared in absolute horror at the scene before them. Rich had just dry-fired the unloaded shotgun at Raven. The question on all of their minds; had he known it was unloaded?

Rich glared at Raven with cold, hardened eyes. There was no smirk upon his face as one would expect had it all been a ruse; there was instead a grimace filled with nothing but hate and the bitter taste of betrayal.

“Shooting you would be too easy, Raven,” Rich scoffed. “No, I intend to make you suffer first. Don't worry, you'll stay alive long enough to watch the rest of the Teen Titans fall. Hell, if you beg enough you might even live to watch me rule the world. Don't think that I'll keep you around though after that, no need for dead weight.”

Rich tossed the guns into the air, spinning them end-over-end, and caught them by the barrels. A battle cry that resembled a small roar erupted from deep within the chest of the crazed young man as he brought the stock of the shotgun in his right hand down upon the delicate young woman's head.

The blow never truly came as Raven used her powers to deflect the blow, destroying that shotgun in the process. The act was repeated with the other weapon as well. A feral growl came from the already unstable young man and he launched himself at her. Rich threw punch and kick combos in quick succession. He intended to be bathed in his enemies' blood by the end of this battle.

Raven did her best to block the onslaught, but he was proving to be too fast for her. As she blocked one punch, it was followed by a kick or double-punch combo. He finally proved his dominance and landed a perfect and supremely powerful roundhouse kick to her ribcage. The blow sent her flying off to the side, but she didn't get far. Rich countered this kick with a lightning fast hook-kick and she found herself on the end of a violent whiplash effect and tumbling backwards.

Before he could move in to attack again, a blue blast hit Rich from the side and sending him flipping through the air to land on his feet and sliding a good 8 feet before stopping. Cyborg had finally come out of the shock of seeing Rich turn on Raven.

“I don't know what your damage is, man.” Cyborg stated while pointing his Sonic Cannon at Rich's head. “I just know that I can't let you treat my little sister like that.”

The look in the non-robotic eye told all there was for the story; Rich had pissed Cyborg off enough to evoke some serious pain on the black-clad madman.

Rich smirked. “Well, if that's the way you feel `bro' then I guess I'll have to take out the whole fucking family!” Rich roared in rage as he charged towards the towering cybernetic being.

Cyborg grit his teeth as he began to fire upon his one-time best friend and leader. A single tear rolled down his cheek from his human eye; whether from seeing Raven harmed by her loved one or fighting Rich could only be answered by Cyborg himself.

“It doesn't have to be this way man,” shouted Cyborg.

“Of course it does,” sneered Rich. “All those who have betrayed me shall face my wrath.” Rich dodged around the blue blasts of sonic energy with ease. It would appear, it was too easy in fact. “What's the matter, Cyborg? I thought you were gonna stop me.”

Cyborg continued his assault. `Damn, is he anticipating my blasts or what?' he thought. “How the Hell are you avoiding me, you psycho!”

“It's not polite to call people names, big brother. You don't want to set a bad example for your younger siblings, do you?” Rich mocked as he jumped over another blast only to somersault under another. “Did you know that right before you shoot a blast, your eye twitches?”

Cyborg paused. `That's how he's able to tell when I'm about to fire? That's absurd!'

His line of thinking was stopped after this as a powerful kick to the human portion of his head connected. Rich had taken advantage of Cyborg's distraction to move in and attack.

“Oh, damn. That had to hurt,” Rich said with a slight chuckle.

The powerful blow to his human skull disoriented Cyborg. He stumbled a bit and shook his head to clear his vision. It cleared just in time to see a metallic-gloved fist speeding towards his eye. Cyborg entered a world of darkness as his eye rolled back in his head and he blacked-out.

“The bigger they are, the harder they fall,” Rich said in a low growl as he surveyed the rest of the Teen Titans. “Okay, who wants next dibs?”

Beast Boy stepped forward with his fists clenched. “I don't know what you claim the problem is man, but I plan to do my best to stop you.”

“You know, your mouth is moving but all I hear is blah, blah, blah,” mocked Rich.

Beast Boy roared as he shifted into the Beast, something he'd learned he could now control. If anyone had paid close attention, they'd have seen that this actually surprised Rich. Of course in order to notice his surprise you would have needed to notice his eyes widen only a few millimeters before returning back to their original glare. Rich knew that a very extreme dose of anger and fear could trigger the transformation, but this was new. It showed that somehow, Beast Boy had actually trained and improved himself in something. This was most likely the result of his girlfriend riding his ass, probably literally, to the point of exhaustion and he needed to find a way to gain access to more power and stamina. Further analysis would be needed to prove or disprove this theory. Rich made a mental note to keep the alien bimbo alive long enough to see if her sexual prowess indeed did bring out the best in her partners, perhaps then Rich would find himself along the lines of a god among men instead of his current demon among men category.

Rich stopped his line of thinking with only a fraction of a second to spare as he back-flipped out of the way of the Beast as it pounded the ground with its combined fists.

Rich smirked as he regained his footing. “I gotta ask. I know you're green, but you can't be related to the Jolly Green Giant. You kinda look more like that Grape Ape guy. You some kind of distant cousin a few times removed or what?”

The Beast just stopped his rampage momentarily to blink at Rich. This proved to be the wrong thing to do as Rich tossed a flash-bang grenade straight into the Beast's face. The detonation disoriented the Beast with the pain long enough for Rich to deliver a devastating blow to the solar plexus.

The Beast roared as it was hammered repeatedly by the rapid punches and kicks of Rich. A powerful roundhouse kick to the face sent the Beast reeling to the side and to the ground with a deafened thud. Rich jumped up to deliver the fatal knee-drop to the back of the Beasts neck when a green energy blast hit him from the side.

Rich righted his inadvertent flight and skid across the ground as he regained his footing. He snarled at the visage of an enraged Tamaranian princess. “You want a piece of this? Come and get it, sweet cheeks.”

“I shall not allow you to harm my friends!” Starfire declared.

“I used to be your friend too, or have you forgotten who it was that helped you adjust to life on Earth?” Rich asked with malice in his voice.

“You were once my friend, former Robin, now you have become an enemy. I must put a stop to your evil ways.”

Rich smirked. “Less talk, more fight.”

Starfire charged Rich with a battle-cry as she threw starbolts from her hands and blasted lasers from her eyes.

The blind fury behind the attack seemed to increase the overall power of her attacks. If Rich really cared to state his opinion on the matter, he'd have probably admitted that he was impressed. The reality of the situation however was that she sacrificed the ability to think with a clear and level head needed to be a competent fighter against someone of his caliber. Oh yes, Rich was enjoying watching the rage upon the face of the young alien woman trying to currently hurt him; and he voiced as such.

“C'mon princess, can't you hit the man who put your pathetic boyfriend in his place?”

A rather large volley of starbolts racing past him as he dodged with the ease an acrobat trained in the martial arts should have was his answer.

“Well, at least you're giving it the old `college try'. Oh wait, you're too much of an air-head to get into college on Earth.”

Starfire screamed at the top of her lungs and charged a starbolt that was roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. “I will send you to place of heat and flame!”

Rich dodged, barely. “Okay, I can see you mean business. For the record, it's called `Hell' and no thanks, I've been there before.”

Starfire was panting; the constant attacking and that last large starbolt had really taken a lot of energy. She was too tired to notice a seemingly gold bird-a-rang that was spinning towards her. She saw it only half a second before impact, it was just long enough for her enhanced reflexes to reach out and grab the weapon from the air.

“Hah! That will not work on one such as I!” When she looked at Rich, he was holding up three fingers.

He then pulled back one of them, leaving two visible.

Another finger was folded down.

Finally there were no fingers visible and Rich clenched his fist while a sadistic smirk was seen on his face.

This was the moment the internal timer in the bird-a-rang reached zero, and it unleashed a current of electricity that would have been enough to kill and fry a human from the inside. For the alien princess, it was just enough to overload her body and send her pain racked body and mind into blissful unconsciousness.

“Awww, I broke my new toy,” Rich replied with a smirk and dark chuckle.

He turned towards the remaining two Teen Titans, Red X and Terra since Raven was still in shock from the whole incident, and gestured with his hand in a `come and get me' gesture. “Next?”

Terra jumped up before Red X could react. “You're toast!”

Rich chuckled again. “You and what toaster?”

Her eyes glowing yellow, Terra called upon her powers. Rich was expecting her to pull up several chunks of earth and hurl them at him, not what she actually did. Rich was completely caught off guard when the ground beneath his feet was torn from the rest of the floor and thrust upward with extreme velocity. Rich had only seconds to react as he launched himself over the edge of the boulder and somersaulted to the ground. The boulder impacted the ceiling destroying itself and a large portion of the buildings structure in the process. Rich quickly used a series of back-flips to avoid the falling debris.

Rich resumed a ready battle stance and surveyed the scene. He gave off a low whistle in admiration. “That's a new one; nicely done. It would have worked on someone who's not as fast as I am.”

Terra just growled at him. She then ripped up hundreds of fist shaped rocks from all around him. As she stared at Rich with glowing yellow eyes she made a motion with her hands of a circle. The rocks complied with the wishes of their mistress and began to circle Rich in a rock tornado.

Rich was once again caught off guard. `Damn! Is she the only one that's been training? Wait, I recognize this move as something Jax and I talked about. Now what did he call it?'

Terra broke into his thoughts when she addressed him. “How do you like my new move? X calls it Gaia's Vortex.”

Rich smirked. “Ahh, now I remember where I've heard of this move before. I helped him come up with this idea. Now, did he happen to tell you the one complete flaw of this attack?”

Terra couldn't help but gulp loudly. She'd never been told of a weakness. She glanced back to Red X and he shrugged, showing he had no clue what it was either.

“Let me show you something.” Rich then threw an explosive disk from each hand mid-way up the vortex on opposing sides. As the disks collided with some rocks, the resulting explosion intercepted the remaining rocks that were flying into the blast and destroyed themselves into tiny pebbles and rock dust.

Terra stared in awe.

Red X stared in awe.

They both agreed at the same time; “You gotta be shitting me.”

Rich chuckled darkly. He began to pace towards the two heroes in a slow and menacing stride. There was no urgency in his step. He had all the time in the world to toy with them; to play with them; to break them.

Faster than either of the heroes could react, Rich tossed a small sphere at Terra's face. The sphere detonated a foot in front of her face with a flash of light and a pop. This shocked the geomancer and she gasped, which was the reaction Rich predicted. Terra inhaled the knockout gas and crumbled to the ground in seconds.

Red X stared in horror when she fell to the ground and rushed to her side. He determined that she was just temporarily asleep. He turned his head to regard Rich, who was standing there with his arms crossed across his chest and tapping his foot impatiently.

“Can we get this over with? I have an appointment with a purple-headed backstabber,” Rich demanded.

Red X gulped, this fact was lost on everyone else however because of his armor and mask he was the only one to know about it. He was also the only one to know how truly terrifying it was to be in his shoes. Rich had pretty much taught Jax and thusly Red X all that the black and red clad hero knew. Red X gathered all the courage he had to make his stand. “I know this would be an opportune moment to make some retarded quote about us `coming full circle' and that `the student now surpasses the master', but we both know that isn't my style and that you're gonna end up owning my ass.”

“That's for damn sure,” retorted Rich with a smirk and sarcastic chuckle.

“So how about we settle this like men?”

Rich quirked an eyebrow at the absurdity of the question. “You mean that neither of us uses any gadgets or suit abilities and we beat each other utilizing our own skills alone like a pair of civilized gentlemen?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Rich blinked a few times. “Either you've got brain damage or your stalling for time and hoping that the rest of the team will wake up and help you out.”

Red X took another unnoticed gulp and hoped that his bluff made it.

“I don't think you're skilled enough to take me on and you sure aren't smart enough to stall me, so you've gotta be just plain stupid.”

“Stupid is as stupid does,” quoted Red X.

“Okay, see that right there is enough reason to beat your ass into the ground.” With that said, Rich launched himself at Red X with a flying kick.

Red X deflected the kick with his right arm and used his left in a back-fist to try and catch Rich in an overextension.

It failed.

Rich tilted his head to the side allowing the fist to brush a fraction of an inch from his cheek bone.

Both combatants jumped apart from each other and began to circle.

Red X quickly flicked his eyes around the room to take stock of what was located in the area for cover and if any of the other Teen Titans were gonna be able to help him. He suppressed a whimper when he realized that he was completely on his own.

Red X took a calming breath and tensed for his next attack. “Okay, I didn't want to have to do this, but you have forced me into this, Rich.”

Rich quirked an eyebrow at the bold statement. “You've got a new move? This I gotta see.”

Red X nodded his head, affirming his resolve for his next steps. “Then brace yourself for the Red X Ultimate Desperation Move!”

Rich tensed and narrowed his eyes in concentration. `Must . . . resist urge . . . to sweatdrop at this stupid name,' he thought.

Rich had prepared himself for the move when it suddenly began.

“RUN AWAY!!!” Red X yelled and turned around running at full speed.

Rich nearly fell over from the shear absurdity of the whole thing. “Wha-?” He shook out of his stupor and took off after Red X. “Get back here you Ranma wannabe!”

Red X ran into a seemingly endless maze of crates with Rich hot on his heels. As Red X turned a corner out of the line of sight for Rich he engaged his cloaking on his utility belt. `I know we said we'd do this with honor, but I'm a former thief so that only goes so far.' Red X then took flight and hovered above Rich and tried to formulate a plan that would successfully take down the former Teen Titan turned Former Vigilante turned complete and total mental-case.

`Okay, let's take stock of what I have to work with,' Red X thought. `I've got my suit with all the cool gadgets. I've got the element of surprise with the cloak. I've also got palm blasters and a utility belt full of toys to play with. Rich has a belt too, and way more fighting experience than me. If I can keep him guessing I might stand a chance against him. I might also be a complete and total moron for thinking I can pull this off. If only everyone else was awake, then maybe I'd have a chance.'

As Red X pondered his future existence in the mortal realm if he decided to fight Rich toe-to-toe, Rich was trying to find Red X in the crate maze.

`Where in the seven Hells is he? He's not fully trained as a ninja so he can't evade me this well.' Rich stopped to ponder this recent line of thinking. `Unless of course he's gone back to his old thief code and cloaked himself and took off into the air.' Rich would have slapped his forehead in exasperation except that it would have drawn attention to himself. As stealthily and slowly as he could, Rich removed a thermal sensor from his belt and began to sneak behind a crate that would allow him excellent cover while he scanned the air for his prey.

When Rich picked Red X up, he was stroking his chin in thought with his back turned towards Rich. `Bad move,' thought Rich.

Rich slowly began to climb the crates until he was just behind Red X. More silent than most trained ninja could ever hope for, Rich lashed out with a powerful flying side kick to the center of the back of Red X.

Red X grunted as he was suddenly propelled forward with incredible force. The ground was quickly approaching so he flipped over and hit the ground hard with his reinforced boots.

After coming to a stop several feet away from his initial landing spot, Red X quickly surveyed the area that was behind him looking for his assailant.

`I know that had to be Rich, no one else could sneak up on me like that.'

Rich had fallen back into the shadows and continued the use of his ninja training. He had circled around to the right side of Red X and prepared his next attack.

Red X never knew where it came from, but he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of an extremely powerful and seemingly invisible blow to the chest.

It was a roundhouse kick from Rich that nailed him and sent him sprawling backwards in a very undignified manner.

Red X paused for a few seconds to wonder how he came to be staring into blazingly white light. `I'm dead? NO! DON'T GO INTO THE LIGHT!' He shook his head and realized he was actually lying on his back and staring at one of the many warehouse lights that adorned on the ceiling. `Yeah, I knew that.'

Red X flipped to his feet. As soon as he righted himself and stood straight, he was staring directly into the blue eyes of Rich who was standing a mere six inches away from him. “Oh fuck me,” Red X mumbled.

Rich smirked, “Sorry, but I don't swing that way.” He led with a powerful haymaker that Red X barely had time to dodge.

As Red X stumbled back, Rich began what could only be described as the most brutal and deadly ballet ever imagined. Punches and kicks rained down on the red and black clad hero in a relentless series. Red X never stood a chance against the onslaught. A well placed and seemingly Herculean spinning roundhouse kick to the side of the head of Red X sent him flying sideways and into a state of unconsciousness.

Rich quickly surveyed the area, while doing a mental checklist to determine that all of the Teen Titans were indeed taken care of.

`Raven stupefied out of her mind - check.'

`Fist to Cyborg's face - check.'

`Boot to Beast Boy's skull - check.'

`Electroshock therapy for Starfire - check.'

`Sleeping gas for Terra - check.'

`Another boot to the skull but this time for Red X - check.'

He revised that list however, since one Titan was now aware of the recent turn of events and was shocked at the findings.

To say that Raven was shocked was a mild understatement; she was completely and totally stupefied at the results laid before her. Rich had systematically and habitually taken out each member of the team one by one with such apparent ease that made one wonder if even The Man of Steel himself could stand a chance against the determined young man.

Rich began to stalk towards his final prey for the evening.

“Here birdie. That's a nice birdie,” Rich taunted.

Raven stared in horror as Rich slowly began to creep towards her. She began to try and crawl backwards away from the menacing form of the seemingly psychotic young man. She tried desperately to call on her powers, but she couldn't bring them out no matter how hard she tried. She couldn't understand it. Why had they abandoned her? She quickly realized the reason for it, she was petrified with fear. She'd read about it before, someone being frozen in place when faced with their eminent demise and being unable to physically do anything to stop it from occurring. In the mind of the victims, they simply couldn't recall how to make their muscles move at all and just stared upon their encroaching doom. Raven was in a similar state of mind; she was able to back away from Rich as he got closer, but she couldn't remember how her powers worked to quite literally save her life. She realized she had only one option left for her to try and get out of this alive; reasoning with a deranged madman.

“Rich, please listen to me. This is all a big misunderstanding,” Raven began. “What you think you saw between Nightwing and I wasn't what really happened.”

Rich chuckling rather darkly and eerily wasn't the reaction that Raven was hoping to get, nor was the bone-chilling tone of voice with which he answered her in. “You really expect me to listen to anything you have to say? You'd say anything for a chance to delay the inevitable,” Rich replied and then smirked sinisterly. “But don't worry; you won't have to worry about that for a good long while still. I plan to finish what Nightwing started all those nights ago in The Pit. You remember that, don't you? It's when he tried to rape you but I stopped him. The only problem is that this time, there's no one to stop me since Nightwing is indisposed at the moment.”

Rich was almost upon her now. Raven could see it in his eyes; he was truly going to finish what he'd interrupted before. There was nothing she could do to stop him. She still couldn't call upon her powers. “Please, no,” she begged in a whisper of a voice so soft she could barely hear herself. She brought up her hands to swing at him as he closed in on her. “No. Please, no,” this time in a louder voice that was almost at her normal talking level. She swung her fists at him and he effortlessly caught them and began to force her down. Raven knew this was it; with tears streaming down her face she summed up all the fear and terror she felt and used it to fuel her voice for one final desperate plea. “PLEASE, NO!”

The scream reverberated in the vacant warehouse. To her shock, Rich actually stopped. Then he smiled a most cruel smile and began to lean over her. Raven continued to silently weep for what was about to happen as she stared into his cold and calculating eyes.

Then the eyes changed.

They didn't soften, they became vacant and unfocused. He'd stopped all movement and stared off into complete space. Just as suddenly as he'd stopped his forward movement, he lurched backwards as if he'd been kicked in the chest, arched his back until he was looking into the ceiling lights, and screamed the most blood-curdling scream Raven had ever heard.

Rich continued to scream as he grabbed onto his head like it was threatening to explode if he didn't keep incredible pressure on it.

The Titans, who had begun to wake up when Raven had screamed earlier, were instantly awake upon hearing the deafening scream of the poor young man. It would later be described as what it must be like to listen to a soul being rendered from a still living body by the Devil himself to personally torture for all eternity.

Just as suddenly as it began, the horrifying wail of torment ended. Rich went completely limp and collapsed to the floor like his skeleton had been completely removed.

He didn't even so much as twitch after that.

The Titans began to slowly edge towards the body, half expecting him to suddenly jump up and slaughter them all like in some slasher horror film. Raven was the first to make it to his body. She quickly checked for a pulse and to see if he was breathing. She found a new level of terror when she found them.

“His breathing is extremely shallow and his pulse is thready. We have to get him back to the Tower as fast as possible.”

The others dumbly nodded. Cyborg called the T-car to him while Terra contacted the police to come round up the criminals. The Titans very carefully placed Rich into the back seat of the T-car and Raven sat with him. Terra rode up front while Cyborg drove like he was Mario Andretti. Red X, Beast Boy, and Starfire all flew back to the tower alongside the racing vehicle.

 

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Rich was quickly laid down upon one of the beds in the medical wing of the Tower. Cyborg quickly began setting up the equipment necessary to scan him for injuries. Terra and Red X assisted him while Starfire and Beast Boy looked on from the side. Raven had mysteriously disappeared when they'd gotten to back.

Cyborg read over the computer screens and printouts about the condition of the dark haired man. He grimly looked at the rest of his teammates before giving him the troublesome news. “I don't know what to make of it, ya'll. His brain isn't showing any activity except for some kind of intense sleep, almost like a coma. It's like the lights are on, but no one is home.”

“There's a good reason for that, Cyborg,” came the voice of the resident mystic from the door. “His two personalities are battling it out as we speak. They're fighting for dominance and to settle the argument this all stemmed from.”

The Titans simply stared at Raven while she stood in the doorway. Red X then noticed something in her hands.

“Is that the mirror to his mind, Raven?” Red X asked.

“Yes it is. I'm going in to try and reason with them.”

Red X nodded his head and then stated with conviction, “I'm going with you. Don't try to argue about it, he's my friend. It's what any friend would do.”

Raven quickly scanned around the room to see that each and every Titan was stepping forward and nodding their heads. They all agreed that this was the right thing to do.

Raven began to chant under her breath while her black energy began to envelop everyone and pull them towards the mirror as it lay on the table.

In no time at all, the Titans found themselves in a vast expanse of darkness like that of the largest black hole in the galaxy. Off in the distance, they heard what seemed to be a rather vicious fight going on. They quickly took off sprinting towards the sound. Upon arrival, the sight that greeted them was indeed strange. Nightwing was currently fighting Rich, who was dressed in the armor of Slade without the mask.

The fight could only be described as a true dance of death. Both warriors were giving it their all, neither willing to yield any space to the other. There was one distinct difference in the nearly identical fighting styles between the two. While Nightwing appeared to be giving it his all, he was still only trying to incapacitate Rich so that the fight could end somewhat amicably. Rich was the polar opposite; wanting nothing more than to guarantee that Nightwing was left dying underneath his boot.

Nightwing's inability to go all out in this fight for power quickly became his undoing. Rich landed a jump-kick to the unprotected face of Nightwing. The blow was so powerful that it immediately disoriented the armored vigilante and opened him up for another series of vicious punches and a final roundhouse kick that sent him sprawling onto the black ground.

Rich wasn't satisfied with that though, he quickly leapt into the air and came crashing back down with his boot directly onto the blue firebird emblem on Nightwing's chest and began to push all of his weight into it, thus squeezing the lungs.

The Teen Titans could only watch in horror as the drama played out before them. Fear had frozen all of them in their places. Not a sound could be heard from the abyss they were all contained in except for the struggled breathing of Nightwing and the heavy panting of a deranged Rich. This was soon broken by dark chuckling from Rich as he began to speak.

“As soon as I'm done with you, Nightwing, I'll be free to wreak havoc on the world. There's been a shift of power within this collective mind of ours, I've gotten all of the so called `evil' and you've gotten all of that `goody-goody-righteousness' instead. It's fun turning the tables.” He looked over to see the looks upon the faces of his former teammates and sneered at them. He then looked back down at his prey. “I'll be sure that they don't suffer too much. Don't worry; I'll take really good care of Raven too.” Rich began to laugh maniacally at the narrowed eye slits on the mask of Nightwing.

Nightwing knew this was it. He had nothing left. It had taken most of his energy to break the bonds Rich had placed on him and to bring Rich back into the abyss, he didn't have enough to finish the fight. An idea suddenly popped into his head. `This is it, the last attempt of a desperate man.'

Nightwing looked dead into the eyes of Rich. “Congratulations, you've finally done it. You've won.”

Rich began stopped laughing and smirked at Nightwing.

Nightwing continued talking in a raspy voice. “You've beaten me Slade.”

Confusion showed on Rich's face. “You idiot, I'm Rich not Slade.”

Nightwing chuckled weakly. “Sure thing Slade, whatever you say. I admit, this must be better than the powder you used on me before when I hallucinated about you, but it still shows that you can't beat me without any tricks.”

Rich growled at Nightwing. “I'm Rich you moron! Slade is gone! I did it all, ALL OF IT!!”

Nightwing scoffed. “I don't think so. Rich loves Raven too much to hurt her over something as stupid as an eavesdropped conversation. I mean, how could you possibly have heard what she whispered directly into my ear unless you were right there.” Nightwing then paused as if thinking about something. “Well, you might be Rich; you did go off halfcocked without getting a full story.” He paused as if thinking again. “No, that's not right. I'm the one who goes off halfcocked. Rich was the logical one who thinks first not shoots first. So you have to be Slade . . . because Rich . . . Rich would find out the tr- . . . truth first.” The last part of the statement was coming out in coughs and sputters as Nightwing began to have trouble breathing with all of his energy gone and the beating he'd taken from Rich. As his vision began to swim and darken, he focused on Rich's face.

Rich's face had contorted in different emotions; from anger, to confusion, and finally to realization. “I-it was a m-misunderstanding?”

Rich jerked his boot off of Nightwing just after he blue and black clad hero exhaled one final time. There was no intake of breath following it. Rich looked back over towards the Teen Titans with a look of pure terror, which was mirrored on their faces as well. He began to back-peddle away before grabbing onto his head. He arched his back and screamed for all he was worth. It was the scream of a man with nothing left to live for. The scream shook the very cores of each of the Teen Titans, but that wasn't the end of the surprises. They suddenly found themselves forcefully shoved back into the blackness of the abyss. A flash of light suddenly greeted them and they arrived back in the real world in a heap. Before anyone could act, the mirror had collided with the ground and surprisingly hadn't shattered. Once it rested on the ground, however, the mirror seemed to explode into small pieces leaving only the frame behind. This phenomenon was accompanied by a strange noise them could only be described as an annoying and constant ringing in the ears. The team turned their heads as one and gazed upon the source of the incessant noise.

It was a heart monitor.

It was hooked up to Rich on the table.

It was flat-lined.

 

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JacketSlacker: Okay, I know what some of you are thinking: “He finally gives us another chapter and it either 1) sucked this bad or 2) had the most evil cliff-hanger around.” Now, before the lynch mob forms, let me plead my case. I have lost my muse. I'm kinda borrowing one from some friends to get this out. Life threw me a few curveballs lately and it's been hard to write. I'm trying to get back into it, just not having any luck. I don't know when the next chapter will be out. I hope to not take another year to get it done, but ya never know with me. Oh well. My next adventure into writing will be a chapter for my Inuyasha fic, which I've already got planned out basically so it should be easier (hopefully) than this chapter was. I'm also thinking of using something someone suggested to help me on my writer's block. Start another fic or a oneshot. I'm leaning towards some kind of Danny Phantom fic, with my own dark/angsty flare as part of it. I don't know if it will cross with anything (Teen Titans most likely or maybe Kim Possible) but we'll see. I know, why the hell would I start another fic if I can't finish my current ones. The reason, to help jumpstart my writing process again. Just drop me some ideas or something and I'll see what I can do. As always review and tell me what you think for this story and future ideas. And remember, ya gotta have faith. GO SAINTS!!!