Traitors and Teachers

Chapter 5

"She is going to die."

He was dreaming again. How bothersome, meet a random strange girl once and have dreams where she gives cryptic messages for the next month. This time she was sitting on a rock wearing a light blue sun dress, long blonde hair free and flowing in the wind. Her blue eyes sparkled as she smiled, not matching what she had said.

" 'She'? " he asked her, crossing his arms and leaning against a tree. To be fair, he had only had this strange vision dreams a few times from her, and she had not been wrong yet. The girl smiled, nodding. Even if he didn't say he understood, she knew he knew to whom she was referring to.

"And why should I stop 'her' from dying? Whoever she is?" he asked, genuinely worried but not letting her see it. But the girl knew anyway, sensing his emotions.

"Because you need your darling apprentice, she's no use to you dead," she smirked, knowing he would have to respond to that. While the apprentice part was not true, he still hoped it would be soon.

"How do I keep her alive?" he asked, resigned.

"Don't let her fall for starters. Or at least catch her if she does," he was about to ask when and where she would fall, but the girl smiled and snapped her fingers, ending the dream and causing him to jerk up in bed, seeing the clock read about half past four in the morning. Wide awake and unable to sleep with this new knowledge, he sat on the edge of his bed, head in his hands. He had been planning a heist that day, should he put it off? But he wouldn't see her otherwise, was she going to fall while trying to fight him? How could she fall, she could fly for crying out loud! Although when he and the blonde had first met she had told him something was wrong, she was losing control of her powers and he would have to help her train and grow stronger or else she could end up killing herself.

He ran a hand through his short white hair, though it was not white from age. Across the room a mirror showed a tall man, young and strong in body but his eye much older. A new chance at life with all the experience of the past. But the new body was not completely new, it held old scars, including his right eye. The scars reminded him he could never completely escape the past, his mistakes and regrets. It was only recently he had begun regretting things. It had started just before he had met that girl... what did she call herself again? The Shepardess. Whatever that was suppose to mean. It sounded like she should be taking care of animals or little children, herding things together.

'Well,' he thought, 'might as well start the day.' With that in mind, he stood, dressing and leaving the room to train and get something to eat before prepping for the big crime later that day.

-

The Teen Titans arrived as expected while Slade was making his way toward his target. He was stealing from a chemical research lab, one of the compounds they had managed to produce was just what he was looking for. Rather than spend months trying to manufacture it himself, might as well steal it. It's not like they were going to use it except to put it on display and say 'Oh aren't we so smart, look what we made! It was really hard and expensive!' So by Slade's logic, he was being practical and not wasting available resources. The lab happened to be located on the edge of the city, and the edge of a cliff, a good fifty-foot drop into the water below. A large open balcony wrapped around each level of the building, whoever designed it enjoyed open space and lots of glass it seemed. Part of the building was over the cliff's edge, but that was not where the fighting took place.

The Teen Titans encountered Sladebots in the open area outside the facility while Slade had already snuck inside and was making his way up to the third floor where the vault containing the chemical was. Slade had already broken the safe open, tucked the chemical neatly away, and walked onto the balcony before he had to turn his attention to the teenagers. Robin, of course, was the one to go after Slade directly, jumping over robots to get to him. Slade had little interest in fighting Robin, he knew he could best the boy any day, but he entertained the Boy Wonder while keeping an eye on the others. Raven was holding back on her powers, not flying as much and being careful with what she did, mostly hanging back and supporting the others. The Sladebots were well programed, picking up that she was weaker today and targeting her so she could not protect the others. A group of them managed to separate her from her team, pushing her back down the open terrace, toward the cliff. Slade began to see the danger of her falling, but pushed back the worry until he saw her falter.