(Amber's POV)
I didn't expect anything different when I returned to Slade's discreet hideout mansion.
Here's something I should have learned long before I turned into a vampire: Always expect the unexpected.
As soon as I stepped foot inside the house, his hands grabbed a hold of my wrists too tightly, and I felt the burns deep to my very bones.
I didn't have the will power to hold back a scream, so I let out several, blood curdling, horror movie screams. Even though my wrists healed, I still felt the indescribable burning, as if it were coursing throughout my entire body. I could die in a second because of what I am. Vampires are vulnerable to fire. Slade could easily set me on fire and end me as easy as one, two, three.
But that's how incredibly stupid I was to not see it. I had the perfected instincts, the new abilities, but no common sense to use them against Slade. I should have been able to see that he could easily kill me even if I did try to use my abilities. But no, here I was, starting off a cold blooded killer, then a humanity filled demon, now the stupidest person on the planet.
"Where were you?" he asked, grabbing a tight, tourniquet hold of my neck, lifting me about two feet into the air. Hell, he was stronger than I was because of Trigon, Raven's father. I was wrong. I thought I was the higher power because of what I turned into. But when Karma comes for you, you tend to realize a lot of things.
Slade being able to kill me was one of them.
"I w-went out for a d-drink," I stuttered out, making my eyes as convincing as possible.
"You are a dirty little liar." I screamed as the never ending burning sensation started up at the base of my throat.
"Where. Were. You!?" He repeated, slower this time. I gasped for a decent breath, a whisper of clean, flesh scented-free air, but nothing decent came. Only the scent of my burning flesh.
"I was stalking the Titans!" I lied, using my desperation for air to make me sound much more afraid. After about five more seconds of raw burning, and my near decapitation, Slade dropped me. I clutched at my throat, taking deep breaths of air to calm down.
"That's my girl," he commented, clearly amused by my lie, "But here's a new lesson that you obviously need."
I clenched my jaw, and used my feet to scurry backwards as I was still on the ground. Pathetic as it was, I wasn't thinking about my abilities and using them at this moment. I was afraid, and my humanity wasn't making it any easier for me. I was officially very vulnerable, and horrified, as if I were still somewhat of a human.
"Next time, you address me when you leave." He crouched down to my level, and gripped my face in the tightest iron grip I've ever felt. My vision went black instantly as my neck was broken with a sharp twist.
(Robin's POV)
We'll be together again, Robin. I promise...
My eyes shot open.
The infirmary's white ceiling greeted me, telling me to examine my surroundings. My muscles ached as I tried to sit up, so I scanned everything around me with my masked eyes.
Raven smiled slightly, relieved to see me awake. Wait...awake? What happened?
"Raven, what-"
"You collapsed, Robin. Cyborg and I examined you and it turns out you had a lot going on. Dehydration, major stress, deprivation. You could have died, Robin."
Whoa. How could that have happened?
"How?" My voice was raspier than usual.
"We're guessing your grieving process is a lot more complex. You held in so much that it took its toll on your body," she sighed. I sighed, being reminded of the girl I've been missing for what seemed like forever, the girl I was hurting over.
Amber Zar-El.
I ignored the small aches in my muscles as I sat up. I felt fine, really. I felt invigorated and energized, probably the most I've felt in weeks. This is really weird...
"What did you give me? I feel a lot better," I commented, sitting up without struggle. She looked towards one of the counters, "I managed to get a hold of some medicine. Just be sure to take it easy. You've been out since this morning." She walked out of the room, leaving me to regain my senses.
I looked out one of the windows. It was completely dark.
I carefully stood up off the bed and stretched as I usually did. I walked over to my room, dressing in my usual suit when I heard the voice.
No! No, please!
Her voice, I had nearly lost in memory snapped itself back into my head. Screams and pleads filled my mind. It was as if she were in the room with me, screaming at the top of her lungs.
Don't do this. Please don't. Please, PLEASE!!
PLEASE! NNNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Her screaming was so loud in my mind I dropped to my knees, clutching my head, wanting it to stop. It was deadly and bone chilling, hitting every nerve, making every hair follicle on my body stand.
I shuddered, shaking my head, shutting my eyes. This isn't real. Amber's dead. As much as I want her back, I could never have her in my arms again. I had to accept that. I would grieve, but I can't go insane. She's gone...
She's gone.
I wasn't coping well at all. Thinking those two words brought out the dim fire in me, the fire that lit me up, forcing me to grip on to Amber's spirit. She's not gone. She's not.
She is.
I sighed angrily, angrily at myself for becoming so conflicted and opposed to my own emotions. Here I am, tearing myself up inside over my dead girlfriend, the girl I'd die for, the girl I'd give the world to. But her death wasn't what hurt me the most.
What stabbed me endlessly like a white hot brand was the fact that she told me how she really felt, right before her eyes closed forever, and I didn't tell her how much I cared for her, how much I really cherished her.
~
What seemed like eternity was actually a few hours. I was in my bedroom for hours, and I jumped out of my window to visit Amber's grave, the grave that seemed to become its own abandoned place.
The grass was dull, and flowers were dying, as they looked last time I'd came to visit. I should really fix that...
"I'm sorry I've been letting myself drop dead, almost. But I can't help it. I miss you, everyday," I whispered to her, hopelessly hoping she'd hear me. "It wasn't your time to die. You shouldn't have died."
I was going to tell her how I felt when the putrid stench hit me.
The smell of decay hit me hard, like a solid brick wall punch to the face. I couldn't be stupid. I had to find out what the stench was and get rid of it.
I checked all around the area, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Not a dead animal, nothing at all. What if it's just-
The scent hit me again, much stronger this time. Believe me, I was very, very, very close to puking my guts out. But I didn't, because my face went blank in shock as I realized where it came from.
Amber's grave.
When she died, we prepared her well enough so her body wouldn't smell at all like death. This can't be right.
With my gloved hands, I put myself to work and began digging.
~
(Amber's POV)
My body became aware of burning. Not the burning sensation that Slade abused me with, but a burning that provided promise, a bitter, powerful burning with much less speed and much more pain. An acidic burn...
My eyes slowly opened, revealing the darkest part of the mansion, Slade's main headquarters. Like his old hideout, this was a mirror copy.
"Glad to know you've awakened," he ruptured my curiosity, stepping in front of me.
I wanted to protest, I wanted to yell, but my mouth was gagged in that same burning sensation. Come to think of it, my wrists were burning like crazy. My protests of pain were growls, struggles to rid myself of the burns. But I was restrained. What in the-
"Vervain ropes, dear. You're restrained by them," he said, amused. I stopped, and stared up at him with the most hateful look I could give him.
Slade ignored my eyes and bent down to my level, meeting my hateful face.
"You haven't proved your worth as my apprentice. Remember your oath to me, Amber. Remember that you serve me only. You're going soft."
Tears threatened to sting my eyes, pool before falling over as he went on. I didn't want to cry because I disappointed Slade. I wanted to cry because I was angry. I wanted to get out of this life as his apprentice. I wanted to go back to being the Amber Monroe that belonged with the Teen Titans.
He brought his masked face closer, and whispered what triggered my fury.
"Your humanity is showing."
With a quick movement, I head butt Slade's face hard, and knocked my chair over, breaking it into pieces. Even though the Vervain felt like fire, bitter, merciless acid, I tore the ropes off my wrists and took the gagging rope out of my mouth. I stood tall and strong, letting my instincts run their course, taking over my body.
My eyes changed, darkening at the whites, and my teeth extended, baring my fangs as I blurred over to Slade and uppercut him.
My own voice, now sounding possessed by several demons didn't even scare me as I crouched down and straddled Slade.
"You don't OWN me!!!!"
I punched him hard in the face, bending the mask, causing damage. I could have sworn I heard a bone crack.
I knew what was coming next. As I predicted, Slade unleashed his anger towards me by creating a massive fireball. In the same split second he exerted it to hit me, I threw my force field up and hardened it, to the point where it could feel like real, fire proof metal.
One by one, Slade kept trying to burn me to pieces with his pyro ability. But second after second, I grew a backbone and kept the force field going without a problem.
That is, until I felt my insides begin to burn.
I instantly dropped to the ground, clutching my abdomen, where it burned the most. I already knew what was happening.
The Ultraviolet probes were activated.
Pathetically, I went from rebelling against Slade to begging for him not to kill me, as soon as those probes activated inside my undead body.
"No! No, please!" My lungs were running on hope, hope that I'd still be alive within the next three minutes. Hope that maybe, just maybe, I'd get out of this.
The pain began to spread throughout my entire body, my arms, legs, hell, even to my face. It was the intense fire, acidic, machine-powered fire that felt the need to caress me deeply, me being the host.
"Don't do this! Please, don't!!!" I was pathetic. My thoughts were screaming the same thing, wanting to grasp life securely.
The burning went on for five seconds more, and then it suddenly stopped.
I was sweating, gasping for air, trying to catch my breath.
"Luckily for you, Amber, I had a backup plan. You see, killing you won't assist me. Changing your perspective, however, will."
What!? How? The only person in charge of the way I saw things was me, myself, and I. No one else could change that.
"You c-can't change who I am," I rebelled verbally.
"I did it once. I will do it again without flaw," he said confidently.
On one of the screens in the headquarters, my name popped up, and a view of my body from the inside. I could see bright lights, the little ultraviolet probes. But something else caught my eye.
A giant, unmoving probe alone sat there, floating inside me as if it were a fetus created by its mother and father.
"Since you're not going to obey, I'll have to make you."
He grabbed some sort of device and pushed down on the button, and I felt my insides wanting to tear out of me.
My body began to spasm uncontrollably, painfully, excruciatingly. I would never, I mean never in my eternal life wish this pain on anyone. None of it. My body felt as if it were about to explode for restraining a monster. I felt as if something was trying to rip itself out of me, using me as a host to grow.
My screams were barely noticeable for me. I knew I screamed, but since I've become Slade's apprentice, his abuse towards me has brought out so many screams that it's natural not to hear them.
"This probe will morph you into the perfect weapon. You will become what you are meant to be. A cold blooded, heartless apprentice."
"N-n-no!!!" I was struggling to speak against him, to try to escape, but I couldn't. My body was turning against me. My thoughts, my emotions, were heightening to darker, intense and heartless levels. The probe...
I felt as if my humanity, my soul, were being sucked out of me, numbing me, but another pull, a sharp, painful pull, replaced the numbness.
I wasn't functioning. I wasn't thinking about the love for my family and friends. I wasn't thinking about living the way I truly wanted to live.
I was thinking about draining the entire city's worth of humans dry. I was thinking about the taste of sweet, satisfying blood running down my throat, splattered all over my leather suit, all over my face as I greedily enjoyed it.
I was thinking about how it wasn't enough power. I was thinking about the kill. The sudden desire to end the world as I had seen in Raven's vision.
My eyes were darkening again, taking in the desire with every fiber, every little nerve in my body. I wanted the world at my feet, begging for mercy before I drained it all dry.
My eyes harshly blinked several times, trying to fight against the darker nature of my kind.
But it was already swallowing me whole.
Before my vision blackened, I screamed, at the top of my lungs and with my thoughts with a small hint of hope that I could stay as I am.
"PLEASE!! NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
~
(Robin's POV)
I called my friends out here, to my girlfriend's dug up grave. I dug the few feet I had to, and instantly noticed the coffin's door was damaged. I knew for a fact neither of us damaged it when we buried Amber. It couldn't have been damaged at all with the weather.
"Robin, you don't have to do this," Cyborg seemed to feel my pain. Hell, they suffered with me, knowing all too well that I was trying hard to keep myself together.
"Yes, I do. This isn't just something I can slide away. Something's going on, and we have to get to the bottom of it."
With shaking hands, I ripped the coffin door open...and froze.
At first, I thought Amber's body lay there, as we had left it, until I saw her face.
I saw the similarities in the face, but it wasn't Amber. Here lay the body of a young girl around her age. She wore the white dress we dressed Amber in. I examined the coffin to see that one of my weapons was in the coffin.
My ice explosives were in the coffin...and so was Amber's locator, crushed to pieces.
The only sounds heard were the waves of the ocean, beginning to conjure up into angrier waves. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to react. I was blank on the outside.
I began to put the pieces together out loud.
"Amber's body was taken, and whoever traded her body for this one knew how to get into Titans' Tower. My ice explosives were meant to keep this girl's body cold so she wouldn't smell like death. This is the body of the missing girl from the other night..."
"Someone's behind all this. Someone who needed to get their hands on her," Beast Boy stated.
I nodded, showing no emotion whatsoever, "Her locator was destroyed for a reason. Someone's trying to send a message."
I didn't know who was playing mind games, but I knew in this moment that this was nothing to be taken lightly. I couldn't even begin to explain the rage boiling inside me, lighting up a fire to get me to fight. I looked over at my teammates to find them staring back at me with widened eyes - so they do see it.
We had to find her.
~
(Third Person POV)
Slade stood tall and proud, examining the smaller figure he towered over.
Black Dahlia stood tall and merciless, with a cold, neutralized expression on her face. Nothing faded from her features. Her skin was so sallow and pale that she appeared dead on her feet, and her eyes, her light, orange toned brown eyes, seemed to darken in reoccurring waves.
Not a smile surfaced on her pale, full lips. Her eyes didn't show a sliver of emotion.
"What is the plan?" Slade asked her with expectancy in his demanding voice.
"We drive Raven to the edge, to the point of insanity, to the point where she can't help but open the portal," she said, looking straight at him with obedience in her voice, a monotone of puppet.
"What will you do if anyone tries to stop you?"
"I'll be sure to go in for the kill."
"What do you want?"
Amber Monroe's eyes darkened completely, darkening a dark red at the whites as a deadly, dangerous smirk suddenly flashed on her lips.
"I want the entire world at my feet, begging for their lives before I kill them all."