Issue 11: Tears for a Fallen Titan; Pt. 1

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Teen Titans

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Issue #11: “Tears for a Fallen Titan” Part One
Plot by Mark Bowers, Matthew Davies and Brian Burchette
Written by Mark Bowers
Cover by Ramon Villalobos
Edited by Brian Burchette[/center]

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Now:

Donna Troy walked down one of the many corridors of Titans’ Tower, toward the room that now housed Rachel Arrella’s comatose body. As she reached the room, she pushed the door open, and saw Wally sitting there at Rachel’s bedside, a book in his hand.

Wally, lost in his own thoughts, his eyes focused on Rachel, didn’t even notice Donna until she sat down next to him.

“Has it really been a year?" he asked, turning to her.

Donna nodded. “Yes, but it seems like yesterday.”

Wally smiled. To him, it had seemed like an eternity. “At first, I was so grateful that she’d survived,” he confided in Donna. “We’d gone through a rough patch, but I was going to make things up to her... as soon as she woke up. I thought that was going to be after a few hours, and then a few days, and then maybe after a few months.” He paused, looking down at the floor. “She’s never going to wake up, is she?”

“I don’t know, Wally,” replied Donna, fighting back the tears, trying to be strong for Wally. “I don’t know.”

“Do you think she hears us?” asked Wally, looking over at Rachel.

“Maybe.”

“I’ve been reading to her,” he said, “since it first happened. At first, it was all sorts of stuff, but eventually I just ended up reading her this.” Wally showed Donna the cover of the book in his hand.

“Any good?” asked Donna, who didn’t recognize the title.

“You’ve never heard of it?” Wally looked at her in surprise. “I guess you missed all the classics being brought up on that island. It’s about a girl who’s asleep in a tower, and she wakes up when a handsome prince kisses her.”

Wally got up and kissed the heroine known as Raven on the forehead. It didn’t make any difference.

“That’s the problem with real life,” explained Wally, throwing the book down on the chair. “No happy endings.”

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Then:

The crisis was over, the aliens were vanquished, and the people of Metropolis were celebrating (which, admittedly, they’d also been doing during the crisis). While, for the majority, the crisis was over, a group of young heroes were about to learn that sometimes life can just be one crisis after another.

But, for the moment, those heroes were also celebrating. Together they’d made a difference, and for once it wasn’t simply a case of dragging victory out of the jaws of defeat. This time, combining their talents, and fighting as a team, they’d defeated Doctor Bedlam and countless parademons. Still, that was all over now, and while they could support each other in battle, the time for fighting had now ended, and the inevitable in-fighting had begun.

It was just an argument between Nightwing and Speedy – one of the many arguments between Dick and Roy lately – but, while the others took sides, Raven just closed her eyes and tried to ignore it all. However, her empathic powers meant that she couldn’t ignore it.

“...What’s your problem?” Dick yelled at Roy.

Roy, shaking, was just about to answer when a shout filled the air.

“Stop!” yelled Raven, clutching the sides of her head. “I can’t take any more... Please, just stop.”

The others fell silent, while Raven just fell. Lying on the ground, she looked up to see the others gathered around her, concerned looks on their faces.

Raven smiled. “The things I’ve got to do to get your attention. Anyway, I think I know when the trouble started.”

“What trouble?” asked Speedy defensively.

“The trouble with you,” replied Raven, looking him straight in the eyes. “It all seemed to begin when the Royal Flush Gang clawed into your mind. Ever since that day, you haven’t seemed quite the same... and then there was that assassin they sent to get us. We’ve got questions that need answering, and now, while things are disrupted following this crisis, might be the best time to find those answers.”

Kid Flash looked at her in astonishment. “But they defeated us. They could have killed us.”

“That was then,” replied Raven defiantly, “but this is now. Wouldn’t it be better fighting them than fighting amongst ourselves?”

Nightwing looked at Raven. He’d never seen her this passionate about anything before. The others looked at him, as leader, waiting for his response. “Let’s do it,” he replied, helping Raven to her feet.

Within seconds, Raven was getting ready to teleport them all to the dark, dingy chamber where they’d last encountered the Royal Flush Gang. She tried to tell herself that she was returning there for the reasons she’d stated, because that was when the Titans’ troubles had begun, but she knew that she was lying... the Titans’ troubles hadn’t begun that day, just hers.

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Speedy had realized back in Metropolis that he was starting to suffer withdrawal symptoms. They were bad enough, but the additional upheaval of teleportation added a whole new level of discomfort. By the time he’d regained his senses, he found himself sitting in a large dark chamber, illuminated by the solar energy currently surrounding Starfire’s fists.

“Nobody home,” said Kid Flash, who had just surveyed the whole of the surrounding area.

“Looks like a wasted journey,” said Speedy. “Then again, maybe Batman-lite can find some clues to tell us where the Royal Flush Gang went.”

Nightwing, trying to ignore Roy, looked around in a systematic fashion, combing each inch of the ground. Finally he came across something.

“It’s a matchbook,” he said, pulling the object out of the dirt with his tweezers, “with a picture of a diamond on it.”

“Does it have an address or phone number,” asked Wonder Girl, walking up to Dick.

“No, just a red diamond,” he said, placing the matchbook in an evidence bag. “Still, there could be some fingerprints on it, and there’s lots of ground still to cover.”

As Dick continued his search, and appeared to be getting nowhere, Speedy looked over at Raven. She was just standing there, seemingly oblivious to what was going on... and she was the one who’d dragged them there in the first place.

Suddenly Speedy’s attention was diverted by Nightwing, who seemed to have found something else.

“Holy signaling device,” exclaimed Dick, looking at his latest finding. “I guess they must know we’re here.”

"So, what do we do now?" asked Kid Flash, ready to follow his leader’s command.

"We wait," replied Nightwing calmly. “We just wait.”

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Half an hour passed, as the Titans waited and nothing happened.

“So, we’ve got a matchbook with a picture on it,” summarized Speedy, “and the Royal Flush Gang knows we’re here but aren’t that interested.”

“That’s about it,” agreed Nightwing.”Although we’ve got one other lead.”

While Nightwing paused for dramatic effect – his mentor having taught him all about the power of silence – the other Titans waited to hear what he had to say.

“I was in Vegas not long ago, and I bumped into Barbara. You remember Barbara, don’t you, Roy?”

Roy nodded sheepishly. He remembered Barbara. As did Starfire, who’d never even met the woman. Having learnt the English language directly from Nightwing, she remembered the meanings, the memories, the emotions that Dick attached to words – words like Batman, words like broccoli... words like Barbara. As the light in the cavern got brighter, Nightwing continued:

“Barbara told me that she and her friends had encountered a different Royal Flush Gang in Vegas – they were Spades rather than Clubs.”

“So, we go to Vegas,” said Speedy, perking up. “That sounds a lot more fun.”

“Always wished I’d been christened Barbara,” said an intense Raven, speaking for the first time since she’d teleported them there.

“It’s a nice name,” said Wonder Girl, while Kid Flash just smiled as he got Raven’s “Barb Arrella” joke before everyone else.

Meanwhile, Raven, who could handle Dick’s feelings towards Roy, and Kory’s feelings towards Barbara, and Roy’s intense longing for something he couldn’t have, suddenly felt somebody else’s emotions in the room... and suddenly she felt colder inside than she’d ever felt before.

At which point, Deathstroke stepped from the shadows and looked at the potential victims gathered there..

"Well, what have we here? It looks like unfinished business."

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Deathstroke anticipated their every move.

Last time, he had taken out the Titans one by one. This time they would attack him together. That would be their undoing.

While Kid Flash grabbed his left leg, and Speedy his right, Wonder Girl locked her arm around his neck. To add to this mild discomfort, Nightwing was pounding at his chest, while Raven and Starfire held on to his right arm, where he brandished a rifle. This left him with one arm free – that was their first mistake.

Of course, Starfire had to douse the solar energy around her hands for fear of blinding Raven, so the whole thing was taking place in total darkness – that was their second mistake.

Their third mistake was not teleporting away the moment they first saw him.

“Three strikes and you’re out,” he hissed, as he swung his right leg, and Speedy, off the ground and against Kid Flash.

“Strike one,” he said, as his left hand swung down and grabbed an arrow from the stunned Speedy’s quiver.

“Strike two,” he added, as he plunged the arrow through Starfire’s hand.

Starfire screamed, and released his right arm, leaving just the less physically-challenging Raven attached, who he easily shook off.

Suddenly, the room was lit up by Starfire’s fists that were now pulsating with solar energy. Unfortunately, her friends were draped all over her target, so she couldn’t do anything except notice the rifle now pointing at her.

“Strike three,” he yelled, as the rifle blasted Starfire’s body across the room.

Suddenly it was dark again.

Shaking Speedy’s body from off his leg, and realizing that the baseball patter should really be saved until a time when he had three or less people to kill, he decided that it was time for actions rather than words.

His left fist swung behind his back, punching Wonder Girl in the face to little effect and, more importantly, drawing his sword.

He now only had four opponents to think about, what with Speedy being unconscious and Starfire being extinguished. Who would be next? Wonder Girl was an annoyance - trying to choke him, when she really should have just broken his neck – but she’d wait a few more seconds. Then there was Kid Flash, who was making the mistake of holding on to his leg, rather than actually using his power, although that would have been foolhardy in the darkness anyway. Yes, it looked like it was Kid Flash’s turn.

He thrust his sword down into flesh, removing the speedster from the equation, and then, having regained his footing, it was a simple matter to flip Wonder Girl over his head and onto Nightwing.

A second later, he took something from one of the pouches on his belt, and activated it.

A dim light lit the room as Deathstroke lit up a cigarette.

Nightwing looked down to see Wonder Girl on the floor, a golden lasso wrapped around her throat... a golden lasso being held by Deathstroke.

“You anticipated my every move last time, Nightwing, and you’re clearly my only real competition here, so maybe I need a hostage.”

Nightwing just stood there, formulating a plan of attack.

“Then again, maybe not.” With a sharp tug, Deathstroke pulled the lasso tight, breaking Wonder Girl’s neck rather than just choking her.

In a frenzy, Nightwing ran at Deathstroke, who dropped the lighter to the ground. As everything went dark, the sound of blow after blow echoed throughout the chamber, until finally only one of them was left standing.

“Impetuous youth,” said Deathstroke, lighting another cigarette.

“You’ve killed for the last time,” screamed Raven, as she appeared in front of Deathstroke with a dark silhouette surrounding her.

“That’s so Raven,” said Deathstroke, as he picked up his rifle and it sounded for the penultimate time.

“Now, who’s left,” he said, as he looked around at the scattered bodies. There, shaking on the ground, was Speedy.

“Ah, the first to fall... and you know why I attacked you first?”

Speedy just lay there, shivering in the near darkness, tears in his eyes.

“You are the weakest link,” explained Deathstroke. “Goodbye.”

The rifle sounded for a final time, as the final Titan perished.

It was all so predictable.

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It began just as Deathstroke expected. Kid Flash grabbed Deathstroke’s left leg, and Speedy his right. Meanwhile, Wonder Girl locked her arm around his neck, while Nightwing pounded at his chest, and Raven and Starfire held tightly on to his rifle arm.

Deathstroke stifled a yawn. "I've already visualized what's going to happen. I'd advise you to stop what you’re doing right now. I really don't want to kill you all. Not today."

The Titans continued to grip tightly, while Nightwing ceased his pummeling and looked at his adversary skeptically, but there was something in Deathstroke’s voice.

“Let him go,” Nightwing ordered, and slowly the other Titans released their grip on the villain, and Starfire’s fists once again lit up the chamber.

Deathstroke rubbed his neck, as he walked away from the Titans.

“Why did you come here,” asked Speedy, “if not to kill us?”

“I didn’t come here to kill you,” explained Deathstroke, turning toward them. “I came here to kill the Royal Flush Gang – they still owe me money. I planted that signaling device to tell me when they returned, not you. Anyway, with all the chaos outside I’d have thought you’d have better things to do than visit the past.”

“So, you’re just going to leave without a fight?” Kid Flash asked. “Why?”

“Maybe I’m waiting until a day when I’ll get paid good money to kill you, or maybe I’m waiting for a day when you’ll be worthy adversaries. Then again, maybe, just maybe, after the crisis, the world needs heroes more than ever. You, of all people, Kid Flash, should understand that.”

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“Me of all people – what do you mean by that?”

“You haven’t heard?” Deathstroke replied, looking into Kid Flash’s eyes. “No, I guess you haven’t. Still news hasn’t exactly been readily available recently, what with Lex Luthor’s endless propaganda filling the schedules.”

“What is it?” asked Wally. “What’s the big secret?”

“No secret... It’s The Flash. He’s dead.”

Wally stood there frozen for what seemed like hours, but was only nanoseconds, taking in what Deathstroke had just said. At first he thought Deathstroke was lying – after all, that’s what villains do – but he had to be sure, and he had to know which Flash was dead. He could have simply asked Deathstroke but that would have taken seconds, and Wally just didn’t have time for that.

He ran forward, vibrating through Deathstroke, and then through the wall of the chamber, and then through anything else that got in his way as he headed to Central City. He was on a different vibrational frequency from the rest of the world and somehow that’s just the way he felt inside. So many things were going through his mind on that journey – questions about how it could have happened, guilt about his lack of tears, memories of a previous visit to Central City where he’d tried on Barry’s costume... Why had he done that? He wasn’t ready to replace Barry... he’d never be ready.

Suddenly he realized that he’d reached Central City, and so he slowed down slightly, to avoid overshooting the place. Coming to a newsstand, he skidded to a momentary halt as his eyes took in the headlines about the recent tragedy in Keystone City.

“Jay,” he mumbled, and then he was on his way back to the Titans, but Wally’s mind was full of memories about Jay, that kept popping up on the journey back. In the fractions of a second it took him to return to the Titans, he’d been thinking about Jay for what seemed like hours. That was something speedsters had to get used to – living hours in seconds, years in minutes. During Jay’s lifetime, he must have lived the equivalent of hundreds, maybe thousands of years... it just wasn’t long enough.

Resuming his position next to his still-life teammates, Kid Flash dropped down to normal speed. Tears suddenly filled his eyes as he told his teammates the news:

"It's Jay."

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“Maybe we should just go home,” said Nightwing, looking at Wally. “Check on our families and friends. The Royal Flush Gang can wait for another day.”

“No,” insisted Kid Flash. “We’ve started... now, we need to carry on. That’s what Jay would have wanted.”

“Maybe Vegas,” suggested Raven. “Check up on that other Royal Flush Gang.”

Deathstroke shook his head. “I want the Royal Flush Gang dead, but not that much. You don’t know what sort of craziness you’ll encounter there.”

“We can handle it,” said Nightwing, “but it’ll take a while to get there.”

“I can do it,” said Raven. “I can teleport us all there.”

“Are you sure?” asked Wonder Girl, concern in her voice.

“Never surer,” said Raven as the Titans were suddenly engulfed in blackness.

Deathstroke watched as the Titans suddenly disappeared and the chamber went dark once again. Opening one of the pouches on his belt, he pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number that he hadn’t used since the days when he called himself Terminator.

“I’ve got an idea,” he began. “Do you remember that tower we were going to build?”

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The blackness dissipated and the Titans found themselves in a moonlit alleyway. Standing at the back of them, Raven struggled to remain standing. The effort of teleportation had almost been too much for her, but she had to be here... she had to find the Royal Flush Gang... she just wasn’t entirely sure why.

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by strong emotions coming from in front of them - sorrow, anger, guilt – and she looked forward to see a group of people wearing costumes. And then she was hit by the emotions of Nightwing, as he set eyes on a red-haired woman that, during the crisis, he was afraid that he might never ever see again.

“Batgirl?” he said softly, as he moved forward to her.

“Di-... Nightwing.” Barbara Gordon whispered back, turning toward him.

Then, Nightwing saw the lifeless figure in her arms, with a hideous grin on its lips.

“He’s here?”

Batgirl nodded.

“Then we’ve arrived just in time.”

Raven looked at Nightwing, seemingly full of confidence, but she felt the anger beneath his surface and, along with that, something else. For the first time since she met him, she felt his fear.

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To Be Continued!