This choice: Terra betrays Slade; takes you back to the Titan's Tower. • Go Back...Chapter #42You Can Only Betray Your Conscience by: Unknown Terra continued watching the movie in her bed, with you asleep at her feet.
"No! Master Takeda! Please, don't die"
"Worry not my son. Everything passes away, new things grow. You *cough* will take my place.. as Master of the Temple. Forgive me, for I am not as young as I used to be." Master Takeda slowly sinks into the deepest sleep man knows.
Shoryu approaches with a blood stained tanto knife gripped in his hand. "Cry if it will console you... however, no amount of tears will ever bring him back,"
"But, but why Shoryu, what could have possessed you to kill the master?"
"Naieve boy, I was never his pupil. My loyalty belongs to one far superior than he and his orders were to catch the old man off guard and do away with him. There is nothing you can do to change this. Leave while you can and perhaps you will die a natural death."
"Shoryu, you have done your duty to your master and have thereby chosen your path. Now I shall honor the duty I hold to my master. You will not leave this temple as less than a spirit. I pray your soul is looked on with mercy by the gods."
"Ha, child. Your arrogance is equal to none. If death is what you seek, then do not expect it to be quick. Prepare yourself."
Suddenly, as these regularly happen, the alarm for the facility went off. Slade broke through the sound of the whirling claxon out in the hallway over the intercom "Terra... secure the prisoner and report to Sector 32 immediately. We have other guests to attend to." Terra looked down at you and frowned. She didn't want to hurt you, betray the trust you'd put in her. Rather than berating her with insults or ignoring her feelings like Slade so often did, you treated her with respect and worshiped her. Then again, she wasn't strong enough to take on Slade, and if she betrayed him she might be killed.
"Mmm... Is something wrong Terra?" You said, still groggy from sleeping "I mean, other than me being held hostage."
"Knock off the jokes for a moment. The base is under attack. Slade wants you back in the holding cell,"
"So I'm off to the holding cell am I? Not a bad place if it had some nice curtains... and windows... or anything else remotely pleasant added to it."
"Actually Zeus, I had a different idea. We're going to get out of here while everyone is distracted."
"Any idea who is attacking the base?"
"No, Slade just told me to get upstairs."
"Do you have access to security from here?"
"Well, I can't control security directly, but the computer outside can monitor the cameras."
"If you would be so kind,"
"Once a foot slave, now a gentleman, how can I say no to you?"
Terra leapt from the bed and opened the door into the hallway. Immediately she began working on a terminal several steps from the door to her room and by the time you arrived behind her, every camera in the base had its own box on the screen. She narrowed it down to the cameras in Sector 32 and they showed Slade and his minions in combat with Starfire and Raven.
"I guess this means you want to go help them." Terra murmured unenthusiastically.
"One thing that I've learned, working in the underground, is that if you don't protect your friends and get rid of your enemies you'll get knifed in the back soon afterward. Besides Terra, if you want to help me Slade will consider you an enemy as well. Even if I wasn't worried for myself, I can't let him threaten your well being." Terra looked at you with tears in her eyes. Before you knew it she had her arms wrapped around you. Gently, you put your hand on her back and stroked her head. "It'll be alright Terra. I appreciate what you've done for me. Now let me help you."
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Black and green bolts of energy flew across the room, turning cybernetic assassins into fireworks as they struck their limbs. Slade stood on the iron catwalk of Sector 32, the expansive factory room where his minions were constructed by advanced, self-directed robotic machinery. Raven and Starfire flew around, arms tossing volley after volley of projectiles at their foes, slowly wearing themselves down. The advantage was on his side and with these two out of the way, the remaining of the Titans and their affiliates would easily fall apart. Even now, they were losing strength. First they began to slow down, unable to compete with the increasing waves of assassins, then the automatic rifle fire forced them to shield themselves. Slade withdrew a pistol from a suit mounted holster; it's design was flawless, technological perfection...
"Before I came here to Jump City I went by a different name," Slade held the gun up, rotating it from side to side as he looked at it nostalgically. He stopped and extended his arm, gun barrel shifting between Starfire and Raven. Slade's wavering hand played with the idea of killing either one of them. Finally, the iron sights of the pistol lined up with Raven. "Do you know what they called me little dark one...? They called me Deathstroke." Slade pulled the trigger and the bullet exploded out of the barrel, sharp and lethal. Or it may have been, if a flash of light had not obstructed the bullet's path. Slade's one visible eye widened and he put one foot behind him, as if too retreat or evade, for something terribly unexpected had happened.
You hovered mid-air, your body burning with so much energy, glowing white, that it was on the brink of ionizing. The bullet from Slade's gun spun wildly against the repelling force of the electromagnetic shielding that surrounded you. Gripping the bullet in with gauntlet protected hands you watched the bullet spin against the metal, creating a friction so intense that the bullet was aglow with red light before you let it drop to the ground. The cybernetic assassins down below were intelligent enough to realize that Black Zeus overpowered them, though they were not programmed to value their own survival. Your hand pulsed with electricity and you aimed it at the mass of robots crowded together down below. The resulting attack lit one robot on fire, and arced across the entire room, frying all electronic circuits, even blacking out the lights.
With the assassins permanently nullified, Terra entered the room. Slade's eye glanced at her with a ray of loathing, before setting it upon his major threat, for he was not easily shaken and quickly regained his smug sense of cool collectivity.. "Black Zeus, I see that Terra failed to keep you under control. A pity really. After I finished off the Titans I'm sure I could have found some other use for you. For now, all I can do is wonder what if."
"If you survive what I'm about to do to you Slade, you'll have plenty of time to think about it in a maximum security prison cell." You bolted into him like lightning and drove him into the wall, flooding his body with several thousand volts of electricity. Slade's metal plated armor began smoldering. At last you ended the power surge and stared up at the motionless body held aloft in your hands pressed to the wall. Though this man, this creature, must have been possessed by the devil himself, for he came back to life and stared you in the face with his one maddening eye and broke your grip. He fell to the ground as you staggered against the guard rail. The eye was white as purgatory, with a tiny black dot in the center that seemed to pierce through your soul. Looking into it, you could almost see the insanity which lay deep down in Slade, and gave he this ungodly strength. Slade came forward and jabbed you in the stomach and as your body lurched forward he took your head and jammed it into his knee which sent you falling off the catwalk. Terra and the Titans all came rushing towards you. Slade just stood from above and looked down, one hand covering his mask. When the girls looked up to attack Slade he had vanished... to where, no one, not even Terra knew.
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“I am interested in madness. I believe it is the biggest thing in the human race, and the most constant. How do you take away from a man his madness without also taking away his identity?”
-William Saroyan
...Because...
“Every man has his follies - and often they are the most interesting thing he has got.”
-Josh Billings
...Black Zeus and Slade both have their reasons for living. Though they differ in power, the monster of madness inside them will not die, and so they too cannot die. At least it makes for an expedient plot device, though I'd hate to undermine any possible profundity it.
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