I'd never actually seen anyone die before. I'd always prayed that I'd never have to. I learned something the day they fell; If there is a god anymore, he stopped taking my calls a long time ago. Cyborg was the first... it wasn't fair.
Even with all his strength, all his training...a simple Electromagnetic Pulse was all it took to do irreparable damage to his systems... In the movies, deaths are long and dramatic... That's just a fantasy... When Cyborg died... He just fell... Like concrete...
Crowded streets all cleared away
One by One
Hollow heroes separate
As they run
You're so cold
Keep your hand in mine
Wise men wonder while
Strong men die...
It wasn't supposed to happen like this, never like this. We'd fought Slade before, I'd fought Slade single-handed...There's an old saying, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will come knocking at your door." Problem with Slade is, every time we build a better mousetrap, he builds the better mouse.
It had started just like countless other battles with Slade, a large scale attack with the destruction of Jump City in mind... Or at least so we thought, the bomb threat to the stadium was a clever decoy. We actually evacuated the building, isolating ourselves within the concrete lower levels... It was brilliant really, The sick bastard wanted to watch us suffer.
He'd get what he wanted... In a way I think he still is...
In Norse mythology, they say the world will end in a climactic battle between good and evil, and none will survive... The gods will die, the earth will burn, and the sun will be devoured... I'm not sure if this is true, but what happened was pretty close. On the day my teammates perished, that blaze came early, and the world descended into Ragnarok...
Show me how it end it's alright
Show me how defenseless you really are
Satisfy an empty inside
That's alright, let's give this another try
If you find your family, don't you cry
In this land of make-believe, dead and dry
You're so cold, but you feel alive
Lay your hands on me one last time
We approached the basement generators, and assumed the slowly ticking device attached to one was the bomb... We were half right. No sooner had Cyborg approached the machine that the noise stopped, leaving us with an ominous silence...
"Um... Is that a good thing?" Beast Boy asked breaking the suspense instantly. As the words faded, we became aware of a loud humming, which was immediately over taken by Cyborg's screaming... but such screaming... I still hear it in my sleep...
That sound, is not one you are not meant to hear... It is the pinnacle of human suffering and pain... it is the sound of a life cut short, and a hero's final lament. As my friend fell, his blue circuitry failed and turned to it's dormant black. It was in that instant that we finally realized how different this time was...
No one here gets out alive...
Now I wish I had been right... If our salvation was impossible....I should have died with them... died with her...
Show me how it end it's alright
Show me how defenseless you really are
Satisfy an empty inside
That's alright, let's give this another try
If you find your family, don't you cry
In this land of make-believe, dead and dry
You're so cold, but you feel alive
Lay your hands on me one last time
Raven ran over to Cyborg, trying to heal him... I think she knew it was hopeless, but I didn't want to say anything... I left that to Beast Boy. As she sent blast after blast of dark energy into our fallen comrade, trying to nourish some dying speck of life, crying as she did so, Beast Boy walked up behind her, and pulled her into a hug. That one action said a thousand words...
Sadly, they wouldn't get much more then that...
I would never have noticed anything was wrong, if Beast Boy's ears hadn't twitched. His above human hearing picked up the sound of the trigger being pulled before anyone... Especially Raven.
In one swift motion, he pushed Rae to the ground and moved in front of her huddled body, crashing back into her as his body was racked with the bullet's power.
Show me how it end it's alright
Show me how defenseless you really are
Satisfy an empty inside
That's alright, let's give this another try
If you find your family, don't you cry
In this land of make-believe, dead and dry
You're so cold, but you feel alive
Lay your hands on me one last time
But it wasn't enough... As Beast Boy fell forward, the startling amount of blood that had pooled at his feet, proved he was not the only one wounded... not even the most seriously...
Raven shook slightly with shock, hands moving cautiously to a hole through her stomach, a shot I recognized immediately to be fatal. The two looked at eachother, eyes screaming a thousand unsaid things. She began to fall over, eyelids drooping, but Beast Boy caught her, holding her head up in his hands.
I wanted to look away, just to escape the horror of what I was seeing... but I couldn't... this was Slade's victory... I was being forced to watch as those I loved were torn from me.... And from eachother....
Raven took a shaky breath, "I'm so cold..." She managed, as she looked up into his eyes... Beast Boy felt himself starting to cry as she finally faded. For a moment he sat there marinating in a pool of blood, just trying to focus...
Eventually he stood, and faced me eyes with a clarity that had never been there. He touched his hand to his shoulder, and acknowledged the amount of blood that appeared on his palm...
"Today is a good day to die", He said.
It's alright...
It's alright...
It's alright...
Beast Boy stopped, and sniffed the air, apparently picking up something. He stared ahead, down the remainder of the dark corridor, and growled, transforming into a green wolf as he barreled into the abyss before him.
"Beast Boy!" I shouted after him. His wounds were deep, but he would live even in this state. As much as I wanted to believe that, somewhere deep down I knew the truth... He had no intention of coming back...
I turned to Starfire, "We have to go after him, we have to get Slade."
She nodded, and in that moment sealed her own fate...
We ran down the passageway and into the unknown.
It's alright...
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light from Starfire's starbolt, but soon I became accustomed to the almost lamp light ebb and flow of the green glow. We hurried on, hoping to stop our friend before he did anything he'd regret.
We stumbled upon Beast Boy and Slade locked in combat. Still in wolf form, the shape shifter, was fighting with a primal rage I was totally unfamiliar with, he was fighting with the rage of grief. The green wolf darted easily around Slade's feet, sinking it's jaws into his calf before whirling around to try and catch the psycho's throat....
He wasn't so lucky...
In midlunge, the wounded Slade caught Beast Boy and hurled him against a wall, an audible crack exerting from his shattered vertebrae...As he fell to the floor, he reverted to his normal form, blood flowing freely from his every wound...
"Today....Is a good day to die..." He managed before collapsing
Slade panted, mask having been ripped from his face in the struggle, revealing his dark hair, fierce cobalt eyes and cruel features...
"Robin," He smirked, spiting blood as he said my name, "We meet at last."
I was unsure of how to react, here I was face to face with my archenemy, the murderer who had ended the lives of my friends and made our lives a living hell... After a moment of letting the shock set in, I knew what I was going to do.... I was going to tear him apart.
It's alright...
It's alright....
It's alright...
Starfire and I struck together, in that one instant we were joined, we were one in our desire for revenge, in our love for our friends... for each other... I'd rather not think about that just yet.
We attacked, freeze disc after freeze disc, starbolt after starbolt, bringing the bastard to his knees. I pulled out a birdarang and placed the razor edge to his throat, only to hear the clicking of a gun being cocked and to feel the sensation of a cool metal barrel placed on my chest.
I smirked cockily, "After all you've done, it's going to take more than that to stop me..."
He laughed maniacally and shifted his aim ever so slightly, "Then I'll put it where it will do the most damage..."
He pulled the trigger, and my ears were filled with screams as I watched Star fall to the ground... It took me a moment to realize I was the one screaming...
Slade died that day, I saw to that, after the crimes he committed he deserved no other fate... Mine however seems almost more cruel... This tower that was once my home, has become so cold and lonely... Without my friends, without my love, there seems no reason for me to even exist...
Beast Boy knew this would happen... I wondered for weeks what he had meant... I think I now know better than anyone...
With a sigh the masked titan slipped the rope around his neck and kicked the chair from under him. As the noose tightened he murmured something...
"Today is a good day to die..."