The Next Generation

"Clearly," Rose replied, taking a moment to stretch and get loose. "I saw you checking me out in that hospital gown... just keep those hands to yourself, mister, you're taken." She was joking, which she didn't do often, but it would be clear she wasn't serious either way. Though she was an extremely flirtatious tease most of the time, she could at least back herself off from a guy who had a girlfriend. She didn't want to be the cause of anymore problems. Of course, she was speaking physically. She was still going to tease the hell out of him, regardless.

Once she was loose, she drew her swords, giving them both a few practice swings. They felt a little off in her hands, reason being she probably hadn't held them in a few years. No telling what those bastards had been doing to her all this time. She'd get used to them again, though, she was sure. For now, though, she went back into the storage room and grabbed a pair of practice swords. "Alright, new guy, let's dance."

Neal just gained a tiny smile as he heard the joke that Rose shot at him. "Ha, you wish. My gaze was merely fixed upon the strange intruder that set off the alarm to our home. Nothing more," he said as he watched Rose draw her own swords. Neal's eyes widened for a moment as those were made of metal, they could actually cut people. He was relieved when she put them away in order to go and grab some practice ones from the storage.

"New guy? I've been here the past two years. You're now the new girl as far as I'm concerned," Neal said before he went into the storage area himself and grabbed a pair of swords that he could use. He moved them in his wrists as Talia's training began to come back to him, Neal really loved his memory sometimes. Neal gained a strong grip on each sword and took a starting defensive stance. "Ready when you are"

"Hmph, maybe I do wish," Rose replied with a smirk, as she lunged in with a sweeping attack. She moved gracefully, but with ferocity, like a wild dance. She'd prove to be a greater challenge than he was used to, due to her superior speed, strength, and dexterity. She also had a small gift of precognition, allowing her to see seconds into her future and evade attacks that she otherwise should not be able to. It didn't always help, but most of the time it gave her a huge edge.

The one problem, though, was that she was indeed rusty. She'd been out of it for so long that she was making mistakes she shouldn't be making, mistakes she'd never make if she were at top form. Because of this, the two of them appeared almost evenly matched, thoroughly smacking each other around with the heavy sticks of wood. Eventually, Rose backed off and let out a heavy breath and lowered her weapons. "Shit, I am so rusty. I was fighting like I did before I took the serum. I'm way better than that... I need to practice."

The spar began, with each fighter going in and delivering strong blows to one another. Neal had to give it his all, Rose was in top physical condition. She looked strong, but it was still deceptive to her actual level of strength. Neal had thought that he would have this, but he should have expected more from someone who was trained by Deathstroke himself. Rose and Neal might not have the best opinion of the man, but he was definitely good at what he did.

As they backed away from each other, Neal took several breaths before wiping some of the sweat from his brow. What came next though caused his eyes to widen. "What!? That was you being rusty! I've never had someone evenly match me with a blade like that" he told her as he looked right at Rose. "Are you being serious? You're way better than this? If that's true, you must be a master"

Rose chuckled a little and shrugged her shoulders. "What can I say? I'm good at what I do," she replied, throwing the swords back into the storage room. She'd had just about enough for one night, but she'd need to come back every day if she was going to get back into her prime condition. "Well, that was a good workout, now I could use a good swim to cooldown. This place still got a pool? I haven't been skinny dipping in ages."

"I can respect that, talent is something that we never have enough of," Neal said as he threw his own pair of swords back into the storage room. This Rose might be able to help him though, she was better than he was. If she got back into her prime, she might be able to teach Neal some new tricks and reflexes. It was just a thought for the moment though, one quickly snatched away as Rose brought up pools and skinny dipping.

"Uh..........yeah, we have an indoor and an outdoor pool," Neal said simply. "Feel free to use either I guess"

"Ah, choices, choices," Rose said, considering her options. "Indoors would be calmer, but I do enjoy a good rainy swim. Is a tad bit chilly outside, though... but still bearable. Hmm... ah heck, I'll go for the outdoor one, make it interesting. Feel free to tag along if you want, if not then I'll see you around tomorrow. We should make time to spar again, it was fun. And I need more practice." With that, she started heading out of the room, whistling quietly to herself.

Neal just listened as Rose debated about what she was going to do, she ended up deciding to go outside. "Thanks for the offer but I think that I'm going to have to pass. You understand. And yeah, see you tomorrow," Neal said before giving her a small wave. He waited about a minute and just shook his head. "Interesting new team member, I wonder how well she works with the others?" he asked himself before heading out of the sparring room and towards his own room.

Later that night, or early that morning, depending on how you look at it, a shadowy figure would find its way inside the Titans Tower. No alarms went off, no defenses activated, nothing to give away his presence. That's because the systems had all be shut down ahead of time, in preparation for his arrival. All part of the plan. Well, her escaping the facility wasn't exactly part of the plan, but she'd still gone straight to the Titans anyway, so it all fell into place. And the field test of the new tech they'd used on her was a success, as indicated by the downed security systems.

Nightwing was sleeping soundly, not expecting what was about to come. The intruder came in silently, without making a sound. He had been well trained, after all, to be stealthy, to hide in the shadows. Some might say he was trained by the best. That was only half true, because now, he was the best. Dick was about to learn that firsthand. Without warning, the intruder grabbed the sleeping Nightwing by the throat and dragged him out of bed.

By the time Nightwing awoke, he was in mid air, being hurled across the room and smashing into the wall. He was still trying to fully wake up, blinking the sleep from his eyes and trying to gain his bearings. He couldn't see in the dark without his mask's night vision lenses, so he couldn't do much to defend against the onslaught that ensued, blow after blow that practically tore his body apart, breaking bones, bruising his eye, splitting his lip, pure devastation. Within minutes, he could barely stand, let alone defense himself. Whoever this attacker was, he was merciless brutal.

"This is how it's going to work, Dick," the man spoke, the voice deep and familiar. "You and your Titans get out of town. Leave the city. You have three days. If you're not gone by then, I'm going to come back. And next time, I'm going to bring friends, and what I've done to you here tonight, I'm going to do to the rest of your little group. Got it?" Winding up his leg, he sent a vicious kick straight at Nightwing's face, flipping him over on the ground. "Your choice."

Nightwing struggled to get up, but he hurt in too many places. The only thing he could concentrate on was the voice. He knew that voice. And as he glanced upward, he could swear he saw a glint of red. "Jason...?" he uttered, before passing out.

---

The next morning, Sarah and Starfire were the first two to walk into the kitchen. When they did, Starfire covered her mouth with both hands in shock, while Sarah screamed out in surprise. Dangling from the rafters, his arms tied to a post, was Nightwing, groaning and barely conscious. He was in terrible condition, far worse than Rose had been in the previous night. But that wasn't the only thing. Written in blood on the wall behind him was a message. It read: "Let this be a warning, Titans. Leave the City, or else."

The next morning Neal had woken up and done a few exercises in his room. It had been long since someone had pushed him to his best, and it motivated him to begin working on a harder physical routine. He would make himself work out harder than ever, he couldn't just stop training just because the city seemed to be so calm right now. Of course, that would all change today.

Neal suddenly heard a scream and stopped in mid sit-up. "Sarah?" he asked before quickly getting up and sprinting off towards the source of the scream. "Sarah! What is........oh my God" Neal said as he saw the scene that had made her scream. Nightwing was hanging up, barely alive it looked like. "Starfire, fly up there and get him down! We need to treat him as soon as possible!" he insisted.

Neal's eyes glanced towards the message. "Seems like some of our old hateful friends have come back, but who could have done this to Nightwing?"

Starfire could barely respond through her tears, completely unprepared to deal with something like this that morning. Sarah helped her out before she could break down, using her power ring to safely guide Nightwing down onto a constructed gurney. She quickly started running him towards the medical bay. Rose had come in just a short few moments after everyone else, watching in equal shock as Nightwing was rushed off. What in the hell had just happened? Meanwhile, Raven, the only one who could really heal him, hadn't yet made an appearance.

"This is your fault!" Starfire shouted, pointing at Rose. "You did this!"

"What?!" Rose responded, glaring at the Tamaranian. These two had never really gotten along, but this didn't seem to be helping their relation any. "Like hell I did!"

"Then who?" Starfire shot back. "You come back after four years, and on the same night, Nightwing is attacked and nearly killed! Explain that!"

"How am I supposed to know?!" Rose growled. "I was in the pool most of last night, then I went straight to bed! I didn't have anything to do with this!"

Starfire started to advance on Rose. "That cannot be a coincidence! You wanted to hurt him! You wanted to kill him!"

"You're insane! Why would I want to hurt him?" Rose, too, started to advance forward. Were it not for Cyborg holding her back, she probably would have thrown a punch already. "I like him for crying out loud! Believe it or not, I like all of you! You're the closest thing to a family I've ever had! I don't hurt my family!"

"I seem to recall you hurting your 'family' many times in the past! We never should have trusted you again! We never should have taken you back!"

Neal watched as Sarah pulled Nightwing down from the rafters, quickly taking him and leading him towards the Medical bay. It was only once Cyborg and Rose showed up that things quickly got out of hand. Things went to hell very quickly. Apparently there was still some history here that Neal wasn't aware of, but things were going too far out of hand. There was no evidence either way, and they had to assume better of Rose for now.

"QUIET!" Neal shouted while using his illusion powers in order to amplify his voice in volume. It was an attempt to get them both to turn to him and listen.

"Starfire, we assume innocent until proven guilty and there is nothing here that proves that Rose did it. This could just be a coincidence or a setup," he said as he looked right at her. "Plus, I'm the one who nearly killed Nightwing last time. If you're going to judge off of the past than I am even more of a suspect"

"But none of that matters right now. We need to concentrate on making sure that our friend is alive and well, that's all that really matters right now. We can worry about the rest later, maybe Nightwing can even identify his own attacker once we save him," Neal suggested. "Pointing fingers isn't going to help anyone though, you have to believe that. We need to focus on Nightwing right now, he needs us"

Though still seething, Starfire and Rose both started to settle down after a few moments of Neal talking down to them. Eventually, Rose relaxed enough for Cyborg, who had not run off in the previous paragraph as accidentally stated before, to release her.

"I guess," Starfire said, folding her arms. "Nightwing needs us."

"Damn straight he does," Rose muttered, pushing past them to go to the medical ward.

"I'll go start getting him treated," Cyborg said, now running off. "Someone find Raven! We're going to need her!"

Starfire, too, started to march off to the medical ward. She didn't say anything else, but her eyes were glaring a hole in the back of Rose's head. That woman had to have been involved somehow, she was sure of it!

It only took about five minutes for Raven to finally show up in the medical ward and begin to work on the injured Nightwing. Seeing as how she'd just taken in Rose's pain the night before, though, doing it again so soon and on even greater injuries, was greatly taxing on her. Though she managed to heal the worst of his damage, she felt it all, and by the end of it was coughing blood into a cloth.

"He'll be okay," Raven muttered, wiping her lips. "But he needs to rest now."

"That's better," Neal said to himself as he watched Starfire and Rose eventually back off from one another. It was good, for the moment he just needed the two woman to focus on helping Nightwing rather than picking a fight with one another. Why would someone attack Nightwing and leave him alive like that? Surely Nightwing would be able to identify his attacker, at least partially.

If Rose really was part of this, wouldn't she have just killed him?

Neal pushed those thoughts away as everyone was gathered into the medical ward, watching as Raven finally showed up in order to heal Nightwing of all his injuries. Neal watched Raven with concern as it seemed like healing Neal was taking a great deal out of her. She had healed Rose the previous Night, and taking care of Nightwing's injuries were taking a toll.

"I'm sure he will be okay, you're skilled at what you do Raven," Neal said as he put a hand on her shoulder and tried to look her in the eyes. "Are you okay though?" he asked with concern.

"I am... also okay," Raven said, breathing in a deep breath as she looked up at him from her seat. "I just... I need to rest as well. I have taken in a great amount of pain..."

Sarah stood at the side of Nightwing's bed, trying to contemplate who on earth would want to do something like this to him. She also thought of the cryptic warning written on the wall in his blood... what did it mean? Who wanted them to leave the city, and why? "When will he wake up? If he knows who attacked him..." she started, her words trailing off.

Raven shrugged. "I can't say. An hour. A day. He'll wake up whenever he's rested enough."

"You don't need to wait until he wakes up to find out, though," Rose commented. "Doesn't this place have security cameras? Just check those, that'll show you what happened. That I didn't have anything to do with this." She glared over at Starfire.

"That's actually not a bad idea," Cyborg commented, heading out of the room. "Let's go take a look, then, let Nightwing get his rest."

When the team had gathered out in the main lounge again, Cyborg went right for the main computer console. He began pulling up security footage of the previous night, trying to determine what had happened and who had decided to break into their home, and maybe a reason why the security systems had not gone off. However, when he started to reqind the time from earlier that morning, he got nothing but static.

"What the hell?" he muttered, continuing to backtrack the time. "It's like they were turned off."

And then, finally, at around the two in the morning mark going backwards, footage started to appear. He began sifting through the various cameras, watching the screens and looking for anything suspicious. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred until he checked the main lounge camera. On the screen, Rose was walking across the floor and up to the computer console.

"What the fuck is that?" Rose said, leaning closer to the screen. "I don't remember using the computer last night. I went straight to bed after I finished at the pool."

As they continued to watch, they would see Rose bring up the security override commands on the screen, shutting down their security systems one by one, until finally the camera cut out into static as well. All eyes immediately turned directly at her.

"I knew it was you!" Starfire shouted, trying to get a hold of her. If not for Sarah holding back her arms, Rose would probably have been through the wall by now.

"No, no, that isn't right!" Rose retorted. She actually looked a bit desperate and confused. "That can't be- I didn't! I never did that! It has to be a trick! I don't remember... no, I didn't, I swear!"

Neal just kept his gaze upon Raven, hoping that she really would be okay with the pain that she had just taken in. She seemed so lonely and depressed lately, and it made Neal worried to see her take in further pain. He just wished that he could say something to her. It used to feel like he could say two words and her entire day would brighten, but as of late it seemed like he couldn't get her to even look at him straight.

It was at that point that Rose brought up the idea of checking the security cameras in order to find out what happened, claiming that it would prove her innocence and show that she had no part over what had taken place last night. It wasn't a bad idea, and Cyborg quickly brought up the camera footage only to find that they had been shut off. Interesting, how had someone been able to pull that off?

As they kept watching though, it appeared that the answer became quite obvious as to who the culprit was. There it was, footage of her using the computer and sneaking to the main computer in order to shut off the cameras. Neal had said that they needed evidence before accusing Rose, and it seemed like they just got handed some incriminating stuff. Neal turned his gaze and looked over at her as she continued to explain that it must be some kind of trick.

"Care to explain what we're looking at than? Because what I'm looking at is you turning off all of our cameras while Nightwing was attacked at some later point. That looks pretty guilty to me," Neal said as he stared right over at Rose. He wasn't sure if she was going to try something stupid or desperate, but Neal would be ready if she tried to attack.

"I don't know, I- I didn't, I swear I don't remember doing this!" Rose shot back. "It has to be some kind of mistake, I would never go and disable the tower's damn security! Someone obviously tampered the footage! Why would I go and suggest we look at the security if I were guilty?"

"No one tampered with the footage," Cyborg said, glaring at her. "My robotic eye can tell the difference between legitimate and doctored footage, and this is legitimate. No matter what you say, you're the one that shut down the security last night, and probably the one that beat Nightwing to within an inch of his life." His sonic blaster was glowing now.

Not even Sarah could hold back Starfire now, as the Tamaranian tore from her grasp and started to charge. "You are no different than your father!"

At that comment, Rose pretty much snapped. As Starfire came in, she lunged as well, even if going blow for blow with a Tamaranean was a very bad idea without any of her equipment. "Don't you ever compare me to him, you spray tanned bitch!"

"Everyone, STOP!" Raven shouted. Her soul-self emerged and pulled both women back, restraining them, no matter how hard they struggled. "Rose is telling the truth."

Starfire shot her a disbelieving look. "What? You cannot be serious! You saw the tape!"

"The tape is also telling the truth," Raven explained. "Rose, you did shut down the security, that much is clear."

Rose growled, trying to tear herself away from Raven's soul-self. "But I-!"

"But you truly do not remember doing it," Raven added. "Your distress, your confusion, your desperation, all your emotions you are feeling right now are genuine... and I sense a lapse of time within your recent memories, a time you cannot account for. I don't know what exactly did happen, but I do not believe you did this intentionally, and did so without even realizing."

Neal didn't voice his opinion, since everyone else seemed to pretty much turn on Rose right at that second. Why would she suggest to look at the footage? Maybe so that they would see her and assume that Rose wouldn't make a suggestion that would incriminate herself. Deathstroke was a master manipulator, perhaps it was a skill that ran in the family?

As Starfire suddenly escaped from Sarah's grasp, Neal watched as she and Rose charged at one another as if they were truly about to kill one another. Neal was thinking about running in to make sure no one was seriously hurt, but Raven beat him to it as she used her abilities in order to pull both women away and hold them away from one another.

It was what Raven said next though that caused everyone to stare at her.

As Neal listened to her explanation, he wasn't sure what to make of it. Cyborg confirmed that the video was real, but now Raven was saying that Rose truly didn't remember disabling the cameras. Something was very wrong in this situation, and Neal wasn't liking it at all. Rose had done damage and endangered the Titans, whether she meant to do it or not. So what were they supposed to do now?

"Well.......that makes things complicated," Neal muttered to himself as he reached up and rubbed his eyes. Confusing situations like this always gave him a headache. "Rose, can you think of anything that might explain this?" he asked as he looked over at her. She had acted without knowledge supposedly, but Neal just felt like there was more to it.

It was at that moment that something clicked in Neal's mind as he remembered the story that Rose told yesterday. "Rose, is it possible that whoever captured you for the past few years wanted you to shut off the cameras last night?"

"At least one of us has some sense," Rose muttered, folding her arms. Raven still wasn't letting either her or Starfire go at the moment. "And how should I know about the guys that captured me? I already told you I barely remember any of it. The whole thing's been a haze, I don't know what they did to-" Her expression suddenly took on a more frightened, distressed look. "Oh god, what if they gave me that serum again? What if they can control me? Nonono, I won't be anyone's puppet again!"

"If that's the case, though," Cyborg said, lowering his blaster, "then either way, you still brought harm into the tower. And if someone can control you, then you're a danger to everyone while you're here."

"Then she should just leave," Starfire suggested, still scowling. "That would solve our problems."

Rose shot an ugly look her way. "What? Are you crazy? I don't have anywhere else to go! And if I go out there, then whoever did this to me is going to find me, and they'll make me do who knows what else!"

"I find myself not much caring," Starfire responded.

"Kory, that's quite enough," Sarah said, giving her wife a glare. "Instead of just throwing her out, we should be trying to help her, figure out what's wrong, and what happened. Isn't that what it means to be a Titan? To help people? Not turning them away when they need help."

Neal narrowed his eyes at Rose. As much as he could understand why she could be mad, she could still do without the attitude. Of course who was Neal to talk? Rose did something without her knowledge, Neal had done worse things during his time with his abilities. He still wasn't sure what to say to her though, it was only when she began to freak out about "the serum" that Neal looked at her curiously.

Neal listened to the argument that Cyborg and Starfire put forth. He had to admit that it wasn't a terrible idea, but as Sarah stepped in as the voice of reason Neal had to see the wisdom in her words. "Sarah's right," Neal finally spoke up. "If someone's controlling Rose than we can't hold her responsible for this. When she agreed to come back here she agreed to be a Titan, and I promised that I wouldn't turn my back on a teammate ever again," Neal said as he looked over towards Rose again.

"All the same, it would be wise to take some precautions. We can't afford to have a repeat of what happened last night"

"Fine, precautions, sure," Rose said. "Whatever, just let me go already. You're squeezing a little too tight."

Raven, waved her hand, and released both Rose and Starfire. "The question is... what sorts of precautions?"

"She's never to go anywhere in the tower alone," Cyborg said. "And never in the combat room without a third person standing by. As for dealing with night time, we have a lockdown wing on the third floor, with bedrooms, bathrooms, a full facility, you just won't be able to get out of it without being let out. You can sleep there at night, and someone will let you out in the morning. In the meantime, we'll take a blood sample. I'll have someone analyze it and see if there are any anomalies that might indicate something wrong with you."

Rose frowned, folding her arms. "Great, so now I need to be babysat all day. And locked up at night. This is going to be a fucking blast."

"We could still just throw you out," Starfire suggested.

Rose only glared back at her.

Neal listened as Cyborg lined out the precautions that they would use in order to make sure that Rose couldn't do any more damage to the Tower or the Titans. It was a brilliant and simple solution, despite how much Rose seemed to hate it. It would guarantee that she would be stopped it she was forced to do any more acts of sabotage though, and it would stop her from hurting the rest of the Titans, like she might have done to Nightwing.

Plus, as Starfire pointed out, it was much better than the other solution that she had in mind.

"I'll spend most of the day with her if the rest of you would like that. If she's forced to act again I can always use my illusions to stop her without causing any excessive damage to the Tower," he suggested. He wasn't sure who would really decided that. Nightwing was out of commission, so did that make Cyborg the temporary leader?

Neal would do whatever the group wanted him to do though.

"Sure, be my guest," Cyborg stated, standing up from the desk. "We'll just need to take that blood sample first. Sooner the better, let's head back to the medical ward. After that, I'll release you into Neal's company for the day."

"I do not wish to be her babysitter ever," Starfire remarked, folding her arms. "Do not ask me to take over later."

Cyborg cleared his throat. "Considering as how that would likely end up with someone going through a wall... I'd say you're safe from that."

"Good," Starfire said. She then took Sarah by the hand and began to march off. "Come, Sarah. I must work off all this recent stress."

As Rose was starting to follow Cyborg to get her blood taken, she glanced back at the other two women and raised an eyebrow. "Wait, no way, those two? Seriously?" An amused laugh escaped her mouth. "Wow, totally didn't see that one coming."

When everyone else was gone, Raven glanced up at Neal. There was an awkward silence between them for a moment before she asked, "So you're going to spend the whole day with her?"

Neal gave a nod as Cyborg agreed that Neal would take the responsibility of watching Rose during the time until they could determine how she was being controlled. There was no telling how long that would last, but Neal owed it to Rose. She said that she had changed, and Raven confirmed that Rose wasn't responsible for acting last night. Neal had to do what she could in order to help her.

As everyone went their separate ways, Neal glanced over towards Raven who finally spoke. Seriously? They were alone finally and this was what she wanted to talk about? Perhaps she meant nothing by it, but it seemed fairly clear that there was some sort of hidden agenda to her question.

"Well I am the logical choice. Starfire wants to kill her, while Sarah will keep Starfire occupied so that no one gets killed Cyborg is usually working on making sure our vehicles, security systems are accurate, and you've been fairly busy with your meditations. So it seems like I'm the person with the most free time," Neal said before looking straight at Raven.

"Something on your mind Raven?"

"Oh... no, nothing," Raven replied, quietly bowing her head. Another awkward moment of silence. Eventually, she grabbed her left arm with her right hand, holding herself. "I... I'm sorry for the way things have been between us lately. Thy're not... right. Something is wrong... with me, I think. I'm trying to figure out what... but I don't know. I should keep looking into it... I have someone who might know what's wrong. Have fun today, please... I know I'm not very fun at the moment."