The past few hours had been like a nightmare incarnate. Lavender didn't know how she'd managed getting into the Tower and hitting the alarm button. It was all she oculd do to warn them, after being battered so badly that she could hardly breathe. "Robin....it's me...." she'd gasped out, just before the darkness had taken control. It seemed like the demons were dancing around her now, had her chained to a table of stone. The Shadow of Death had never really gone away.
Later, she could dimly recall several hazy figures stading over her, fighting to keep her alive as she slipped in and out of consciousness, grasping at thier voices before she was pulled back into hte abyss. "Help me!' she'd cried out once in her delirium. "Don't worry, we're doing everything we can," someone promised.
"Clear!" A shock ripped through her chest.
"She's gone. No, wait!---there she is again. C'mon girl, hang on. Clear!"
A door burst open. "Something's happened to Erika!"
"They're connected by the Force," a soft voice told the others. "If we keep this girl alive, Erika will be just fine."
"Easier said than done," someone said hopelessly. "We can't get her stabilized!"
"Let me," the soft voice entreated. "Maybe I can help."
Suddenly the morbid laughter of the demons turned to horrified screams, as a celestial being, armed with a blazing sword, pierced Lavender's evil dream with dazzling light. "Leave her be!" she commanded, and the servants of darkness fled.
~
Lavender forced herself awake. She was aching in every limb, and for a moment she couldn't remember why as she stared up at the ceiling. Then it flashed before her: the headlights of some huge vehicle barreling down upon her at high speed and smashing her against a solid brock wall. Slade. He'd really wanted her dead, hadn't he? But why? Lavender pondered the question until somebody across the room mumbled sleepily:
"Wow, that really hurts."
Propping herself up on one elbow, Lavender looked to see who the owner of the voice was. With her powers, she knew instinctively that the girl's name was Erika. She was sitting on the bed opposite her, holding her head tightly as if it was bothering her. Lavender winced. Her own head was pounding like an African drum. "What happened to you?" she asked.
"Same thing that happened to you, " guess," Erika replied. "The Force linked us together last night."
Lavender was just about to ask what that meant when hse heard Beast Boy shout "Sweet! They're awake!" and burst into the room, follwed by several other Titans---a few of them people she'd never seen before.
"Good morning," said one of them, a relieved smile breaking out on her face. Her name was White Wolf. "We almost lost you last night."
"Yes, but we still don't know who you are," said Robin, eyes narrowing. "What were you doing in the Tower last night?"
"I'm surprised you would forget a friend so easily, Strider," Lavender laughed weakly, pushing a button on her wristwatch. Instantly the short red-gold curls, the brown eyes, and sunburnt skin vanished, leaving in thier place the fair-skinned, blue-eyed girl that so many of the Titans knew and loved.
"Lavender?!?" Robin exclaimed. "What happened to you? You look like you got run over by a semi-truck!"
She laughed again. "I did," she began, but before she cold say anything more, Robin's communicator beeped.
"Hello," said Slade, appearing on the small screen. "How do you like the herald of bad news that I've sent you?"
"You mean you did this to Lavender?" Robin exploded.
"Yes," Lavender informed him, stepping into the conversation. "He attacked me last night, Robin, because he's infected a man named Trevor Densley with the ebola virus. We're going to have an epidemic on our hands before two weeks are out."
"Well, Miss Westmarch," Slade chuckled evilly, "I see you're none the worse for you little "accident"."
"What kind of sick person would do that?" Wolf Woman wanted to know. "You're going to catch this virus as well as any of us."
"Quite the contrary, little girl. You see, I 've got an antidote." | 
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