The Judas Contract

"The Judas Contract" begins shortly after Dick Grayson and Wally West officially retire from active service. Though no longer calling himself Robin, Dick is still intrinsically involved in Titans activity. The group's most recent protégé Terra Markov, is not a full-fledged Titan, but has won the heart and mind of Beast Boy. None of the Titans suspect that she has been secretly spying on them on behalf of her partner Deathstroke. Terra has been feeding Deathstroke important information regarding the Titans, including their secret identities. During a training exercise, the Titans begin to learn how mentally unstable Terra truly is. After enduring numerous playful barbs from Beast Boy, she unleashes a massive attack that nearly cripples him. The other Titans calm her down, but it is Raven who realizes that there is something seriously dangerous about Terra.^[1]

Once Terra acquires all of the information she needs, she informs Deathstroke, who systematically takes down each of the Titans. He first strikes at the apartment penthouse shared by Donna Troy and Starfire. He incapacitates Starfire with a high-yield letter bomb, and renders Donna unconscious with a gas mixture that he adds to her darkroom chemicals. He then takes out Cyborg by electrifying a chair in his apartment. The high voltage shorts out Cyborg's systems long enough for Deathstroke to collect him. He then tries to take down Dick at his apartment, but is surprised when the one non-powered Titan manages to elude him. Frustrated, he goes to the Hamptons to take down Beast Boy. Boy licks a stack of envelope seals treated with a special poison that renders him unconscious. With all but one of the Titans captured, he brings them to the Rocky Mountain headquarters of his employers, H.I.V.E. Deathstroke is satisfied that he has completed the contract left behind by his late son Grant, but H.I.V.E. criticizes him for failing to bring them Robin.^[2]

Meanwhile, Dick, having discovered that all of his former teammates have been captured returns to Titans Tower. There he is greeted by Adeline Kane, Deathstroke's ex-wife. She introduces him to her son Joey. Adeline tells Dick that Terra is a traitor to the team and has been secretly working with her husband since the Titans first met her. Dick is incredulous at first, but slowly believes Adeline's story after she provides him a comprehensive history on Slade Wilson and the means by which he became Deathstroke. Adeline reveals to Dick that Joey was kidnapped at a young age by Jackal and had his throat slit, leaving him mute. Enraged, Adeline attacked Slade, but only managed to shoot out his right eye. Dick, realizing that he can never truly retire, adopts the identity of Nightwing, with Joey accompanying him as Jericho. Before Dick and Joey depart, Adeline has Joey demonstrate his power of possession on Dick, taking control of his body before relinquishing it. Adeline then gives the heroes the location of the H.I.V.E. command center.^[3]

Nightwing and Jericho go the H.I.V.E. base nestled in the Rocky Mountains. They sneak into the facility and discover that the Titans have been strapped to a giant machine which is slowly siphoning away their life energy. Nightwing and Jericho fight through a horde of H.I.V.E. shock troops but are eventually captured. Deathstroke is surprised to see his son with the Titans and tries to bargain with H.I.V.E. to let him go, but is unsuccessful. Jericho possesses Deathstroke, then frees the other Titans and begins fighting H.I.V.E. Terra is enraged at Deathstroke and feels that his affection for Joey makes him weak. In a rage, Terra causes the H.I.V.E. facility to collapse, killing herself in the process. The Titans bring Terra's body back to New York for burial. The funeral service is small and only the Titans and the Outsiders are in attendance. The Titans let Terra's brother, Geo-Force, believe that she died heroically while fighting H.I.V.E.^[4]

"The Judas Contract" won the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for "Favorite Comic Book Story" of 1984^[5] and was later reprinted as a standalone trade paperback in 1988.^[6]