-1Me: The saga continues! Last time, our heroes…
Raven: You know, Nintendo could sue you into oblivion for saying that. Does Pokemon ring any bells?
Me: Oh, true. Ok, Last time, on the Fused saga…
Raven: …Already been done by Yugioh and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers..
Me…Okay, fine! The Fused saga continues with part three: Bloodstains!
Raven: Imaginative.
Me: / Whatever…Fine. I'll think of another name later.
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"Another day, another adventure," Robin said to himself with a smile on his face as he stretched and looked at his clock. The familiar numbers 6:00 stared back at him, glowing their usual red. Dressing in his usual attire, he made his way to the roof to watch the sun rise.
Emerging into the morning air, he was surprised to find Raven in a sitting position, focusing intently on several objects. A penny, a teacup, a wooden box and a large rock lay before her, a mug of steaming tea sitting to the side. The penny rose up into the air, cloaked in her usual black energy.
"Er…good morning," Robin said, causing her to look up. She simply nodded and returned to the objects in front of her. Robin raised an eyebrow. "Can I ask what you're doing?" He asked her.
She looked up again. "I'm testing my powers. When we were in the jungle, the reason I got whipped so badly was because my powers malfunctioned. For some reason, they attacked Terra instead of protecting me," She explained. Robin's other eyebrow joined it's brother, surprised.
"Why didn't you tell me? This is serious!" Robin said, utterly bewildered. If her powers are screwing up, she could kill someone! He thought.
"Slipped my mind. Anyway, all tests so far have come back good. Azarath, Metrion Zinthos," She said, encasing the rock in energy and moving it around. "I seem back to normal. We'll see in training today," She told him. Robin grinned.
"No, we won't. Today's going to be a special session," He told her, leaving the roof and causing Raven to wonder what the hell he meant.
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"Alright guys, today's session is gonna be a bit different than usual," Robin told the other Titans with a smile. Everyone cocked their heads in curiosity. Robin just laughed. "Today, we're going to be working strictly on hand-to-hand combat. That means no powers, he said, looking pointedly towards Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy. Starfire grinned.
"Robin, you are aware tha-" Robin stopped her short.
"I was getting there. No powers means no Azarathian powers, no Starbolts or flying, and no transformation powers," He explained. Starfire frowned, her attempt to excuse her natural-born abilities shot down. Then she smiled again. What neither he or I can stop, however, is my strength, she thought deviously.
"Alright guys. I'm going to have myself and Raven take first bout. No holds barred. Fight as though your partner is a real enemy, like Slade or Brother Blood," He instructed. Leaping down from the platform, he put himself into a fighting stance.
Heh. He still thinks that I'm bad with physical fights. Too bad he doesn't know about the sparring matches Beast Boy's been making me have with him, She thought with a smirk as she shook Robin's hand and mimicked his pose.
"Three…two…one…Fight!" Cyborg declared.
Robin made the first move, charging forward. Raven regarded him warily, attempting to gauge what he was leading into. Realizing that he was going for a flip kick, she ducked as he commenced the move. As he flipped, his belt flashed before her eyes, and she got an idea. Reaching out as he landed, Raven grabbed wildly at Robin's utility belt, coming up with a handful of Birdarangs and one of his staffs. Stashing away the projectiles, Raven extended the staff with a grin.
Crap! Robin thought as he realized what had happened. Ignoring the laughter from the other Titans, Robin pulled out another one of his bo staffs, extending it as well. "Shall we dance?" He asked with a challenging smirk.
"We shall," Raven said before swinging hard with the staff. Robin, infinitely more experienced with the weapon than she was, blocked the blow, pushing his weapon into the attack. The two locked staffs, each trying to push the other to the ground. But again, Robin was more experienced. As they fought for ground, Robin suddenly performed a leg sweep, sending Raven tumbling.
Raven grunted as she landed hard on her back. Reacting faster than she knew possible, she rolled left to avoid the brutal swing Robin made towards the ground at her midsection. Springing up, she regained her pose and changed into a more aggressive stance. Seeing Robin leap into the air with his staff ready to swing, Raven did the best thing possible: the unexpected. Aiming carefully, she launched the staff straight at the Boy Wonder, connecting squarely in the face and causing him to miss his jump.
Robin tumbled to the ground, his momentum caused him to roll a few feet. She threw the damn thing?! He thought, shocked. He was about to get up, but suddenly had an idea. Instead, he simply lay on the ground, causing Raven's eyes to widen.
"You okay?" She asked, running up and kneeling down. The instant she saw his hand move, she realized just how stupid she had just been. "Ungh!" She grunted as Robin rolled on his back and kicked her in the abdomen. Now pissed off, she used the staff for support as she got back up.
"Hey, I said no holds barred," Robin said with a shrug. From the platform, he heard Beast Boy say something about "dirty tactics," and "sleep with one eye open." Smirking, he began to circle Raven, waiting for her to move.
Oh, so you want to play dirty? Alright, it's on, Raven thought to herself mentally with an evil smile. Then she began to do something that she had recently found herself extremely good at doing. She began to fake tears, pretending to cry.
"How could you?! I thought I had seriously hurt you!" She "wailed" as she sniffled, causing Cyborg to forcefully restrain Beast Boy. Robin suddenly found himself feeling like an extreme asshole. He hated seeing a girl cry, and hated it even more when it was him who had caused it.
"Sorry…I was just trying to make the battle as real as possible," He said, trying to muster a soothing voice and moving over to place a hand on her shoulder.
Raven's tears abruptly faded into an evil smirk and accompanying laugh. "Sucker," She said. Turning around, she aimed the staff and delivered a vicious nut-shot with it. This produced a very interesting sound from the Boy Wonder, as well as gasps of horror and pain from every boy on the sidelines.
Robin fell to his knees in blinding pain, unable to make any sound. "Be glad I only did it once," She told him. Then she looked back to the others. "Judges?" She asked with a smirk.
"Yeah…Robin is unable to continue the fight. Raven wins!" Cyborg announced. Then he and Starfire rushed over to Robin, who was just beginning to form intelligible speech.
"Jesus….I may never have kids…" He muttered, finally able to stand again. "Alright, next match is Starfire and Drake, leaving BB and Cyborg to face off," He announced.
"You okay, man? Looked like she really lifted and separated," Cyborg asked the Titan's leader as he joined the rest of his team on the platform. Scowling as his response, he looked on as the two fighters made their way to the field.
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Raven didn't stick around to watch, electing instead to make haste to her room before erupting in laughter. Laughter that stopped seconds after it stopped.
"You know, Raven, that was rather rash. Humorous, but rash," Knowledge said with a small smile, giving her trademark gentle laugh at the expression on Raven's face.
"What the? Why are you…? What the hell?" Raven managed out through her gaping mouth.
"It would seem that we have been…evicted," Knowledge told her. Raven raised both eyebrows, and Knowledge sighed. "Come in, I'll explain further," The emotion told the empath, gesturing her inside.
"Ok, start explaining," Raven told her once she was seated on her bed.
"Alright… let me think of a good analogy. Ok, I think I have one. What happens when a business opens?" Knowledge asked. Raven furrowed her brows.
"Uh…it makes money?" She ventured.
"But how does it do that?" The emotion pushed further.
"Er….by working…?"
"And who does the work?" Knowledge asked.
"Uhm…the employees?" Raven said, confused.
"Exactly! Now, what happens to those workers when the business closes?" Knowledge questioned.
"The workers lose their jobs and find new one…Oh, hell no," Raven said, realization dawning upon her. Another gentle laugh and a rare grin confirmed said realization.
"Yes. Once you defeated Trigon for good, you gained complete control over your emotions. We exist, or rather, existed, to help you keep your emotions in check. You could never have held all of your emotions without us. And now, the 'business' of restraining your emotions is closed. Therefore, we no longer have a purpose inside of you," Knowledge finished.
Raven closed her eyes and took several deep, steadying breaths. Finally, she regained her composure. And promptly lost it again.
"Are you telling me," She said, frantically getting louder with every word, "that all of the embodiments of my emotions are being kicked out into the real world?!"
Knowledge winced. "Precisely," She said.
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"HAH!" Starfire cried as she let loose with another punch. She missed wildly, however, distracted by a loud scream coming from the Tower. Everyone looked at each other, than to the Tower, then back to each other.
"Ok, training's over for today. Let's go see what that was," Robin said worriedly. Everyone nodded and headed for the most obvious place a scream would come from: Raven's room. Reaching the doorway, they found a blue-cloaked Raven with her head buried in a pillow, and a yellow-cloaked Raven clutching her ears.
"Is it safe to open my ears?" She asked as she caught sight of the other Titans.
"I…think so," Terra told her hesitantly. Knowledge carefully removed her hands and sighed in relief. Beast Boy stepped forward, head cocked to the side.
"What the heck are you doing outside of Nevermore?" He asked. He began circling Knowledge, looking her up and down as though examining an interesting specimen of a rare animal. Finally, he jabbed her in the stomach, eliciting a small involuntary giggle from the girl. "She's real alright," He announced, turning his back at the dark look Knowledge threw his way.
"Yes, quite so," Knowledge said shortly, somewhat annoyed. At everyone's question looks, she sighed and repeated the explanation she had given to her former "employer," so to speak.
When she finished, all jaws in the room except for Drake's, Raven's and Knowledge's were on the floor. Raven and Knowledge already kneew what was going on, so no surprise there. And Drake…
"Okay, what the hell are you people yammering on about?" The former thief said, succinctly summarizing his thoughts. Raven, finally raising herself into a sitting position, sighed.
"Okay, when I was born I had a prophecy on my head. When I turned 16, I was supposed to destroy the world. Well, the reason for that is because my 'father' was an inter-dimensional demon known as Trigon. As such, my powers are driven by emotion. We circumvented the end of the world, and recently destroyed Trigon for good. But before all that, in order to keep my emotions in check, embodiments of various sides of me were created. Following so far?" She asked, pausing. Drake nodded.
"Okay, good. These emotions live in a place called Nevermore, a dimension inside my very mind. Well, apparently my emotions are being ejected from Nevermore now because they have no purpose there," She said.
"Okay…So, what now? I'm still in the dark here. And I HATE when that happens," Drake said with a frown. Raven rubbed her forehead.
"Alright, here it is in simple terms: There's gonna be roughly 8 of me running around here, each one in a different colored robe and a predominant manor of whatever emotion they represented," Raven said, unable to help herself from laughing at the expression that crossed Drake's face. And Robin's. And Starfire's. And Cyborg's. And Terra's. Beast Boy remained unphased, however.
"When will the others be coming?" Beast Boy asked, directing his question to Knowledge. She gave another small chuckle.
"As soon as you all get your heads on straight, really. We're going to need to use several of your guest rooms, of course. If you would be so kind?" She asked Robin. He gave a wry smile.
"You talk as if I have a choice," He said with a laugh. Knowledge smiled, then looked towards Raven.
"This may feel…odd," The yellow-garbed girl told her. Raven nodded and grimaced. "Let's step outside, so that everyone has room to materialize," Knowledge suggested.
Out in front of the Tower, Knowledge closed her eyes. "Alright, it's safe," She said to seemingly no one. And with that, multiple multi-colored bursts of energy emerged from Raven's eyes, ears, and mouth. Everyone's eyes widened as Ravens of all colors appeared in various places.
Raven fell to her knees, gasping. "You…could have…told…me…that it was gonna feel like…my brain was being ripped out…" She gasped out.
Knowledge looked at her feet.
"I did say it would feel odd," She reminded Raven. Receiving a Glare of Doom from her counterpart, Knowledge turned to the others. "Everyone make it out alright?" She asked. Brave, Happy, Timid, Wisdom, Anger, Rude and Love all nodded. "Good. Let's head back inside, shall we?" Knowledge suggested. Everyone nodded, entering back into the Tower.