Set after Season 1, but before Season 2, it may contain events, people, or thoughts from Season 2. This is my story about a seriously big What If and isn't meant as disrespect against the Season 2 storyline arc... So without further ado, I present my story…
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.
Chapter 1: Ill Omens
Raven was frustrated. Not at herself, but at one team mate. Robin, a scrawny punk who acted like the Titan's leader. Well him and his irritating lack of self control. Robin, furious over his brief stint as Slade's apprentice, decided to push the Titan's to search, and stop him once and for all. This had lead to a tip that this warehouse, in the slowly developing water front district, had some clues. Which turned out to be full of clues. Like the fact that Slade had lovingly and carefully set up an ambush for the Titans. Like the fact that Slade had built a mechanical marauder that was slowly grinding the Titans to a pulp.
"Raven, we could use a little help over here!!!"
Dodging another poorly done attack from one of Slade's numerous, but increasingly pathetic, minions Raven decided she had enough exercise today. Breathing deeply, her sense's slowly stilling themselves, filtering out more and more information. Drawing on the order imposed upon chaos, the black and the white, Raven spoke her trademark words.
"Azarath Metrion Zynthos!!"
And the shattered remains of Slade's minions, Robin's discarded metal quarterstaff, and a few miscellaneous barrels rose several feet off the ground. Herself, floating a few inches from the stained concrete floor, Raven allowed herself a rare smile before willing the floating mass of debris at the giant robotic construct that was mashing her friends. She just could imagine the shrieking metal, the oil and hydraulic fluids slowly seeping out of a crushed ball of metal the size of Cyborg's head. That's when she heard real shrieks of metal and all went dark…
A few moments earlier…
Cyborg was impressed. Not in the drool all over his car and worship it impressed, but in awe of something grand, revolutionary, and unholy. What Slade had constructed was a machine amongst little wind up toys. It had a gracelessness that was compensated by the sheer presence of it. The armor plated meter long tail, which with the two tree trunk like legs, acted as a tripod for the laser cannon. The laser cannon that could blow apart the T-Car to pieces with a gentle love tap like shot, which replaced the head with its sleek barrel. It was a testament to Slade's genius; it also had brought down BB without a second thought. Cyborg glanced over to see if the shape-shifter was safe; which he was, despite being covered with an electro-net and being shot with half a dozen tranquilizers. Cyborg decided that it probably be a better idea to admire something this dangerous when it's dead.
Power Cells at 63% and dropping, Operational Efficiency maintainable for approximately 1 minute and 43 seconds. Visual Sensors indicate stress point in structure of Target, Processing… Processing…
Cyborg ignored the read out of data scrolling past his eye lens. Letting loose another energy blast, he knew that unless Raven stopped messing around they'd be finished. Starfire and himself were barely holding it off, and despite the numerous attacks they were pouring into construct, it was slowly gaining ground on them. And that's when he noticed the giant barrel, already starting to whirl, slowly tracking his moments. Diving to the right, he felt the circuits in his feet start melting. Coming into a roll he started charging up another blast. What he didn't notice, seeing as he was focused on not becoming scrap metal, and what Starfire was too busy flying around, dodging rounds from the two shoulder mounted thermal blasters, and even Robin himself, seeing as he was preoccupied on his deadly game of cat and mouse with Slade in the rafter's of the cheap building, was the slowly telescoping barrel coming out of the construct's chest.
Only Beast Boy saw it, and he tried shouting out a warning, tried anything and everything to snap out of doziness. But all he felt was being heavy, and sleepy, not his mouth shouting out a warning to his best buds about the incoming danger. His eyes saw the barrel recoil slightly, and that was it. No flash, no bullets, just it beginning to retract back into the chest. His eye's fluttered once, and Beast Boy couldn't hold off the drugs pumping through his veins, so he surrendered himself to oblivion.
Now…
"Yanno Raven, it'd be nice if you jumped in any second now!!!" Then Cyborg glanced back and saw the truth. There wouldn't be any help, and Starfire and him were going to die. He saw the tiny tattered scrap of cloak protruding from underneath the pile of scrap metal. Then he saw her slowly stand up, shaking off arm's, leg's and head's from her cloak, and immediately stumble, falling back onto the pile of debris. That's when breathing started becoming a little hard, and he looked back to see an arm gripped around his waist. The arm that lead to Slade's machine, whose gun barrel head was slowly rotating around, bringing it in line with his head. Cyborg's blood and oil both ran cold at the realization, yet he stilled blasted away the arm's wrist.
Come on break, snap, just freaking fall apart you Frankenstein of a machine!!! Still firing his arm cannon into the slowly deteriorating wrist, Cyborg turned his head when he saw movement in his peripheral Visual Sensor grid. He saw the gun barrel staring right at him, saw the charge slowly building up, and knew that this was the end of his existence. Until Robin's metal quarterstaff sailed smoothly past his head, up the barrel, and lodged itself there. Feeling the claw hand loosen from his waist, Cyborg wriggled out of it and started running for the exit, the whining sound of an overcharged laser cannon following him.
Robin was determined not to let Slade get away again. It was going to end here, and now. Rushing after Slade's fading figure, Robin was a little too focused on ripping Slade's head off and not focusing on dodging the bolas, which entangled Robin's legs just enough so he started the graceful fall to the floor. Which was 10 meters below…
"Raven, grab Robin and let's go! Starfire, help with me BB here!" Shouting out instructions barely audible over the rising whine of an overloading generator, Cyborg dashed towards Beast Boy's saurian body. Seeing Raven make no move to save the plummeting Robin, Cyborg turned his head to yell for Starfire to catch him. Unfortunately all he did manage to sputter off was unheard, as Starfire, focused on reaching the green T. Rex laying on the floor, had a mid air collision with Robin. Crashing to the floor together, picking themselves up, and running for the door in a hurt stumble, Cyborg turned to berate Raven. Then he saw an amazing, if rather stupid, thing.
Raven, with cuts and bruises all along her, was trying to drag a full grown Tyrannosaurs Rex. At that moment Cyborg felt like giving her a piece of his mind. She freaking let's Robin drop without even trying to save him, and now she's lost her mind and is trying to drag BB by his tail. She's trying to kill us all. Not even bothering to question her sanity, Cyborg started helping her drag the prostate Beast Boy, and they slowly managed to clear the soon to explode warehouse…
The Teen Titans walked slowly back home, all suffering from some sort of injury. Robin and Starfire limped together at the head of the column, Robin's injuries consisting of numerous broken toes, fingers, pulled muscles, and long thin bruises while Starfire had 2nd degree burns covering every inch of exposed skin. Next in line, Cyborg, with scorch marks all over his formerly shining metal portions and a gigantic bruise around his waist, helped the staggering, still slightly tranquilized Beast Boy. The last person in the line walked along silently, easily keeping a large distance between her and her team mates, looking like a broken bird for the whole world to see. The sole person without someone depending on her, Raven came away with only small cuts and bruises. Considering her uninjured condition she had mentioned that she was the best person to help the others along. Then Cyborg snapped at her…
"What the hell is wrong with you Raven!!!? You nearly get Robin and Starfire killed, and then what do you do?? You try and drag something that you can barely budge!! I'm really starting to think you're not wanting to be on this team, or you lost your mind!"
She just stood there in shock, looking like a child who had forgotten how to talk. Her mouth opened once like she had something on her mind, when it snapped back shut. After mouthing the air silently for a few seconds, Raven finally managed a weak 'Let's just get everyone back to the Tower…'
And now everyone hated her. Oh sure she thought everyone hadn't said it, but I can still feel it. She had seen the accusing glances everyone had shown her, the anger in Cyborg's, and the hurt betrayal from Starfire's. She shivered from the unusually chill spring wind, but it wasn't just the cold that was making her hand's shake. Hidden underneath her billowing, voluminous cloak her two hands went through of little cycle of clenching each other, gently massaging each other, and balling into a fist to try and make the unintentional quivering leave. Why won't it stop?
At the Titan Tower there was a rush to run up the stairs, which resulted in everyone, sans Raven, crammed together in a mass. Beast Boy was being smashed against the ceiling, while Cyborg was being choked by the crazed shape shifter. Starfire and Robin were both stuck against the side walls from Cyborg's arm, and everyone was having a good time of smiling, laughing, pulling weird faces, and being stuck together in the Teen Titan's version of a mosh pit. Unfortunately the stair railing wasn't having such a good time, so it broke, spilling the laughing Titan's onto the floor. Raven just sighed, and kept on walking up the stairs, careful to avoid what looked like any trouble spots on the abused stairs.
"Guys, it'd be nice to not have various pieces of the Tower falling apart from you guys wrestling." intoned Raven in her nails on chalk board voice. She turned to head back up the stairs when Starfire gave voice to her concern.
"Friend-Raven, are you cold? Or your injuries bothering you?" Raven frowned, her hand's rising up to brush her hood back. She hated scrutiny and right now she was getting a lot of it. The Titan's may all have looked different, but their faces were all filled with concern for their goth teammate. What is wrong with them, do they expect me to faint on cue?
"Rae, you do like kinda bad, don't you think you should take a break or something? Not that I don't think you-" Raven silenced the blabbering Beast Boy with a glance of pure death.
"What's up with the quiz, I can handle it. If I can't handle it I'll tell you guys, so please get off my back!" Raven suited words to action and started back up the stairs, ignoring the stares following her back. She froze in place with her foot midair, halfway to the next stair, when Starfire mentioned what no one else had seen.
"But then why are your hands shaking…?" Raven immediately threw her hood back up, and wrapped her voluminous cloak about her.
"What do you mean Starfire, my ha-"
"Rave, your hands were shaking," intoned Cyborg, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, just nothing… Just leave me alone already!!" Raven screeched this out as she ran up the stairs, her billowing cloak and team mates stares following her as she dashed for the perceived safety of her room.
Author's Note: None yet, cause I don't have any reviews!! If you want/can listen to Staind's Pressure, it fits Raven like a glove in this chapter. Well it fits her period, so consider it her unofficial theme song for the entire fic.
