Jump City - Doomsday

by obsidian dreamer

How strong the hurricane from a single flap of a butterfly's wings? For better or worse some days change the course of history, and for the stalwart protectors of Jump City and their extended kin these are the tales of those days. One-shot AUs including crossovers, thus far mostly BB-centric but hopefully more to come...

1. Chapter 1

A/N: Okay, life is still frenetic and I have very little time to think about anything not related to the following; ticks, research into ticks, tick-parasitised species, tick-borne illnesses, health and safety, environmental health, the importance of public health initiatives in improving workplace safety, accident reporting and/or my regular job. However, after seeing me relax a little over Christmas, one of my cousins' children set me a challenge for the New Year to keep me in the writing groove for when I have time to focus on my longer stories and series – yes I haven't forgotten any of my works, even the earliest ones, but I need time to focus on them once all this studying and work is finally over, hopefully by the end of 2018. Until then, though, this is my rising to the challenge I'll detail in the end authors note – hope you enjoy what you read sprout…

…and everyone else in the audience as well of course.

So, curtains up and the show's on the road!

Jump City – Doomsday

"You're doing it again."

"Wha, no I wasn't," even half-asleep his denial was instinctive, "nothing happened, I plead the Fifth to… uhh, whatever you said." Cheek pressed into the pillow Raven wrestled down a laugh as her other half finally reconnected brain; or whatever he's got in place of it – not now Rude!; to body, the gentle but reassuring heat on her forearm dissipating as he released her,

"Sorry mama, I didn't mean to." Shaking her head slightly at the nickname she had just about come to just about tolerate over the years; not that we can tell him, he'll make fun of us – you really think he'd do that Timid, after everything? – uhh… - go back to sleep, we'll all be fine I promise – okay, but be careful; she pulled the green hand and arm over her body,

"I know Garfield," from the annoyed whine she mentally pegged them even in name-related ripostes, "even after all this time I don't know why."

"I'm sorry Rae", and he was, she could feel the emotion blanketing his normally so cheerful, reassuring presence like an oil slick over water before it was pierced by something sharper and spicier, "my hand just knows what it likes, and I agree." Despite herself the sorceress snorted, pressing her body backwards so his arm draped over her side, the verdant green of his skin bright against her charcoal grey,

"Can't think why," she muttered, squeezing the back of his hand to let him know she really didn't mean it, "and anyway it's never been a bad thing, not after what started it all…"

Hearing her voice trailing off Garfield Logan, better known by his aliases Beast Boy and later Changeling, said nothing, actions speaking for him as he hugged himself over the half-demon for a heartbeat before looking over her shoulder and down, the now-revealed mark on her right arm black and foreboding as the pair reminisced the day of its branding.

XXX

It had started out so simply; alarm, sit-rep of a break-in at a technical store downtown, hear their fearless leader let out his battle-cry, quick bet with Cyborg about who the culprit was and shift into a hawk to get there. Shoulder to shoulder with Starfire above the city his first reaction to the unmistakable hulk slouching through the broken window with an entire desk-full of electronic equipment slung over one shoulder was depression; guess Tin-head's going first on Mega-Monkeys 8 tonight…;

"The Five from HIVE," the bubbly voice jerked him out of his funk as Starfire's eyes gleamed jade, "they will not escape a good kicking of butts!" She arrowed down, her first bolt springing into existence just as one of the villains caught sight and shouted a warning followed by a barrage of mini-missiles,

"Aw no, it's those goober-brain Titans!" Taking this all in and memorising were everyone was Beast Boy folded his wings and dived after his extra-terrestrial friend.

The shape-shifter would (reluctantly) admit he wasn't the smartest of the team but at the same time he often thought some the criticism he received, especially from the resident bird-brains of Titan Tower, was unfair. No matter how often Robin impressed upon him the importance of surprise or how many snarky quips Raven delivered regarding his animal forms they had no idea what it was like to live with the instincts of the beasts he fought as. Telling him to suppress them was like telling an ordinary person not to blink then shining a flashlight in their face – possible but not easy – and because of those instincts Mammoth kept his eyes, the piercing shriek of the bird of prey giving just enough time to throw his free arm over his face. Beast Boy felt his talons sink in and forced his psyche to dominate that of the bird, foregoing rending with his beak in favour of flying up and shifting again, the impact of his silverbacks' double-axe handle to his crown leaving the muscle of the Five cratered on the ground. The anamorph had no time to savour his victory, however, vaulting over a beam of pink energy as the rival team leader emerged from the now-ruined storefront; slamming his fists into concrete, the youngest Titan had to resist the urge to beat his chest in challenge as the hex-mistress rolled her eyes,

"Oh come on really," Jinx complained, casually ducking under a star-bolt and retaliating with a swift incantation, "we just wanted an easy score, why'd you do-gooders have to ruin it?" Neither of the two Titans on the scene bothered answering with words, instead pressing the attack before the H.I.V.E. regrouped – until back-up arrived he and Starfire were outnumbered even with Mammoth down, a situation that became even more apparent as a number of identical evil-doers began spilling out of the crime scene like ants from a kicked nest.

I hate clones; of all the criminals that infested or threatened Jump City there were none, in Beast Boy's opinion, as outright annoying as the Naruto-wannabe Billy Numerous. His self-replicating powers meant that most of the Titans' normal attacks couldn't contain him unless they hit the original (or Billy Prime, as Robin had insisted on labelling him) or forced him to exhaust himself, both tasks he and Starfire were ill-equipped for. Though his larger forms sent hordes of spandexed teens flying in ways to make a mace-wielding, ring-wearing dark lord envious eventually numbers told and Beast Boy was borne to the cold cement to be subject to Billy's other annoying feature; the guy just didn't shut up,

"Any other tricks snot-ball," the villain taunted, unaware that the literal tiger he had by the tail was about to turn into something else; now what – aha, perfect; "just give us a second and this dog-pile will put you do… huh? Ahhh!"

"Shocking, isn't it?" Beast Boy spat as he returned to his original form, the clones that had had direct contact with his torpedo ray form convulsing as they levitated away, "Thanks Rae-Rae!"

"Raven," the other hero growled back as she casually smashed the clones together, forcing them to disappear and hopefully giving the original a headache, "remember that."

"Your wish is my command mama," snapping off a quick salute towards the skyborne sorceress the skin-wearer swept across the battlefield and began to plan with both instinct and higher thought. With Raven on the scene and Mammoth still picking himself up things were a lot brighter but Jinx wasn't stupid; she'd left Starfire to Gizmo and, he suspected from the energy blasts and shields being raised, See-More as well to engage the newcomer. Pouncing on a few nearby Billy clones Beast Boy was working out the best way to reinforce Starfire when a screech of tyres announced the cavalry arriving.

Robin was in motion even before his cycle stopped, birdarangs flying towards the densest knot of Billy clones he could see to thin the herd as the distinctive whine of Cyborgs' sonic cannon charging up filled the battlefield,

"Say hello to my little friend," the robotic teen snarled as it fired, pumping his first as See-More reeled away, energy shield overwhelmed by the onslaught, "I was meant to be puttin' new breaks on my baby right now and I'm takin' out on your hides!"

"Bring it barf-magnet," Gizmo challenged, rising above the confusion on his mechanical legs – Cyborg needed no further invitation and charged, Beast Boy at his shoulder and his eyes fixed on where Mammoth was shaking his head woozily; no matter how tough the oldest of the Five was, he wasn't going to walk off a bison charge to the gu…

Beast Boy never finished that thought, nor did he and his best buddy and bigger brother finish the charge, stumbling to a halt as the noise rolled over the miniature warzone. Before he was consciously aware of it the changeling had recognised the noise and was moving towards it, every animal instinct demanding his reaction as everyone else stood rooted to the spot as the sound of soul-rending torment drove spikes of terror deep into their minds.

XXX

This is not good – I hope Gizmo's got the bugs worked out of the anti-tracking system; the short genius had assured them all his patented no-trace formula would work against the would-be Terminators' scanners and the dog-boys' nose; now that Bird-Boy was here and co-ordinating the fight, she and her team had to hope he was right. Though she trusted the other ex-Academy students both in a fight and, some of them at least, as friends Jinx was smart enough to know that the H.I.V.E Five were unlikely to come out on top against the Titans unless they had help, picked the battlefield or got spectacularly lucky. Individually the Titans were stronger, even Robin and he didn't even have metahuman abilities, and their team work was usually top-notch despite the supposed friction between members. Must be nice to be the darlings of the city; the hedge-sorceress groused, back-flipping over black-wreathed projectiles and retaliating with condensed ill-fortune; training gear, all the equipment you need, a permanent address – easy to be good when money's no object;

"Come on crow-girl, give us a smile" hiding her internal conflict with a grin and a twirl Jinx beckoned her opponent with one finger at the same time as press a button on her belt, hoping against hope her radio batteries hadn't gone dead, "or would that make your face crack?"

Raven said nothing; she seldom did in Jinxs' experience; but as a nearby streetlight blew the hex-caster reckoned she'd annoyed the much more powerful magic-user somewhat, which was both a good and bad thing; good in the fact that by focussing on her Raven was more likely to be blindsided by the escape plan she was whispering over the Fives' short-wave radios, bad in the fact that until said plan came together she was squarely in the cross-hairs of the irritated cambion. Hoping her opponent would somehow stumble from the misfortune that surrounded her; a trait that, unlike her pink-tinged meddling in probability she was unable to really train but came in handy anyway; Jinx cartwheeled away and made to slow her opponent down with another minor curse; ironically, it was only because she needed to aim such a malediction that she was looking at Raven when everything changed.

The rival mage, cloak billowing and eyes shining white with power, seemed to suddenly freeze in the air, not a hair rippling as her chant was cut off mid-flow; even as the idea that she'd swallowed a fly or something flashed through her mind, Jinx instinctively realised this was nothing she had done. For an endless second she was witness to the Teen Titan static, shock etched into her face and the seemingly-limitless power Jinx envied dying behind her whitening eyes, then there was a flash of fire, the grey girl threw back her head and oh dear God the scream...

Every drop of blood in Jinx's body shrivelled to ice; her legs froze solid, vision paralysed as the floating girl was wracked by something obscene and agonising. Raven's forehead, the jewel Jinx had assumed was to do with some religion or other, was burning, a point of brightness in the charcoal of her brow and fire was spilling across the girls' face; dimly aware of explosions and lashing shadow tendrils all about her the villainess couldn't move, couldn't tear her eyes from the other girls' expression. It was somewhere between shock, anguish and otherworldly excoriation, whatever magic that was causing it shrouding her in shadow and… her stomach dissolved, the taste of bile flooding her lips as Raven's entire figure was swallowed by the darkness, illuminated only by four molten red eyes where once there were two white and burning runes she couldn't and didn't want to read snaking across her body, and still the scream echoed.

Yet beyond the noise and far away from the terrible spectacle, even as uncontrolled limbs of utter shadow smashed all about them in uncaring fury and every pane of glass within eyeshot shattered Jinx heard another voice, an almost silent whisper in the back of her mind that scared her more than anything, because the thought that Raven might beg for anything was a step too far even in this world gone mad,

"Get away," the disembodied voice pleaded, echoing the desperation and despair Jinx had seen graven into the aloof Titans' face, "can't, stop… clear, city – run!"

The shadows bulged and the terrible redness, the vestigial proof that Raven still existed as a separate entity to the black, began to sink into nothingness – despite herself, despite every instinct screaming at her to flee Jinx shuffled a half-step forwards, fingers twitching towards the ebon mass above her. She didn't like Raven; though God knows I'm not alone in that – hell some of her own team don't like her sometimes; but just before her eyes had sunk into hellish pits they had locked with Jinx's own and the fear and pain within them struck hard at the pink-haired girls' primal humanity – the hex-caster wasn't heartless and no-one, not even a grey-fleshed warlock of supposedly-demonic origin, deserved to feel like that. But Ravens' presence was fading as was the echo of her cry and, mercifully, the mental hold such a macabre performance had seized them all with; Jinx breathed as though she'd run a marathon, trembling as her senses came alive. She was aware of everything, the smell of the air, the reflections of the broken glass shards around them all, the tiny tremors transmitted through the pavement behind her; …wait, what? Belatedly sensing danger she span around and shrieked, instinctively crouching into a ball and shielding her face from the green blur racing towards her like a javelin. All thoughts of luck and magic vanished, only primal reflex allowing her to spit out something that might, by a miracle, deflect the stricken mages' aggrieved team mate,

"That wasn't me!"

Whether he heard her or not she didn't know; she merely counted her frenzied heartbeats until the jade juggernaut crashed into her and she departed her crushed mortal coil. One… two… three… she still lived… four… five… a chill breeze ruffled the tips of her upturned hair, a shadow passed over her and she opened her eyes, spinning back around in time to see a verdant smear throw itself into the maw of shadow and flame and both suddenly vanish, wiped from existence as though they'd never been. In their absence Jinx breathed once, then again, her twin narrow escapes from death suddenly crashing down on her; she swayed teetering on the brink, facing the abyss of passing out before a sudden shout snapped her, shaking and petrified, back to herself,

"What the hell just happened? Jinx, what did you do?!"

XXX

Do nothing but think.

The mantra, driven into his brain by the greatest detective of this and likely any other age, was why Robin led the young superhero team; though merely human, his ability to plan complex operations and, more importantly, change those complex plans depending on circumstances, had let the Titans snatch victory from defeat more times than they could count. So now with two of his team mates vanished and possibly…; unknown, disregard until you have more evidence; and the H.I.V.E. Five shouting amongst each other and Starfire shrieking and Cyborg standing his ground stunned the protégé of the Dark Knight of Gotham took a breath, broke it all down in his mind and started snapping out his orders,

"Cyborg, Cy," he commanded, locking eyes with the taller teen as his half-metal face tracked over to him, his organic eye wide and seemingly lost in disbelief; sorry Vic but no time to grieve, we have to act; "scan for them."

"W, What?"

"Their communicators," Robin explained tersely but not unkindly, one eye on the teams' current enemies as the Five, seeing Jinx unhurt, began to calm down, "can you track them?"

"Uhh, yeah, yeah," cursing himself for not already having done so Cyborg activated his in-built scanners and the relief that washed over him when he immediately returned two pings was immeasurable, "got'em, main park, about five blocks over, that way."

"Titans, go!" Even as he said it Starfire was streaking away, a blur of orange and green as she rose above the city after her missing friends. Robin stowed his staff and made to follow only to see Cyborg pace backwards more slowly, arm still trained on the recovering H.I.V.E. as they clustered around Jinx,

"What about…?"

"Leave it," Robin said, coldly but not without feeling as his honed eyes picked out the sorceress's face; he'd heard the words she'd shrieked as Beast Boy had charged towards her and her expression now suggested that, if she was faking it, she was a much better actress than he'd given her credit for, "this is bigger than them."

Cyborg needed no more than that, disengaging his formidable arsenal and haring back to where he'd parked his baby, the Titans yielding the fight to track down their missing friends. Throwing a leg over the T-cycle Robin hit the throttle and roared away, reviewing plans to calm or, worse, disable an emotionally-unstable Raven, the Five already dismissed from his mind.

XXX

They'd won right?

The Titans were gone and they were still here, claiming their prize – to the victor the spoils and all that? Regardless of circumstance they'd run off the designated protectors of Jump City, something few supervillains could boast, and with this haul they should be able to restock Gizmo's sorely-depleted stock of mechanical consumables prior to pulling off other heists – compared to a lot of nights that left them empty-handed, nursing bruises and contemplating bail bills it was a complete success…

…so why were none of them celebrating?

As the noise of thrumming engines faded away the Five swapped glances with each other and the loot they'd dropped to engage the Titans – for a long moment the silence dragged on until, motivated more by a need to be gone before anyone else showed up than anything else, Gizmo took command,

"Get this stuff in the van," he said, his arms already gathering up some of the equipment scattered when Mammoth had been blindsided, "I should be able to scrub it untraceable before the crud-munchers get back. Nice work Jinx, whatever you did put that creepy bitch in her…"

"It wasn't me," Jinx repeated as she finally looked away from the direction Cyborg had pointed; the sky, it wasn't that red before, was it?; "I don't know what it was."

"Our gain," Mammoth grunted, handing a few bits off to several Billys as the cloner recovered from the mental trauma of being electrocuted, crushed and frozen in the space of seconds, "we gotta go."

"Yeah," the villainess agreed tonelessly, half-heartedly picking at some of the scattered debris, "we, gotta get this aboard and get back to the lair."

Following her example the Five quickly began to package away their ill-gotten gains into the crappy van Gizmo managed to keep alive, slamming the rear doors shut and piling in as Mammoth, the only one old enough to drive, gunned the engine and swung out into the road, their only company a tense, billowing silence as they left the scene of their successful but far from triumphant robbery.

XXX

In the midst of the maelstrom, at the eye of the storm of pain and power she could not even dream to control the last oasis of Raven's sanity was crumbling despite all her emotions being in unanimous agreement over a single fact; it's too soon!

She had always known the purpose of her birth and the dark portent it spelt for both Earth and Azarath; she was Trigons' Portal, created to be his gateway into the twin worlds he would despoil and rule for all time. Her demonic father had imbued her with his dread powers of shadow and darkness, strength she had struggled with all her life as it was controlled by her all-too-fragile emotions. Meditation and self-denial, lessons learnt at Azar's monasteries; that was what allowed her to aid her friends, do some good in the world before her cursed blood destroyed it but now that time was over far too quickly. With the last of her control she'd shifted away to the only relatively-remote place she could sense; since then she'd been a puppet in her own flesh, dimly aware of what was occurring as otherworldly forces used her as a conduit from their world to hers.

Skin and soul-self alive with demonic power she was both agonised and surprised it wasn't hurting more, the mystical might of the being she had wrestled with in her dreams now forcing its way through her body; taken completely by surprise by the sudden intrusion, she could not fight back. She could feel Trigons' taint polluting the air underneath where she hung suspended; dimly she felt the barrier between worlds grow thinner, tenuously thin, then she screamed again as something tore through, the act of splitting the boundary slashing through her soul like a knife through flesh. The prophecy was wrong, Trigon had claimed his due before her sixteenth birthday, but why; forcing the breach like this, even when she was all but helpless from the sudden onslaught, must have been taxing even the strength of a being that had slain billions. She was not a willing part of the prophecy, she was being coerced and the rules of magic, rules even her father was forced to obey, took exception to that – to bend them as he was now must have been costing the demon lord dear. Hurting, father; even here, all but flayed to brokenness, some bitter part of her soul had the strength to sneer; welcome to my wo-aahhh!

Existence split apart, the world ceased to exist and reality whited out; as the end of the world was born Raven, the one created with the sole purpose of ensuring such dark machinations would come to light, was consumed by agony and briefly faded away, missing the instant she had been created to bring about.

XXX

Okay, what would Robin do?

In all honesty it was going better than Beast Boy had expected; fair enough he had a menagerie in his head howling to either fight of flee, the girl he had a sort-of-secret crush on was wreathed in red and forming some sort of flaming disc above the ground, but since he hadn't expected to survive his headlong leap after her the fact he was still breathing was an unexpected plus. He never much liked Raven's teleportation; the animal part of him instinctively distrusted it; but after he'd finally realised what he was going to do after hearing the sorceress's scream it was too late to stop. As a pronghorn he had soared clean over Jinx's head; though why did she look so worried, it's not like I was a triceratops or anything; and morphed again, ignoring her last telepathic words as his fingertips scrabbled at the trailing edge of her cloak. He'd often wished she'd remove the heavy garment, especially in warmer weather when it must have been stifling for her, now he was grateful he'd been able to snag a grip on it and weather the journey to this park.

After they'd reappeared Beast Boy had just had time to determine they were still on Earth and somewhere green, then the law of gravity had been invoked and he'd plummeted to the ground until a hummingbird morph repealed said law. Now on his feet and sizing up the situation, Beast Boy thought for a few seconds and decided his course of action,

"Everyone," in the stillness of the air his voice carried and he tried to sound calm and in control at the same time and break the spell Raven's involuntary; I hope; magic had cast over them, "the park is now closed."

Despite himself he felt proud as the few people left began to make haste to evacuate the potential blast radius, though as several screams began to ring out the youngest Titan suddenly realised his job of prevent civilian casualties had just gotten harder. Spinning on his heel into a fighting crouch he fought to stop his jaw dropping at the forms now flooding from the portal – unless he was very much mistaken all hell was breaking loose through the wheel of flame Raven had somehow summoned and was still part of. Ethereal forms of flame and violence were bursting into life before the portal, the grass around them smouldering at their touch before beginning to spread out. At the sight of this Beast Boys' instincts and intelligence suddenly snapped together; Jump city was his home, its inhabitants his to protect and because of that he paused only to bellow,

"Everyone away, now," at the gawking park patrons before shifting into one of his most powerful forms and charging into the fray.

Regardless of how tiring it was to use a pre-historic form, Beast Boy was a great believer that everything was better with dinosaurs; whatever these flame demons were, they weren't strong enough to stand up after getting chomped, stomped or tail-lashed by a T-Rex. Luckily it seemed the portal was one-sided and he could hold the horde at the gate, the demons pouring from whatever hell they called home into his waiting jaws as he waded into the throng. Despite the reflexes and outright viciousness of one of his most powerful forms, however, several handfuls of the strange creatures were able to slip past, their forms glowing as they ghosted away from the portal. Damn it, they could burn down half the city; rising fear was smothered by rage as his jaws snapped another pair of the newly-birthed creatures in half, preventing them joining their escaping comrades; come on guys where are you, I can't do this on my own!

Within the rampaging death-lizard the human mind of Garfield Logan was frantically running options at the same time as trying to block out scorching pain and animal hunger for blood. Tough as his fighting form was and though he was giving far better than he got he was only one person and his foes seemed numberless, more emerging from the portal all the time. Only the fact that they seemed to be more interested in getting away from their birthplace than duking it out was keeping him as fresh as he was and it still wasn't enough; more were escaping every moment and that was unlikely to change unless the portal was shut.

And Raven was either casting or, worse, was the portal.

He didn't know much about magic and honestly didn't care; what he did know was that he was going to keep squashing these pathetic candle-flames until someone else could fix his pack-mate because there was no way he was putting Raven at risk just to stop some stupid magic trick. He roared his intent with such force it snuffed out the nearest monster and sent another pair flying back into whatever hell they called home, then he stepped back as something else answered his challenge. Two great hands the colour of blood and tipped with nails like obsidian daggers emerged from the portal and took hold of either side; as the wound in the fabric of reality was torn asunder Beast Boy backed away from the new predator, his altered hearing mercifully unable to hear Ravens' shriek of agony as the portal she was connected to was forced wider and the ultimate evil emerged. Horns scraping through and dragging hellfire into the world of men Trigon the Terrible stood to his full height, surveyed his new domain and began to turn around to the portal that had birthed him.

XXX

Disconnected from her body, alive only because of the devilish heritage that had delivered this monster to the world Raven hung atop the gateway into the hellscape and faced her father. Time seemed to slow down as she saw him spin, his hand held flat and fingers extended; as she realised he meant to fully seal the way behind him Raven felt no fear, no anger, nothing but a serene sense of contentment, as though she was finally going to rest after a long day. Trigon had used her to enter Earth, albeit earlier than prophesised, and with her purpose served she was nothing, a morsel to be cut down at his will. Even as his nails began to sweep towards her like the scythe of the reaper Raven felt little, in a way she almost welcomed it, an end to her struggles for control, a modicum of peace after a life of isolation; and maybe I can see mother again. The sudden thought cheered her, made her feel just that little bit more alive, enough to roll her dreamy eyes towards those of her father and look him in the face as she died.

She wasn't sure what she expected to see in the eyes that had forever poisoned her rage and haunted her dreams, but it certainly wasn't fear. Even more than that, however, she suddenly found herself empathically buffeted by the emotion as she watched his four eyes widen and tilt out of position, her death denied as his killing hand instinctively shot downwards and past his daughter to break his fall. With the pain of her father's emergence receding back to 'normal' levels for opening this kind of monstrous wormhole she glanced down, the cause of Trigons' stumble immediately apparent from the large green rhinoceros snorting in triumph nearby. Beast Boy?; the realisation pulled her together slightly, enough that she was able to recognise the fast-approaching orange figure from her elevated position, green flashes of light pummelling the prostrate demon lord; no, Star, you and the others have to get out of here!

She made to call out to her team mates, her friends, give them a little more time before Trigon recovered from Beast Boys' attack but it was at that instant something else stepped through the portal, the last thing to have done so for a few seconds, and Raven felt her empathic senses overwhelmed to a degree she'd never experienced either on Azarath or Earth. Several texts she'd read with the libraries of her home plane postulated demons felt emotions more keenly than mortals did (a postulation she and those caught in the backlash of her earliest meditation attempts would keenly attest to) and, swamped by the sudden tsunami that all but drowned her, Raven was now convinced those ancient scholars had been right. However even as she curled into a tight ball and tried to breathe against the mental pressure Knowledge, about the only emoticlone left with even a modicum of rational thought, shrieked aloud a question she wasn't sure she wanted an answer to.

What could invoke such bone-chilling terror in the hell-born?

XXX

They'd been expecting the worst but this, this was so far out there even Robin had to pinch himself several times. Ingrained reflexes had him hurl birdarangs at some of the closest unnatural beings to him and he was distantly relieved when the ultra-cold mist they exuded made their burning forms wink into ashes; most of his mind, however, was on the much larger problem before him. He'd arrived on the T-Cycle just in time to see the massive monster, three stories tall if he was an inch, emerge into the world and had fought to keep control of his bladder. Only the sight of Beast Boy hammering into the things' ankle at speed and causing it to crash to the ground had snapped him back to the present and as he saw what the demon had been aiming to kill he disregarded everything except working on putting it in the ground,

"'Fire," he spoke into the communicator tersely, bo staff out as he charged towards the nearest collection of burning freaks, "keep hitting the big one, Cy you as well. B we're on clean-up duty; make sure the little ones don't get away."

"Got it," came Cyborgs' assent, a bright flash of light from the window of the T-Car the augmented teen had driven directly onto the park in search of his missing sister marking his entry into the battle, "want me to speed-dial an exorcist?"

Chuckling grimly Robin made it to the first of the floating figures he'd ear-marked towards the edge of the park and twirled his staff experimentally, finally seeing these things up close. They appeared humanoid, albeit wreathed in fire and with less expression, but Robin was swift and agile enough to take down the handful before him with minimal injuries beyond the odd flash-burn. It seems they're not used to Earth, or maybe it's atmosphere; he mentally recited his observations, thinking about how to communicate them to the team; just a shame it's not raining tonight…

That thought was held as their behaviour suddenly changed; as though realising something simultaneously the vague heads of the creatures suddenly snapped towards the portal, whatever counted as their faces suddenly contorted into expressions of, if Robin was reading them right, dread. Are they scared of the other one?; the Titan leader risked a glance towards where the tallest demon, now almost recovered to his feet despite being pummelled by Cyborgs' sonic cannon and Starfires' bolts, had suddenly frozen, seemingly staring downwards for an instant, before a voice like thunder rolled over the park like a thunderclap,

"No", it bellowed, backing away even as red energy began to gather around its head and horns, "I am Trigon, born to rule this world forever – you will not have me!" Between Trigons' voice and a strange, piercing whine Robin couldn't see exactly who he was addressing until the devil stumbled backwards, then in the gap between the demons' legs he saw what was whining and hurled himself to the floor.

XXX

This one's for you Cy; as he snorted out the slight pain in his nose Beast Boy morphed back to his regular form in time to see his save pay off; booyah!

He had realised what the big red thing was planning and reacted without thinking as he had a few short moments ago. He shifted as he ran, calling one of the most recognisable animals of his home nation to mind and rewarded with a satisfying crack as he hurtled into the devils' ankle with enough force to smash Cinderblock in half, his rhino form sending the evil thing sprawling. Turning around after bulldozing a few minor devils the youngest Titan was about to lend Starfire a hand when with a rush of joy he recognised the sudden eruption of shining light impacting on their enemy's side as he heaved himself upright,

"Alright tin-can," Beast Boy leapt into the air with his communicator in hand, interrupting his celebratory punch only to shift into a kangaroo and kick a nearby burning-ghost to cinders, "first dibs on the GameStation tonight is yours! I'm going Rex, we can… wait, what the…?"

Articulation was not Beast Boys' best skill, therefore his thought process regarding the new arrival that tore its way into his world went in roughly the following order:

He's different, he's not on fire.

Hey, cool suit.

Holy hair-gel Robin, that's a freaking big gun!

Before Beast Boy could share these thoughts with the rest of the Titans, however, the newcomer had levelled said gun squarely at the face of the bellowing fiend and squeezed the trigger.

XXX

"Who in the blue blazing hell is that?!"

"Friend Cyborg, you should not swear over the communication network."

"I'm seeing Satan hosed down with a minigun Star, I'm allowed to swear for that."

"The gun is not that small friend Cyborg."

"That's what… forget it, focus on the little ones."

"They seem to be after our new friend; that is the unfairest of fights, we should help."

"No, the big guy's trying to run; he's using them as cover," Robin cut in, seeing the supposed Trigon stand and point towards where the stranger stood framed in the muzzle flash of his chattering machine gun, thinning the crowd rushing towards him at their masters' command, "we've got to keep him contained and…"

"Dude are you seeing this?!"

"…Not now Gar, we need to…"

"He just ripped a guys' arm off and hit him with it! Then he tore another one in half!"

"Not now!" With the deft flick of a button Robin eliminated the excited changeling from speaking into the conversation and stared up at their towering adversary, moving out the way of his most likely charge as Trigon stumbled away from the melee, "We need to keep the leader here, whoever this new guy is they're trying to kill him."

"Good luck to them; wow, that one's gonna need three separate graves…"

"Focus Cyborg!"

"Sorry."

"Right, we need to pin red-and-raging; Gar," Robin let the anamorph back into the network, "think you can knock him down again?"

"Get me a clear charge and he's down, baby."

"Cy, Star, you heard him, slow him down however you can while I take out any stragglers, I don't want these things loose in the city."

"Right, what about us?"

"You can… who the hell are you?"

"Look right crud-for-brains." Robin did, then dived to the side as with a squeal of brakes and shower of churned-up earth a beaten up junker van rocketed onto the park a few feet from where he'd been stood, screeching to a halt next to the astonished superhero as the occupants bailed out and stared up at their adversary in amazement,

"Great, we're fighting the Devil," Billy Numerous stated with a huff, "if this gets us killed I'm gonna haunt you Jinx."

"Cram it," she shot back shortly, a wave of her hand causing the park fountains to release high-pressure jets of water everywhere, extinguishing a few nearby fire elementals as she looked directly at Robin, "this doesn't mean anything, we're still enemies."

"Right," he agreed dumbly before shaking his head and factoring the newly-arrived Five into his strategy, "plan is put Trigon-stroke-Satan on the floor and… whoa!"

Whatever Robin had meant to say was lost behind the roar of an explosion and a bellow of pain, Trigon stumbling as something slapped him hard between the shoulder-blades; glancing over, both Robin and the Five goggled as their new friend, now surrounded by the ashes of the demonic host, shouldered what was unmistakeably a rocket launcher and took aim again,

"Is he nuts?" Gizmo demanded, face bleached of colour as the fire gouted from the barrel, "if he misses…"

"See-More that's on you," Robin said quickly, regarding his temporary allies as proof of the strangers' instability became apparent despite the second impact on their towering adversary, "if he misses you have to trap or shoot down the missiles, just one of them hitting an apartment block could be mass casualties." The monocular villain swallowed, then nodded,

"But… alright; Billy keep the monkeys off my back, especially any green ones."

"Way ahead of you See; Giz show that idiot what firepower really is."

"Thought you'd never ask," the diminutive genius grinned deviously, a remote control already in his hands, "what about you traffic-cone, gonna stand there looking ugly or gonna get some work done?" Robins' masked eyes narrowed but despite that he nodded, birdarangs already between his fingers,

"You know it; stay on your toes and stay alive."

The H.I.V.E. nodded and were as good as their word; supported by Cyborg and Mammoth Billy was literally everywhere, hemming the monster in with brute force and disposable fighters despite Trigon's ravening energy blasts and bolts of sorcery slicing swathes from his numbers. Starfire, Jinx, Gizmo and See-More harassed his multiple eyes with curses, rockets and energy blasts while Robin kept one eye on both their opponent and their ally-of-convenience, the solitary figure dividing his attention between Trigon and the other entities coming though the portal. Loathe as he was to admit it the Titan leader realised that they were only doing as well as they were because of the armoured man; despite his apparent disregard for collateral damage Trigon seemed to both hate and fear the stranger enough to direct most of his offence his way. The other warrior, however, seemed all but impervious to anything the demon could throw at him and retaliated with a dizzying array of weaponry, each one blowing minions to dust or leaving marks on Trigon's iron hide. He's weakening but just one hit could kill any of us except maybe Cyborg or Star; Robin had seen the Tamaranean princess blasted by a small demonic explosive and his heart had jammed into his throat; he only breathed again when her flight stabilised as Cyborg and Jinx covered her retreat; but Trigon won't run, the other guy will use his heavier ordnance if he does. I don't want to think how much damage they'd do in the streets but the prince of darkness over there has his best chance to win where his buddies can help him; a sudden echoing boom made the Boy Wonder wince; not that they're doing much beyond dying at the minute;

"Cy how close are you to the portal?"

"Close enough to see it, far enough away from the other guy."

"Who is he?"

"Don't think he's wearing a name badge," the older teen joked grimly, "his picture's not matching anything in my databases."

"Go closest match," Robin commanded, fending off a nearby wraith with an expert staff thrust, "Cy, you still there?" For a heart-lurching second there was silence but Just as Robin began fearing the worst the familiar voice broke through, its tone and the news it brought grim,

"Closest match is Genocide."

The name echoed around the young heroes' brain as he spat a word he'd never use within earshot of Alfred. His worst-case scenario seemed to be rising like a nightmarish spectre; he knew the Titans were good but, even with the dubious backing of the Five, how could they hope to take on someone who'd nearly killed Wonder Woman and bested the Justice League?

"How," he barely recognised his voice, wetting his lips before trying again, "how close a match?"

"Low forties and dropping," that at least was a crumb of good news but even so Robin knew now more than ever he had to consider and prepare for the absolute worst,

"Make a new entry and get everything you can onto it; tell the others do not engage. For now we assume it's the real deal and let him take these things down."

"Right," Cyborg had already opened channels to the other communicators, "I'll spread the word but I don't like this Rob." Despite his private agreement Robin had to soothe such worries for the moment,

"Enemy of my enemy, it has to be."

"Yeah," the metallic teen agreed, the blast of his sonic cannon tinny over the radio, "but where does that leave us when that enemy's gone?"

To that, the Boy Wonder had no answer.

XXX

Prowling around the battles' outskirts Beast Boy had bumped into Mammoth, the bigger metahuman swinging an uprooted lamppost like a baseball bat as he cleared out the last remnants of the fire sprites nearby. The two had shared a tense face-off for a second before the elder grunted, taking a breath as he brushed off some of his burns,

"That's the lot," casually spinning his improvised weapon he set his narrow gaze on their shared bigger problem, "what about him?"

"We take him down," Beast Boy replied with a snarl, opening the channel he needed, "Robin I can do it."

"Not yet B, keep tracking down the smaller ones and an eye on Raven," he commanded, the changeling flicked a glance her way and felt a surge of both hope and impatience at his leaders' commands, "the portal's shrinking."

"Then let me at him!" Beast Boy exploded, "I'm here with Mammoth, we can take him down if we…"

"Are you sure?" The youngest Titan blinked, not sure he'd heard right,

"What?"

"Are you sure you can bring him down?" There was no hesitation, wouldn't have been any even if the eavesdropping Mammoth hadn't been nodding,

"Absolutely," the reply was so cold Robin blinked, then shook his head; wow, this really is getting to him. But he's right; he licked suddenly dry lips, realising the time for a decisive strike had to be now; the sooner he's out the sooner we can shut the portal down, get Raven back and think about handling the supposed-Genocide;

"Wait for the word," he replied shortly, quickly signalling to the rest of the Titans on his communicator and asking the nearest Billy to pass the message to his team,

"'Bout time," the clone snorted, cracking his neck as some of his brothers scattered to avoid a descending hoof, "we'll get out the way when Mammoth and snotty go in."

"Glad to hear it," Robin muttered, finger on the trigger as he blocked out the booming voice of their larger adversary,

"It is written," the demon bellowed, lightning crackling about his horns before striking towards Starfire; wise to the trick after being singed, however, the alien princess barrel-rolled out the way and launched another blast at his already-swollen eyes, "I claim what is mine, nothing can gainsay it. I am Trigon, demon lord of multiple dimensions and not even you can oppose me revenant!" The huge creature reared back with both hands full of crimson power but as he did there was a flash of steel as Mammoth stampeded forwards, his swung lamppost hammering deep into unnatural flesh before he span out of the way – even as Trigon sucked in the breath to yell (hard as that might have been given the blasts of lightning slamming into his chin) Robin seized the chance,

"B, now! Everyone," he led by example, every trick and tool in his belt flying, "give it everything you've got!"

XXX

Beast Boy was in motion as soon as he saw his enemy stumble, Robins' approval coming as he blazed Mammoths' trail and numberless Numerous' dived out of his way. The changeling was beyond fear, beyond fatigue and beyond fury; who or whatever Trigon was he had threatened his pack and hurt Raven somehow – there was no forgiveness for that. As the demon was pummelled by the combined firepower of the H.I.V.E Five, the Teen Titans and his supposed nemesis he lashed out indiscriminately; he heard someone yell in pain and it just drove him even harder, the beasts in his head and the Beast in his mind snarling as he shifted, taking advantage of the distraction to land a crippling blow.

Though anyone who knew him knew Beast Boy was vegetarian; indeed his best friend ribbed him something rotten about it (often literally, hiding his tofu behind rib platters in the fridge), what no-one knew was the real reason behind such a restrictive diet. Before the Doom Patrol Beast Boy had often starved almost to madness, unable to beg, steal or impress his uncle enough to earn food – during those times he often remembered passing out starving only to awaken oddly sated, covered in redness with a strange taste in his mouth, and his ears were sharp enough to hear rumours of people being reported missing a few days after some of those strange blackouts. He never thought too much about it, locking such memories behind what he considered his normal life and refusing to disturb them by tasting flesh again; however the scent and taste of blood during combat made those old skeletons rattle in their closet when the adrenaline wore off. This time, however, this time was different; as the jaws of one the most lethal land predators to grace the planet fastened onto the calf of the reeling, bleeding lord of darkness all parts of Garfield Logan revelled in the crunch of bone and scream of agony as he reared back, pitching Trigon face-first to the floor as he bellowed in triumph, mind almost unhinged by the primal ferocity of the king of the ancient world.

Even against an apex predator Beast Boy would give his all for his pack, including his sanity if needed.

XXX

We're winning; with the sudden thrill of victory Robin at last allowed himself to hope that the nightmare was nearly over; he's going down, Beast Boy did it. Now we have…;

"Wait," he shouted at the sudden blur of much darker green, his strategy upset by the suicidal dash of their erstwhile ally towards the plummeting king of hell, "get out the way!" Shoving past a few Billy clones trying to evacuate the impact zone Robin felt the warning wither on his lips as Genocide; though the more I see the more I doubt it's actually that Wonder Woman knock-off; stood to full height, guns still blasting up at the descending mountain of red meat as another voice spoke at Robins' side,

"He's crazy man," See-More croaked, unable to tear his eye away as several nearby Billy's nodded, "gonna get pancaked; even with that suit he's…"

What the strange figure was, however, See-More never said as with a swift sidestep the strange warrior dodged the falling king and ended the battle conclusively. As Trigon slammed his abused palms onto the earth the strangers' hands were suddenly full again and Robin realised what would happen a split-second before it did, just enough time to look away as four feet of screaming, shredding steel tore through the demon's wrist then, as he collapsed unbalanced, swung upwards into his descending throat. His final howl choked off into a gargling whine, then a pathetic, rasping mewl, then a menacing silence descended over the ruined park as Trigon the Terrible, scourge of the living and master of multiple hellish dimensions met his end, the dread weapon that had done the deed silent in the blood-soaked hands of its wielder.

It wasn't a perfect silence of course; Robin could aware of other nearby noises, his own hammering heart chief amongst them as someone nearby noisily lost their lunch. The air was alive with the rank perfume of boiling blood, singed bone and sour vomit, a sickening slurp that almost made the Boy Wonder retch disturbing the still as the quiescent blade was ripped from the wet remains of the neck it had half-severed. Even as the Titan leader tried to size up the situation a loud yell of,

"Friend Raven," jerked the masked boys' eyes towards the trail Starfire was making in her haste. Relief hissed from between clenched teeth as he saw the portal fading, the indigo cloak of the sorceress draped over the Tamaranean's arm as she bore her injured friend gently to the ground where Cyborg was already waiting. It's over; with the adrenaline wearing off Robin felt suddenly weary but refused to show weakness, instead turning to face their former ally and gauge his-stroke-her-its intentions; not like that tin can they're in is form-fitting; only to realise as soon as he did that the stranger had had the same idea and their eyes met.

His often-brutal training under the Dark Knight had hardened the teenage crime-fighter to all but the most bizarre and hardened criminals; as he looked into and through the soulless visor, however, he discovered that even the patented Bat-glare (and, worse, the Pennyworth expression of mild disapproval) could be eclipsed. This faux-Genocide didn't have a face but in the bottomless void where its eyes should have been Robin lost his courage, then his breath as for an ageless instant the two regarded each other. It made no movement, gave no sign of hostile intent but Robin was under no illusion the only reason he wasn't already greeting his parents was because this terrible being saw no reason to kill him. Apart from the outline there was nothing remotely human about it; it was less a person than a force of nature and, as they had so many times before, Robins' ingrained reactions swung into action,

"Keep perfectly still," he murmured from the corner of his lips, inching his fingertips over to his communicator,

"I'm not moving but my bowels might," See-More whispered back, both he and the remaining Numerous clones freezing in place as finally the inspection was over and the otherworldly superhero, because anyone who could kill like that had to be super, slung his weapon and, as Robin had dreaded, paced towards the now-vanished portal,

"Cy," the Titan leader intoned leadenly, hoping against hope this night wouldn't end in further bloodshed, "you've got incoming."

XXX

Cyborg was underneath the disk of fire even before it finished disappearing, neck craned as he saw the ethereal figure floating towards the ground bush-whacked by a colourful comet. Overwhelming Starfires' gabbled questions with a burst of high-pitched white noise, something a normal human would have barely heard but her Tamaranean physiology registered like an untuned bass band; which probably explains why their folk songs are so lousy; Cyborg pointed firmly at the floor and to his relief the princess obeyed,

"Friend-Cyborg, friend-Raven is…" for once words seemed to fail the alien girl, the look on her face hopeless as she held one of her family bridal-style, the petite cambion seeming pathetically small in her arms as the mechanically-inclined teen scanned her,

"Give her air Star, just lean back a second," the Tamaranean did, trying desperately to hold in tears as she watched the thin bar-scanner pass over her friend, "heart rate's good and her vitals are okay but I've got no idea what'd going on in her mind. Whatever that bastard did must have hurt her bad."

"But he is now the deceased," Star spat, a flare of temper from the red-head as she shot the corpse a withering look, "and for it the world is much the better place." Despite the circumstances Cyborg felt himself grin a little before turning his attention back to his hurting little sister, his tone as soft as he could make it,

"Raven," once more he silently cursed the human warmth his mechanical hands lacked as he laid a pair of fingers on her closest palm, "Rae can you hear me?" He was beyond grateful when she nodded, her large lilac eyes slowly swimming towards focus as she squeezed his hand softly – he honestly thought he might choke and quickly busied himself making her comfortable. Almost as he began such a task, however, his communicator beeped and at its message he was instantly alert, every remaining weapon in his formidable reserves locking onto the dark image that had just stepped into view by the head of the demon he had helped kill.

With his organic eye closed every scan he could take was snapped and added to the file he had opened for this stranger, though very little of it made good reading. No probe he had could penetrate to the meat of this potential opponent; for all he knew the armour was a sentient A.I., a Slade-bot on super-steroids; and said armour was composed of an unknown alloy, or even a group of alloys, increasing in strength as the recordings went on. Worst of all it wasn't just a physical shield; a shroud of dark energy he could detect but not accurately measure was protecting whoever had donned that plate. Save a pistol-type weapon on his hip Genocide was unarmed, then he suddenly wasn't, either drawing a weapon so quickly Cyborg hadn't detected it or, more likely, pulling it from some micro-holding cell or extra-dimensional space. From the spiking temperature he realised it was the lightning cannon he'd used before and, as his free hand snapped the tip of a protruding tooth from Trigons' now-slack lips, Cyborg quickly added superior strength to this unknown figures' resume. This will not be easy; unsure what was going to happen next Cyborg weighed his options and found them very much wanting; his metallic components may have weathered some of the other warriors' arsenal but his flesh, and his friends, would not be so lucky. Scanners still engaged, the eldest of the Titans stood to his full height and glanced over only when he heard Starfire whisper,

"Friend-Raven don't…"

"Have to," the empath mumbled back, feebly kicking her way out of Starfires' arms, "it's me, he must have come for me."

"He can come," Cyborg snorted gutturally, powering up his systems as he looked at their likely-next opponent, "but if he tries anything we're gonna send him pack…"

The word tailed off, Raven left to totter forwards as in the glare of reflected lightning Cyborg finally saw his foe organically and realised with sick revulsion what his mechanical senses had missed. Genocide was, or at least had been coated in gore but even as he watched horror-struck his scientific mind broke down exactly how his instruments had detected the armours' protective factor increasing. Sparks from the charge held by his firearm cast obscene shadows over the war-plate as flecks of demonic blood disappeared into the emerald material, its bearer uncaring as it paced towards them with its cyclopean visor not moving from the exhausted half-demon before it, contemplating a solemn judgement. Cyborg wanted to pull her back, touch her shoulder, do anything to protect the girl he'd come to see as dearer than his own flesh but his eye had looked into the abyss that was Genocides' helm and in that absolute darkness it was all he could do to keep himself upright. He could feel Starfire touch the ground by his side, the fact her feet were on the floor indicating she was either exhausted or, more likely, even her limitless emotions had been swallowed by the dread singularity, both Titans left helpless as their darkest but still most beloved sibling took tiny, shaking steps towards her personal apocalypse.

XXX

Whatever he was he had set her free.

She had known from the instant he breached the hellgate that he was unlike the others, his entry into the world a spike of icy coldness to take the breath away as opposed to the continual burning Trigon and his cavalcade had inflicted during their birth. Awoken by the sudden wash of terror by her father Raven had been semi-lucid throughout the fight, aware enough at least to realise if not react the instant her foul bloodline was severed forever, Trigon's rage, terror and absolute power-lust winking to nothingness and leaving her bereft of a part of herself she had forever hated.

She should have been celebrating; for the first time in her life she was free of her fathers' dread shadow; but instead she felt weak, weaker still in the aftermath of the magic that had been forced through her fragile, half-mortal frame. She wanted to sleep for a thousand years but that craving was delayed in favour of the one thing she needed more, something not even the noblest intentions of her friends had been able to accomplish and what this patricidal killer, still sodden with her fathers' cursed blood, had provided. He might very well kill her; very few who had suffered at his hand would hesitate to lay the sins of her father at her door; but that was merely swapping one death for another and either way she would have the closure she desired so desperately.

As though in a dream and dimly aware part of her was screaming they should run far, far away; sounds a lot like Rage – what put her cape in a knot?; Raven stepped towards the blurry outline before her, a smear of dull green in her vision until she blinked suddenly. Part of the shifting picture was moving too rapidly for her to focus on, and it was much lighter in colour than the rest; even as her delirious mind struggled to fit the pieces together the tiny bird morphed. Warm hands descended on her shoulders, khaki-green eyes peered at her in concern and she swore part of her tousled hair shifted slightly as the shorter figure took in a deep sniff; even as she opened her mouth Raven realised with dread it was too late, her team mate had already turned, facing down the jade death incarnate before them,

"Leave her alone."

XXX

Beast Boys' words, quiet and solemn, broke the spell, restoring reality for the eight other teenagers struck numb by Trigons' death and the gaze of his slayer. Each took an instinctive step closer before rational thought seized control; as though one mind in three bodies Robin, Cyborg and Jinx threw their arms out to stop anyone approaching further as the two younger teens were too close for anyone to safely interfere. One hand on Starfires' shoulder just in case Cyborg silently raised his other hand and made a circling motion, the other metahumans mercifully catching his drift and carefully strafing around the frozen tableau, giving the trio within it a wide berth as they reunited, animosity temporarily suspended as they waited for the next act in this macabre play to begin,

"Kid's got balls," Mammoth grunted, not able to look for too long at Genosides' false face and idly wondering how the green squirt was holding that unearthly stare,

"Little buddy's always had them," Cyborg agreed, flicking his gaze sideways for an instant, "the second anything happens we go in."

"After you," Billy muttered, no bite to the insult as he just wanted to get out of this place and never be within a fifty-mile radius of the bigger green guy again, "what's he want with her?"

"Did she summon him, or the demon?" See-More suddenly offered before shrinking under the glares of the remaining Titans and, to his surprise, Jinx as well, "Just sayin'; I don't know how her magics work and she was part of that fire-circle-thingy."

"Friend-Ravens' powers may be from the dark but she would never bring such evil to the city of Jump," Starfire assured him, angrily dashing tears from her glowing eyes, "she has lain down the smack on many villains to defend it, including you." See-More growled at this, fingers twitching towards his visor reflexively before Jinx snapped a quick,

"Quiet," as the deadlock before them finally broke.

XXX

Flee…

The hysterical instinct of prey in the face of a carnivore.

Back down…

The cold-blooded practicality of predators catching the scent of larger killers.

Bare your throat…

The submission of an apex predator in the shadow of a larger, more ruthless version of itself.

Garfield Mark Logan had all these and more screamed through his psyche, his animalistic soul echoing the behaviour of each species of the animal kingdom; he heard, he listened and he told every single one of them to take a ticket and get in the God-damned queue because he was not taking a backwards step when one of his pack was vulnerable behind him. He blinked rapidly and often but did not break contact with that sepulchral visor, subtly shifting his weight to keep Raven out of the strangers' direct sight; the brief glimpse and scent he'd caught told him she was exhausted, not that she'd ever admit it, so it was up to him to keep this threat at bay no matter the cost. Trembling head to foot, taking only the shallowest breaths to avoid the aroma of death that clung to the one he was challenging the youngest member of the Titans called on reserves of strength he'd not known he possessed, his resolve so binding he almost heard a snap when the stare-down suddenly ended, his opponent glancing down. Sagging for the briefest instant Beast Boys' eyebrows suddenly rose as his lower position noticed both the sparking gun the armoured man held in one hand and the scorched white twig in the other, it's tip still smoking from its baptism in the blinding energy; that explains the burning smell at least – holy crap is that enamel?! But what…?; seeing the dread gaze now levelled over his shoulder the young superhero started to shake his head only to pause as the silent man seemed to do likewise, looking away slightly to reveal a small dash of colour on the side of his helm.

Had it been anyone other than Beast Boy the pieces wouldn't have come together; with the Logan family history of Africa, however, the intent became clear when he realised it was a pattern of some kind. He'd seen similar things done, even helped some of his friends numb the pain and highlight the results with clay and paint but what did it mean in this case, and more importantly what might it do to Raven? He made to ask only for his jaw to snap shut from a mixture of sense and survival instinct; there was a mountain of still-bleeding evidence to the fact this superhuman was currently unstoppable; hell, right now Beast Boy wouldn't have bet on Superman having an easy time with him; all he could do was try to minimise the impact of what was about to happen,

"Raven," he whispered as he stepped back and sideways to stand level with his teammate, "Raven look at me," he demanded in an undertone, gently guiding her to face him as the warrior knelt and reached for her closest arm, still-smoking stylus raised in his other hand, "just keep your eyes on me and hold on, it'll be over soon," even as he spoke the sickening scent of singed flesh reached his sensitive nose – more for his juddering stomach than anything else he violated the sorceress's space, folding his arms about her and babbling words as they came to try and take her mind off what, judging by the tightening arm around his back, must have been agony, "you're iron Rae, you can handle this, just hold on a little bit more – it'll all be done soon…"

XXX

Fire and heat barely troubled Raven (one of the very few reasons she had to be grateful for her demonic patronage) so the blistering touch of her father's heated tooth was little more than a scratch, one she would have endured a thousand-thousand times over another second of the sensation hurtling all about her soul-self. It was a thought so strong it had evolved beyond thought, possessed of such singular clarity that immersion in it was akin to diving out of an aeroplane without a parachute – exhilarating for the sense of flight but swiftly tempered by the realisation the inevitable impact was fast approaching. Caught in this slipstream of this inhuman zeal and only growing more terrified as it cycled over and over in her mind Raven cast her senses outwards, frantically looking for a way off the crazy train and the sudden warmth at her front was a boon greater than any mortal treasure. A very faint voice in the back of her mind, possibly Knowledge, Brave or even Timid shrieked a name but she didn't care, diving onto and seeking solace from the offered shoulder and its attached psyche. Shielded from the worst of the unearthly cognizance by familiar emotions, thoughts, desires and memories slowly sense started to return, the dull ringing in her ears registering and with an effort of will she recognised it as speech,

"…done soon, just hang in there – I, I think he's nearly finished," she recognised the voice and the mind she was faintly touched to, the normal rambunctious plethora of feelings instead focussed and sharp; towards me, for me, because he gives a damn about me. The sudden realisation rose with a whelm of equal parts gratitude and revulsion; she'd done little but scorn her teams' gentlest concerns and they'd repaid her with selfless courage by standing up to the devourer of worlds, and with the cruellest irony the one most often flayed by her pessimism had gone beyond even that heroic duty. Beast Boy could have left her to her fate, instead he'd faced down Trigon's slayer and was now holding her together, body and soul; in that instant Raven wanted to step back in time and slap herself for every cutting insult, every subtle rebuke and every ill-tempered use of her powers; she had never been more grateful to another or ashamed of herself. A sob bubbled in her throat, her free arm clinching tighter around shoulders smaller but infinitely-stronger than her own and hearing such a noise only drove him to encourage her further,

"Easy, easy, c'mon Rae just a few more seconds, not even that; there, there," the exhilaration in his voice matched that in his mind and a second sob was half-converted into a giggle; connecting to Beast Boy's mind when he was excited was like being in the middle of a champagne explosion, "it's over, it's all over now, you're done."

She knew he was right, the strangers' mental presence departing like the wind of a bullet train as the pressure on her arm lessened, only the burning weal on her forearm left in its wake. She remained where she was for a heartbeat, then several more until her self-loathing for leeching yet more strength from her team mate drove her to move; stumbling back half a step she thought she might fall only for a hand at her shoulder to steady her. She was desperate to say something, anything to convey her gratitude but her tongue felt as numb and heavy as the rest of her, so much so that it was only when she tried to roll her eyes up to follow the shocked path of his own that she belatedly realised her latest loss of this wretched night come to pass.

XXX

In private moments he had often wondered what it would be like to hug a girl, not one of Starfires' count-the-pops-your-joints-are-making grabs of doom but a real embrace, like those from Elastigirl in his Doom patrol days. Despite his boasts to the contrary, however, he'd realised such fantasies were likely to remain just that; green skin, protruding fangs and excess (green) body hair were not effective turn-ons to the female of the species after all. Of course, his luck being what it was now it was happening he barely registered that of all his friends and fellow Titans it was Raven, mysterious, isolationist and, dare he say it, creepy Raven who had ended up in his arms, trembling from exhaustion and pain so much he couldn't consider what they'd shared a hug. As the branding tool fell to the earth Beast Boy kept half an eye on the one who'd used it as Raven suddenly stepped back, teetering on her heels before he reacted, his palm planting his team mate on her own feet once more.

He meant to say something when his eyes were drawn to sudden movement; for a heart-stopping second he thought the sorceress was bleeding before recognising the red droplet as it tumbled from her forehead. In agonising slow-motion the bloodstone fell, tracked by two pairs of eyes as it landed in the palm of an unbreakable glove, its ruddy crimson light smothered as emerald fingers closed over it with an audible creak. Aware once more of the lethal stranger by their side both Titans stepped backwards as he pushed himself smoothly to his feet, shielded vision fixed on his procured treasure until both it and his free hand tracked forwards, the breath catching in Beast Boys' throat as one of the fists he'd seen rip off limbs and tear screaming wraiths in twain was levelled squarely at his chest.

If he pushes me I'm toast, either from the force then or the heart attack afterwards; mind sprinting a mile a minute the changelings' eyes flicked rapidly between gauntlet and helm until a crazy idea sprang up in his mind; so crazy it might just work! If he was wrong he was guaranteed to end up messily dead but he'd survived diving through a door to nothingness and rhino-charging a demon lord so far tonight, weren't good things supposed to come in threes? Gathering up whatever scraps of courage he had left he balled up his hand, glanced at it as though it might be the last thing he ever saw then thrust it out carefully; there was contact, a touch of living flesh against death-wrought adamantine for the briefest of instants before it was over, the gulf between them restored as teen and titan retracted their bumped fists. Even as he exhaled what he'd feared would be his last breath Garfield suddenly felt he could stand a little taller, regarding the more-familiar stranger as he looked over his and Ravens' heads and gave a single nod of recognition, up and down. The others; the reminder almost made Beast Boy turn around and check they were alright until a musical crack shattered the still evening air like a gunshot.

As ethereal fire sprang up around the first that had reduced Ravens' gem to powder the taller stranger abruptly turned and strode away, picking up the pace to a sprint as before nineteen appalled eyes the flame spread, coruscating power flowing over the battle suit as its bearer leapt up between the eternally-closed eyes of his most recent kill. Still the fire blossomed into an aura about him, hungrily consuming the deceased demon at his feet as he pumped the shotgun he'd summoned one-handed, the remnants of the Portals' power unleashed to open a tiny tear into a burning, bloody realm. There were farewells, no heroic epitaphs to mark his passing; in silence he rushed into the hell-maw and let it flare out behind him, his dead quarry left in their reality as he hunted fresh prey in his own once more.

As the embers of the flame held within the mystical gem of Trigons' Portal began to effervesce his corpse to crimson mist the realisation the nightmare was over seemed to hit them all simultaneously – the demon was dead, Jump City was safe and all was well...

…then everyone started talking at once and the peace was shattered completely.

XXX

Nice enough chap; Beast Boy wasn't sure exactly what he was thinking, wasn't even exactly sure what was real and what wasn't at the minute but a few very simple things had become fixed in his mind. Firstly Raven was safe which was good, second the scary demon guy and his horde of burning minions were snuffed out which was better, third the hullabaloo all around him was getting really, really annoying and he doubted it was doing the girl stood by his side any good either. She needs to get back to the Tower, make sure she's okay; Beast Boy wasn't a doctor but he knew it was often the wounds you couldn't see that hurt the worst but there was no chance of his getting any kind of message out in the current maelstrom. The rest of the Titans and the entire H.I.V.E. Five were jabbering worse than a tribe of howler monkeys in mating season, taking to and at each other in equal measures so, quickly shooting a glance sideways to check Raven was still upright, Beast Boy cleared his throat,

"Quiet, quiet; oi, you lot," his voice rose in volume but not tone, staying focussed as it scythed through the unfocussed demands, denunciations and denials; strangely patient, Beast Boy waited until the last of the chatter died down before carrying on, "everything else can get shoved for now, we need to get back to the Tower and… yes?"

A touch on his arm had him look over and fall silent, yielding to the only one who had more authority in this situation as she had, indirectly or otherwise, been the cause of it. Raven seemed drained on every level; it looked like she could barely bring herself to look at her friends, even her normal monotone ghostly and faint as, with an effort of will that taxed all her emotions aside from Sloth, she spoke as though she were a penitent before the gallows,

"I am so sorry."

"What, for summoning Old Nick?" Whatever talents Billy Numerous may have possessed tact and subtlety weren't amongst them, even less so as he went on despite the sorceress's obvious flinch, "Why'd you do-oowww!" Rubbing his now-throbbing ear the replicator glared reproachfully at the glowering Cyborg before someone else thought fast and seized control of the situation before it got too far out of hand,

"Enough," once more Beast Boys' tone was level but grave, his eyes meeting all others present be they masked, cat-like, glowing green or cybernetic, "we are not doing this here; if I'm too cold, too hungry and too tired to have a debrief in the middle of Jump City Raven definitely is – you're not hurt are you?"

"Uhh," put on the spot suddenly the empath couldn't meet his eyes, "no, not really – just, exhausted."

"Exactly," Beast Boy went on, nodding as though he'd just score an unassailable point in a debate, "now I can smell a decent place some way over there," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "so what we're going to do now is pile into our rides, bankrupt our emergency funds for an all-you-can-eat pizza binge and go back to the Tower to figure all this out. Before that though," for the first time since the two had met it was Raven who wilted before his attention as Beast Boy faced her directly, expression inscrutable, "I've got one question for you."

It had to come; the inevitability didn't mean she had to like it though, mere thoughts of what the shapeshifter might ask making her insides squirm with embarrassment and shame but she couldn't leave him with silence, not after this. Trying in vain to gather up something like a mental façade she was forced to swallow bile even as the first voice spoke in her defence,

"Wait B, you just said…"

"No Robin," Raven's voice was brittle with fatigue but the other teen fell silent at it, even backing up a pace as she glanced at him before settling on her inquisitor with a last flicker of defiance sparking up, "one question; break the habit of a lifetime and make it a good one." Beast Boy didn't rise to her taunt, didn't do anything save silently stare her down, his face as expressionless as marble and the sight of him so sombre grated her already-strained nerves like a rasp. Seconds snailed by, the sands of time falling on her head like boulders as she saw his chest inflate, the tip of his pink tongue flick cross his lower lip, his mouth open as the axe fell,

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"

As Raven's face dropped through the floor it took more self-control than he'd believed he possessed to keep his face straight, regarding her with bored affability while on the inside he rejoiced – looking like he'd slapped her with a wet haddock was better than her seeming so friable in his opinion. It wasn't just her either; he couldn't just feel the disbelief curdling the air, he could practically taste it; if this was an animated series I'd be hearing face-faults right about now. Despite his best efforts he cracked a small smile as a sudden thought popped unbidden into his head, though before his stone façade could crumble any further it happened. A strange noise, a sort-of cross between a hiccup and a squeak forced itself into the open, the culmination of almost eighteen months solid work on his part and sweeter than the trumpet of angels calling the Pearly Gates to open; it was also totally adorable, though I probably shouldn't tell her that. Best of all it wasn't alone; in quick succession two more such explosions escaped Ravens' suddenly pitching chest, leaking through the hand she clamped over her mouth in last-ditch defiance before the inevitable happened.

XXX

He could have asked anything of a being of almost-limitless magical means; the opportunity to scry the future, have fate shifted in his favour, potentially correct a mistake made in the past that would have led him to a much brighter present for him regardless of the cost to the Titans, and he had immediately forsaken it all in favour of the most puerile joke imaginable. It was beyond stupid, far past moronic and deep into the uncharted territories of idiocy; at any other time she would have lambasted him as the worst type of brain-dead fool ever to gain sentience…

…right now she just couldn't stop laughing.

It was so surreal, so completely out there she just couldn't fathom it; in a devastated park, in the shadow of the burning corpse of her hated father and surrounded by friends and enemies alike after being put through an emotional, magical and physical wringer that line; so corny, so pathetic and so utterly Beast Boy; was the final straw. Eyes filmed with tears of mirth Raven had no choice but to be swept up in buffeting gales of laughter, first hunching over then slumping to her knees as she caught sight of Beast Boys' nonplussed expression. She couldn't contain it, couldn't even begin to worry about how much damage her uncontrolled powers were doing; she could barely think of anything other than how good it felt to finally erupt like this and from what she could hear she wasn't the only one. She dimly recognised Cyborgs' booming laugh meshing with Starfires' helpless giggles; someone else was trying to bawl Beast Boy out only to falter, swear and then collapse with the rest of them. Pausing only to heave down a deep breath she pushed herself to her knees, trying to force her aching jaw to work before…

"Oh come on, it wasn't that funny."

…too late!

XXX

"You, you dork," Jinx managed sometime later as she rubbed her eyes, "oh there are tears, there are actual tears!" Blinking her blurry vision she saw See-More wiping his visor and Mammoth still on his knees; she was about to chew the changeling out some more when her ears picked up another noise over the sound of hilarity dying down and flushed the remainder of the mirth away,

"Oh hell," she spat, trying to work out where the sirens were coming from, "cops!"

"C, crawl for it!" Gizmo croaked, the two remaining arms of his backpack thrashing feebly as he hadn't yet recovered from his laughing fit, a malady Jinx swiftly remedied via application of boot to rear end,

"Move it, all of you; we've got a van full of stolen goods and the goody-goods on hand, I'm not spending a night in the cells…"

"You're right," another voice cut in, making the hexmistress jump; Batman I could understand but how does someone that brightly-coloured get that stealthy?; "no-one is spending a night in any cells."

"But…"

"But nothing," Robin overrode her, looking over each of the recovering Five individually before, to their surprise, smiling slightly, "you backing us up back there is a big part of why we're all here now – one good turn deserves another. Besides," he shrugged as they all swapped glances, "I don't know about you but I'd kill for a pizza right about now."

There was silence for a few seconds as the H.I.V.E. formed a loose huddle, some of them still snickering slightly as Robin heard his team also finish picking themselves up. His mentor may not have approved directly but the Boy Wonder knew of several times when even Batman had put aside old rivalries to solve a more immediate problem and his mind this was certainly one of those times. He was pulled from his introspection by a coughing chuckle from See-More, the cyclops regarding his face with a question mark illuminated on his visor,

"Wow, guess there really is a man under that mask after all." Robin smirked,

"What, you thought I was a machine?"

"I owe Ravager twenty bucks if you're not," Jinx broke in, expression somewhere between suspicion and hope, "but what do we tell the boys in blue to bail out of this one?"

"Thought you'd never ask," not quite as badly afflicted by his team mates joke as the others Robin waved them all over before quickly checking, "Raven, are you alright; you can sit this out if you have to? And how's your arm?" He tried to catch a glimpse as the sorceress, face flushed with laughter and with a shuddering Starfire in close attendance, stumbled forwards, the Boy Wonders' vision blocked by her sleeve,

"I'm fine Robin, I'll be fine for a while," and she would; despite the slight cramp from laughing so hard such an explosive release of mirth had galvanised her spirit, banishing both the spiritual ache and mnemonic pain of her fathers' possession of her flesh. Nodding and trusting her word the Titan leader beckoned everyone closer and divulged the cover story he'd put together,

"Here's what happened…"

XXX

Eyes flicking from the outline of charred grass to the squat figure glaring up at him, the interviewing officer stilled his trembling grip on his pencil and tried again,

"So, you're saying this whole thing was a set-up?"

"For the third time yes," Gizmo grated, just about refraining from swearing, "and I'm beginning to think it was meant for both of us."

"Both of… who?" And this is why I don't pay taxes; the thought raced across the small super-genius's mind as his teeth crunched together; it pays for idiots like these!;

"Us and the Titans you…" he sucked in a breath, then let it out, "like I said, someone posted a picture of what Jinx believed was a runic circle through our door with a note saying they would neutralise the dark one of our mutual enemy. She translated some of the runes as meaning binding and entrapment," the officers' eyes flicked to the named mage who nodded, letting Gizmo carry on his story, "and no prizes for guessing who the dark one was. So we pulled the robbery; nothing too serious, no civilians involved because Jinx couldn't tell exactly what the spell was supposed to do; and threw it when we had the chance. It hit, then things really went to hell…"

"…Because it wasn't an entrapment spell," another voice, more exhausted but still carrying, broke in, "it was to do with summoning, though the two can look very similar if just a few of the runes were reversed, which I assume happened here?" Jinx help her hands up in surrender,

"You're the expert, runes aren't my thing but it looked like some of the circles I'd seen. I'm pretty sure I know who sent it though; Brother Blood," the police official scribbled into his notebook, "know his writing anywhere, he graded enough of my reports. He must have wanted Raven out the way and used us to do his dirty work." She scuffed the ground, glancing across at where her other team mates were telling their part in the story and Robin was methodically filling out paperwork with practiced efficiency as their interviewer looked up again,

"I see; and when the, ah, spell worked?"

"Yes but I was able to teleport here along with Beast Boy before it took full effect," Raven continued, not quite able to meet the mans' eye though this was luckily masked by her tiredness, "the circle fed off my magic, though I was able to limit the summoning to a few… lesser entities that my team dispatched with the help of the Five."

"Right," the officers' tone was unsettled as he cast another glance at the scorched earth, "so, if the robbery was downtown, why are…?"

"Oh for the love of Pete," Gizmo snapped, temper giving way as his damaged backpack shot him to eye-level with the donut-muncher, "we're crooks alright; we steal, we cheat and we swindle but we're not heartless, leave that to Slade. I, we all saw what that piece of paper did to doom-and-gloom and we couldn't let it slide, so we followed them out here and helped put a stop to it. We're not heroes, we just didn't need vengeful Titans on our asses and anyway, those things were on fire – hard to steal anything when the city's burnt down."

"Indeed," the law enforcement operative finished before snapping his notebook closed, regarding the metahumans with a piercing eye, "normally we'd book you for burglary at the least but, given Robins' testimony that this would have been a lot worse but for you, we're remanding you to their custody," he suddenly loomed into Gizmo's face and despite himself the younger man recoiled slightly, "if it were up to me I'd be throwing the book at you but the Titans have a lot of sway higher up. One toe out of line and you'll never see daylight again."

"Yeah, yeah; any more machoism or are we free to go?" Giving her a gimlet eye for another few seconds he nodded and strode away, Jinx letting out a quiet breath as he did,

"That was close," Gizmo muttered, glancing up at her as she nodded,

"Yeah, now let's get out of here quick before anything else happens."

Fortunately there wasn't too much else to discuss, the hairiest moment coming when they had to coax Mammoth into giving up his van keys as the vehicle was to be impounded for carrying stolen goods. None of the Five were happy about this but Mammoth, as the driver, was closest to the battered old hulk, dropping the key into an outstretched forensic officers' hand,

"Scratch it you brought it," he grizzled menacingly before sloping off to join the other nine, eyeing up the T-Car with trepidation, "how're we doing this?"

"You, me, B, Rae and Billy in my baby," Cyborg spoke, only the slightest hitch in his voice betraying his dismay at seeing his precious wheels having her footwells despoiled by strangers' feet, "Gizmo's got enough power in his backpack to make it though 'Fire will be carrying Jinx close by just in case," Mammoth nodded at this, seeing his diminutive friend fiddling with the smoking appliance and not wanting him to end his days as a smear on the pavement, "while Rob and See-More go on ahead on his bike. They'll open up for us, we're getting the order in."

"Plenty of sides? Meat toppings?" Despite himself Cyborg couldn't help grinning as he nodded,

"Plenty and only the meatiest!" Ignoring Beast Boys' disgruntled 'savages' from the cheap seats Mammoth echoed the tall Titan's grin and slapped him softly on the shoulder as he headed towards the car,

"Sounds good, now start up and put your foot down; I'm starving!"

XXX

Amazingly, as all concerned would agree years down the line, everything went without a hitch, the timings for arrivals and preparations for such a feast running so smoothly that the only hitch came when Robin noticed one of the Five set a stack of pizza boxes on the kitchen side then stagger slightly, catching himself on the counter top. Alarmed, Robin eased past the scrum now developing as everyone fought for slices and came up on his side,

"You all right Billy – there's just you at the minute right?"

"Yeah, just me," the cloner nodded, his smile strangely distant as he sat down heavily, head in his hands as the others started to fall silent, noticing his odd behaviour, "it's just, I just didn't really think about it until now; did that really happen?" He looked up and all of them, even Robin, were struck by the honest confusion and disbelief in his eyes as he chuckled distractedly,

"Did we, or we and the other guy, did we really just knock off Old Scratch hisself?"

The question seemed to spread like an earthquake from its epicentre, rolling over each of the celebrating heroes as, removed from the numbing balms of terror, fury, concern and victorious elation, the outright impossibility of what they had done, who they had seen die in front of them hit like a brick to the face. The only one unaffected was Starfire, who was unaware of the Devils' significance but soon deduced he must have been an important figure from the way her friends and new-friends suddenly swayed and, in a few cases, collapsed into the nearest seats looking dazed. Worry started to gnaw at the edges of the Tamaraneans' conscience as the previously celebratory air was bulldozed flat but before she could think of anything lighten the mood (or locate the ingredients for her peoples' broth of victory) someone else spoke up to answer Billys' earth-shattering question,

"No," though her voice was soft and she was regarding her boots as though they were the most interesting thing in the world every head turned towards the speaker, Raven forcing herself to carry on as she resisted the urge to hide under her cloak until they all went away, "that, that wasn't your Satan. His name was Trigon," her breath hitched and she gritted her teeth, forcing her face up to look them all in the eyes despite her swimming vision; after everything they've done to save their world and Azarath they deserve the truth;

"He was my father."

Sometimes her empathy was more curse than gift and, surrounded by a sudden soup of confusion, alarm, disbelief and trepidation, this was one of those times. Muttering a calming mantra under her breath the Azarathian glanced from one face to another, part of her fractured psyche noting idly that, though a lot of the assembled were looking between each other, none at least outright had shied away from her; yet at least. The little voice in her ear sounded a lot like Timid but before she could think about it too much there was a quick clap as Robin restored order, looking at Raven directly with an expression of mingled apprehension and resolve,

"You've, got a few things to explain Raven?" Despite herself she smiled wanly,

"That's putting it mildly."

"You sure…?" She nodded, glancing at the closest members of the rival team,

"They were there, they helped; they deserve to know." The squire of the Dark Knight nodded and addressed the others solemnly,

"Everyone get a drink, whatever you want to eat on a plate and sit down; Starfire you know how Raven takes her tea?" The alien nodded excitedly,

"Oh yes, I shall make the beverage of hot water and dried leaves…"

"You won't," Mammoth's voice suddenly rumbled over her own, the taller metahuman fishing in his coat pocket for a second before placing a tall green bottle on the side with a musical clink, "try something stronger."

"Dude where…?"

"There was an off-license 'round the corner from the pizza place; I went for a walk while you were waiting for the order," he commented offhandedly as Billy tried to read the bottles' label, "it's not stolen and I'm old enough before you try that."

"But none of us are, except Cy." Robin pointed out only for his sometime-enemy to snort dismissively, shaking his great head as his brutish features were cracked by a long-suffering smirk,

"I just kneecapped the devil so I'm having a drink; she looks like she needs one." The two regarded each other for a long moment before Robin glanced away first,

"Star, Raven it won't affect you will it?" Both shook their heads and, mollified, the Boy Wonder nodded, "if you're underage no more than one glass; Cy scrub the footage afterwards and make sure the bottle gets incinerated, don't need to give the press any more cheap shots at us." See-More snickered, already rooting through drawers looking for a corkscrew,

"Cheap shots are about the only thing we can afford right now; I'll deal with this, someone plate me up half a seafood special, some fries and some 'slaw…"

Ten minutes later Raven found herself in her favourite chair, everyone else sprawled around the living room as, putting off the moment, she took a sip of the dark red wine See-More had passed around. It was hot and sour, little better than rot-gut but it burned off the very edge of her fear; maybe there was something to the tales of Dutch courage after all? Licking her lips she drew in a breath, held it a second then expelled it while silently cursing her shaking nerves; she knew what she had to do, why was it so hard to actually do it?

"Take your time little sis," she glanced up at Cyborgs' words, the half-machine regarding her benevolently from where he was leant against the back of the settee, "it's barely been an hour since we left."

"Really?" Starfire's hair lashed Robin's chest and neck as she whipped around to look at the glowing clock in the cooker, "It feels like the life-span of a morphlark has passed."

"What's a…?"

"Don't ask," Beast Boy quickly shut down Gizmo's query, shuddering as he recalled asking Starfire about some of the animals indigenous to her home planet; that was a biology lesson he never wanted repeating thank you very much, "anyway, as tin-can was saying Rae take your time." She just about managed to glower softly, grateful for a crumb of normality after a night shot to madness by her fathers' dread grasp,

"Raven," there was no heat behind the correction, more weary acceptance as she steeled herself, trying to coax Brave to take the helm at the same time as wrestle Timid down until this ghastly story was told, "but, no need to put this off, you deserve to know everything, from the beginning," the wine in her glass rippled as her power thrashed in agitation, she put the fragile goblet down hastily before ploughing on, "it started with my mother…"

It was done with frequent, halting pauses and several of the others having their questions hushed by other members of her captive audience, but regardless it was done; much as it hurt, Raven told them everything.

XXX

Would it have been better if he hadn't missed?; even as the thought popped into her mind she dismissed it – even this purgatory was better than the hell her fathers' hands would have delivered her to if not for a friends' intervention. The memory of Trigons' first fall was blurred by pain almost had her glance up into the face of the silent judgement being passed by her friends but she couldn't do it. Since she'd finished the story of her life and the part she was supposedly destined to play in the apocalypse her expectations of their reactions had flipped between horror at the threat she had posed to the world, revulsion that they'd held a viper so close to their breast for so long or, or she didn't know. She reached for her glass again only to flinch, Timid bursting out of whatever closet the rest of the emoticlones had locked her in to scream blue murder in her psyche as a weight threw itself onto the seat beside her; who's…?;

"I saw your face," she swung around in shock, purple meeting pink as about the last person she'd expected continued to speak, "just before you disappeared, I saw your face." Jinx reached forwards, drawing the now-revealed cambion gently but insistently into a hug; Raven stiffened, then collapsed into the compassionate embrace, barely noticing as Jinx knocked her hood back with her cheek; and I thought I had a hard-luck story? No-one at the Academy could top this, could even come close;

"Whatever you think you are let me tell you this," holding Ravens' shoulders she pushed the other girl back a little, locking their eyes as the rest of the Five swapped perturbed glances; Jinx was usually sensitive about her odd pupils, "no-one who looked that scared in that moment could have been helping whatever was happening to them, and no demon would have told her friends and definitely not her enemies to run while they could."

The villainess said no more, didn't trust her own voice as the other girl trembled, sinking against her again as shudders wracked her small frame. Softly stroking her back with a free hand Jinx focussed on her breathing, casting her eyes sideways to see life return to the rest of the assembled in the aftermath of Raven's awful story. Silence pervaded the common room, thoughts made but not translated to voice until someone cleared their throat, both eyes regarding his sister figure and voice laden with respect as he charged his glass and spoke,

"To Raven." Eh?; caught out by this the empath was just quick enough to see and hear the gesture echoed by all present, the sight and sensation so unexpected she would have burrowed under her cloak but for a suddenly-smirking Jinx pinching her hood back,

"Not a chance," she chuckled before becoming more serious as she stood up and made to move away, giving the other girl some space, "don't hide any more, you don't have to." Suddenly bereft of her support-slash-meat-shield Raven was acutely aware of her ears carbonising as she squirmed in the face of such outright respect, the faintest traces of her protest blown away by a laugh from Gizmo,

"You and these other four caped morons have kept most of this city clean for years; hell I can't count the number of times I've limped away with a boot-print on my ass after we've squared off; and now you tell us this? That the powers I've seen snare my missiles in mid-air are hard for you to control? You never had a childhood because everything you did had to be focussed on harnessing your emotions, which you still have to deal with even now? That you had a death sentence hanging over your head since the day you were born to your sixteenth birthday, and despite that you were still fighting crime and taking names at the same time as looking for a way to head it off?" He shook his head, tipping back another short measure of his drink before snorting in laughter, "What am I supposed to think apart from 'dear God if that couldn't stop her what chance have we got' – we're going to have to really up our game."

"And not just us," See-More chipped in with a smirk, "after the last time you crossed paths Dr Light might still be running now – tell him you beat him at the same time as having all this in your head and he'd set a new land-speed record. Anyway, look on the bright side, you can forget about most of it; Trigon or whatever his name was ain't ever coming back, which reminds me," his voice rose as another burning question forced its way to the front of his mind, "who was that other guy anyway? Was he one of, uh," he pointed vaguely at the ceiling, "you know, them?"

Brows were furrowed for a few minutes, Raven breathing a silent sigh of relief as the attention was directed away from her while at the same time the truth behind See-Mores' words began to sink in; Trigon's dead, the Prophecy is broken and so is his gem – that means I, I'm free;

"No, none of the League were there," Robin answered, Cyborg nodding in confirmation as his team leader began to speculate, "we don't know who it was, the closest match on Cyborgs' database was Genocide."

"Who?"

"Someone who's tangled with Wonder Woman several times and come off better on a lot of them," Robin said darkly, slightly relieved as Gizmo shrank back at his guarded warning, "she's really bad news, like Slade-level bad if not worse. It was one reason I wanted everyone who was there back here," he admitted, the H.I.V.E. regarding him with sudden suspicion as he did his best to look affably embarrassed, "right now we've got a potentially-new super with phenomenal strength and speed, armed and armoured to the gunnels and apparently zero concern for civilian casualties, and worst of all we've got no idea where he is. The League will have to be informed; I'll do that first thing tomorrow; but before I write that paperwork I need all the information anyone can give me about him. Let's go in order; Beast Boy, you were first on the scene."

"Uh…" Seeing the direction of his eyes Robin quickly shook his head; oh, right, Rae's never been good at dealing with shocks around other people; "…well, he came out of the portal."

That titbit of information had everyone blink, though it was Cyborg who broke the silence,

"What, he just pushed through like they did?"

"Yeah, and they were not happy to see him; I think you'd just got there, did you hear Trigon shout?"

"So they were definitely afraid," Robin concluded before turning to the Five, who had missed the start of the battle, "seems our green friend…"

"Rob, please, I'm sat right here."

"Sorry, our cool green friend,"; boy did I walk into that one; at the smattering of chuckles Beast Boy could only glower death at the masked hero, though to his credit Robin kept the amusement off his face as he went on, "was known to Trigon and was somehow in his realm. Wouldn't be the first time a meta has crossed between worlds, though in this case it looked like he crossed back over as well – did anyone get a good look at how he teleported out?"

"Wasn't a teleporter, not a mechanical one," Gizmo stated, backed up by Cyborgs' nod, "takes a lot of juice to displace like that and even with half my electronics on the fritz I'd have recorded it. It was magical, had to be; he only did it when he smashed that gem didn't he?"

"Yeah, got that right, and I got all his combat info already locked," the half-metal man took over, his bionic eye suddenly shining red as he lined up a few memory files, "take a look – this is what you guys missed." With that, he focussed the memories through his optical circuits, eye acting like a projector as the rest of the room watched entranced.

Though mercifully brief at the time, by the end the few minutes of footage had finished there was no-one present who wasn't disappointed there was no encore or popcorn,

"Damn that was hardcore," Jinx gasped as fiery forms fell apart following a one-sided argument with a shotgun, "he ripped them apart!"

"Yes friend-Jinx," Starfire agreed, cocking her head as a jade fist ploughed into and through a magmatic chest, "on Tamaran he would have been feasted most highly and given first pick of mates for such a display." The hexmistress sniggered, trying to crush the very faint warmth in her belly as she realised the alien girl had called her friend,

"On that evidence I wouldn't say no; I wouldn't dare!"

"Glad he was on our side," Beast Boy cut in with feeling, knowing he'd have lasted about as long as one of the lesser demons had those weapons been trained on him before suddenly leaping to his feet, furious with himself as he belatedly remembered the most important reason for them all to be back at the Tower; and I was there when it happened – how could I forget?; "Raven, your arm!"

XXX

Robin could have kicked himself – the first and most important part of the post-battle clean up, make sure everyone's okay, and he'd completely skipped it. Luckily it seemed he'd gotten away with it as, far from masking any pain, Raven seemed to be reminded of it by the changelings' sudden explosion, pulled back to the present from dreams of a future she never thought she'd see,

"My… oh, yes, it's fine, it doesn't hurt at all – I'm, ah, close to fire-proof." There was a general sigh of relief but Beast Boy wasn't satisfied, pacing up to her chair and kneeling by the side of it in a way she'd have considered an invasion of her personal space on an ordinary day. But this day turned out far from ordinary; despite herself she smiled slightly as Beast Boy looked at her shrouded arm, not noticing her scrutiny; and thanks mostly to you I'm here to see it Garfield;

"May I?" His gaze flicked her way and she nodded, leaning forwards as she pulled up her sleeve to reveal the brazen mark on her forearm, just above the back of her wrist,. Everyone bar Beast Boy craned forwards, each of them seeing the distinctive pattern but only one of them able to glean any meaning from it, though before she could speak Beast Boy had already nodded,

"Yeah, it's the same one; he had a mark like this on his helmet," he explained, tapping his brow where it had roughly sat on the rim of the vision plate, "I knew what he was planning, seen it before in Africa – do you know what it means?" Raven shook her head,

"No," she replied, seeing Jinx also reply in the negative from the corner of her eye, "I'll look into it but I don't think it's anything bad – if he wanted me dead I'd not be here now."

"I'd've…"

"No Ga-B," she just about managed to swerve at the last minute, realising Beast Boy likely wouldn't want his real name out amongst those who would, at best, tease him worse than she, Cy or Robin ever did, "you wouldn't have, none of you would. If he thought I was a demon he'd have killed me."

"Why?"

"He kills demons."

"I noticed," Cyborg said in a measured drawl, "but what's that got to do with you?"

"He kills demons," she said again, holding up a hand to forestall further queries as she thought about how best to explain it, "when he, held me, you know putting the mark on," she shook her sleeve down to cover the brand, not used to its appearance yet, "I linked… minds, in a way, with him."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, though it usually takes a lot of concentration and focus," she answered Mammoths' question at the same time as catching Robins' eye almost without meaning to, "though in his case none of that applied. He doesn't have a mind, exactly; I can't really explain it very well – it's like he has one but it's, eroded is about the best word I can find for it."

"Eroded?" Starfire parroted, looking around the room for confirmation of her suspicions, "does that mean worn away?"

"Yes, how I can't say for sure but from what he did to my father and his minions I'd imagine fire, time and blood, a lot of blood, and it's been going on so long he's lost nearly everything," Raven shivered for a moment before recollecting herself, reliving that terrifying mnemonic plunge and trying to put the sensation into words, "there were no emotions, dreams or wants; he's literally a walking personification of 'kill demons', there's nothing else to him, it's what he is. It was frightening, I've never felt anything like it," a sudden inspiration seized her, "you could say he's enlightened in a way; no concerns except kill the nearest demon, once it's dead find the next one and repeat."

A moment of silence fell over them all, each digesting this unpalatable news in their own time until arguably the most natural-born warrior present spoke, her usually-joyful face creased with unease,

"That is…"

"Brown-trousers terrifying?"

"I was going to say sad," Starfire overrode See-More's comment, "the culture of Tamaran focusses on the war but never to that extent. And you are not wearing the trousers of brown See-More, those are the trousers of white." There must be a humour here I am not understanding; hearing a smattering of chuckles at her comment Starfire cast Robin a glance, the Boy Wonder inclining his head slightly to let her know he'd explain later as See-More spoke again with a shudder as he recalled the sensation of the taller metahumans' glare,

"Only 'cause he looked away when he did; another few seconds and it would've been a different story. Add that to your records Chrome-Dome, don't look him in the eye – yeah, yeah, yuck it up," having let the inopportune pun slip he folded his arms as even his team mates snickered, plotting revenge as Robin, fingers steepled in thought, spoke again,

"So, if this is true and I don't doubt you Raven, he's not really a threat to us, normal humans I mean."

"Not directly," she affirmed, though such reassurance was tempered with a warning, "I'd say your chance of injury is directly related to how close you're standing to the nearest demon. It's on or off; if you're not a demon you don't really register, if you are he kills you."

"So how are you still alive?"

Even as he said it he knew he'd opened mouth and inserted foot; Batman was a role-model for many things but being a team player was definitely not one of them. The Dark Knights' absolute determination to reach the truth regardless of the cost was admirable in some ways but it was so easy to get lost in such a relentless mindset, a cost Robin knew was often born by the friends who had stuck with him regardless of his obsessions no matter how much he inadvertently hurt them. Even as the room hissed in a collective breath of reproach he was scrambling to cover his faux-pas and promising to somehow make it up to his team mates later; but for now we really need to know the truth;

"I mean," he went on, not looking at anyone as he daren't catch their accusing eyes, "I'm forever grateful he didn't and I'd have been first in line after Beast Boy to make sure of it, but if he's that black-and-white…"

"I am the one grey area," Raven interjected, not as insulted the others as she knew the Boy Wonder better than any of them; while being linked to him during his darkest hour she had realised exactly how linear and ordered his mind was; almost enough to make me envious; "as a cambion I'm exactly half-and-half, the switch perfectly balanced. He had to kill me but couldn't so this," she glanced at her wrist again, "was the only thing he could do. It's interfering with my magic and my demonic side, I can feel it, but how I don't know and I'll figure it out later. I also think I know where he came from and where he went after Trigon died – the demons were dead, so he went to find more." As the picture formed in her mind Jinx gave a low whistle, shaking her head as she realised exactly where the other sorceress was hinting at,

"Broke out of Hell after your father then dived back in; damn," she swore as Raven nodded, "he really is hardcore."

"Yeah, he is; file's labelled Rob, be on your desk first thing – nice name Sabrina." Jinx blinked in surprise,

"Really, Hardcore? And don't call me that," she demanded, hating any comparison to the fictional witch as Cyborg nodded,

"My first choice was Space Marine but that's a copywriting mess, Hardcore suits him; now as for you," he promptly switched tack and targets, cuffing Robin in a way that ruined his perfectly-gelled quiff, "go get the rest of the pizzas in and apologise to Raven for being an insensitive jerk."

"Fine, fine," he held his hands up in apology, grateful to see the Azarathian smirk; at least she didn't take too much offence – I'll apologise properly later, maybe lay it on a bit thick and see if I can't embarrass her or the green bean; "what's everyone's poison, and don't say more wine!"

XXX

It was when Robin, still in disgrace, was tidying the last of the empty cartons away that Gizmo, still toying with his frazzled backpack and wincing at a few bumps and scrapes, noticed the pre-occupation of one of his team-mates and gave him a nudge,

"Something on your mind Billy?"

"Yeah, just uh," the red-clad teen began, cold sweat beading on his neck as he realised he'd been caught out and the others were starting to pay attention as they rested replete after the feast, "just thinkin'…"

"Wondered what that noise was," Billy glared death at the smirking Mammoth before mustering his courage and carrying on,

"…something you said Miss Raven, 'bout that little gem you lost," the dark mage looked up at her name while the Five swapped perturbed glances; it seldom boded well when Billy Numerous broke out the pleasantries, "you said it was from, Trigon?"

"You can say his name; unless there's some phoenix in him he's not coming back," she told the room at large, trying to clamp down on the rush of fierce joy that surged through her as she announced her freedom aloud again, "and yes, that Gem was born of his fire."

"Glad to see it gone then," he chuckled weakly before biting the bullet, "but you also said it was his portal and he was to sire from it?" Not sure where he was going with the oblique questions, Raven nevertheless nodded cautiously,

"Yes…"

"So, it was his, and but it was in you for your prophesy-thing,"; watching him think is like a slow-motion train wreck – oh, hang on, Houston we may have lift-off; "does that mean you're, or you were one of them… I don't know the word, uh, you know, girl-and-boy people," let down by his less than stellar education he mimed clumsily, blushing as he tried not to look at her, "you got both bits 'cause of him?"

For a long second Raven was shocked, halfway between not understanding and not wanting to understand the question, then Cyborg let out an explosive snort and ducked behind the couch, she could see Robin whispering in Starfires' ear and made to head this line of inquiry off before it ended in terminal embarrassment,

"I am not a hermaphrodite!"

"You sure?" Traitor!; even as her look of outraged betrayal blasted into the boy who'd been leant against the side of her seat Beast Boy merely smirked, "It explains the gravelly voice."

"And the cape," never one to shy away from poking the bear Gizmo gleefully stuck the boot in, "good to hide bulges."

"But she wears a leotard," Billy chipped in, embarrassed for lighting this touch-paper and trying to make amends, "that wouldn't hide… anything." She's my little sister – she'll get over it – but… - big brother privilege invoked, tease your younger sibling – fine; mental war over Cyborg clambered back over the couch in time to dump oil on the fire,

"D, depends how well she tapes up," he managed, grinning at Raven's open-mouthed stupefaction, "don't look at me like that Rae, at least I know why you fly everywhere now, stops the chafing!"

I am not hearing this; cheeks molten red Raven let her face fall into her hands but even as outright laughter broke out and a now-enlightened Starfire appraised her with a look somewhere between amazement and hilarity she didn't feel cut off as she had in the past. True they were laughing at her but she'd internally laughed at most of them at one time or another – this was her turn on the ducking stool. Part of her, possibly Sloth, stated turnabout was fair play but Brave was already seizing the helm, calling at her to turn the tables with a deviously delicious revenge. Her magic was sluggish and summoning it was a struggle but the whips to her ego gave her the fuel; feathering a touch on all the right minds present she leant forwards in her seat and raised her hands for calm that, after a few more interesting theories about her gender, eventually settled,

"Believe it or don't; I don't care; but I said the truth, and anyway Billy was right," seeing him duck his head appreciatively she realised he really hadn't meant any offence and, touched a little by this, released him from the forthcoming enchantment, "any part of my fathers' influence is gone and he won't be siring from that gem anymore. After all," her lips split into a vicious grin as she clenched her fist suddenly, "I heard the crunch!"

As six of the assembled promptly went white and folded over themselves at the unsubtle mental image she forced into their minds Raven allowed herself a victorious smirk, revelling in their agonised moans as she stretched languidly in her chair; what do you know, Garfield was right about something; she spared the shivering green bundle by the side of her seat a sympathetic look before grinning again; pranks really are fun.

XXX

"Never thought I'd feel sorry for the devil," See-More declared in a high-pitched voice a few moments later, still not able to sit upright, "she's definitely a woman; only they're that cruel."

"And don't you forget it; skin me girl," Jinx told him, reaching a hand over the arm of the settee that Raven, after a second remembering what the unfamiliar gesture meant, tapped softly with her own, "treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen." Glancing over from where she was helping Robin up from where he'd slid off the settee, Starfire raised an eyebrow,

"What would they be keen for after their grabnarks have been mangled?"

"Not having it happen again," the Boy Wonder groaned, knowing he wasn't physically hurt but feeling it thanks to Raven's empathic manipulations, "is it too late for a sorry?"

"You never know until you try," she dead-panned, thinly amused at the results of her first serious practical joke as one of its main targets managed to painfully lever himself back upright with the aid of a kitchen stool. Jinx saw this as well and, feeling slightly protective of the other magic user, turned her fire on one of the chief instigators against her,

"How come you were affected Cy; sympathy pain?"

In the midst of the shocked gasps Jinx sat primly, looking for all the world like one of her favourite animals that had got the cream as the mechanical member of the Titans froze, then slowly stumped around to glare at her,

"What the hell…?"

"That's what she said," Jinx snipped in neatly, raising an eyebrow as Cyborg was left agape at her cheek, "might wanna get onto upgrading that bit of hardware Tin-can; three-and-a-half-inch floppy just doesn't cut it these days."

"Shots fired!" Beast Boy managed over the collective 'ooohhh' from the audience, the green teen grateful to see a hint of a grin peeping across Ravens' lips as their big-brother figure looked stupefied for a second before rallying, his bionic eye blazing,

"You do not wanna go there Jinx, I'm warning you!"

"Warning heeded; I definitely am nut going there, nut at ball," she answered, smirking coyly she needled her newest target, "doubt there's much to see anyway."

"Daaammmmn girl," Gizmo managed in amazement before realising he was sat slightly between the two now-waring parties and hastily trying to meld with the settee as Cyborg swelled with outrage before, to universal relief and astonishment, letting it go in a huge exhalation, raising his palms in a supplicating gesture,

"No, no, once again I gotta be the biggest man in the room," he seemed to speak half to himself before locking eyes with his tormentor, "she's just projecting. I'm half-machine and she's half-and-half, what's your excuse for having nothing to show – puberty was unkind?" Fortunately before Raven could do much more than raise an eyebrow at his casual slander Jinx had snapped up the bait, her eyes glowing pink as she leant forwards,

"And you mean what by that?"

"Well," Cy drawled for a second, cycling through his options to one-up her previous disses, "put it like this, if Victorias' are a secret yours are a mystery." Flushing despite herself as she watched most of the other eight teens collectively wince Jinx dragged nails into the armrest, teeth bared as she jerked her other thumb into her chest,

"You wanna piece of me Rusty Nuts?"

"You got nothing worth wanting Tic-Tacs; I've seen more meat on one of Minty Fresh's' toothpicks."

"There will be blood!" Billy lamented, looking like he was praying as his team mates' cheeks bloomed scarlet; without a word Jinx hurled herself to her feet, Cyborg not backing down an inch as she threw herself between Robin and Starfire, standing on the settee to look him in the eye. Either not noticing or caring that Starfire was looking up curiously at things normally hidden under her skirt (Robin, on the other hand, had his gaze firmly in his lap, his aching grabnarks warning him against annoying the other sorceress in the room) the hexmistress leant forwards and breathed her next words directly into his smug grin,

"Overdrive Four," she stated slowly, pointing towards the inert Gamestation without breaking eye-contact, "Breakneck Junction, Max speed – you man enough Clockwork?"

"Bring it on Cats-Eyes."

XXX

Consciousness returned slowly, trickling down his mind like water through a sponge as his body reactivated one leaden limb at a time. Slowly blinking his eyes open and re-orientating himself as being in the space between kitchen and living room of the Tower, Robin took a few moments to determine if anything other than the swaying red thing he could see out the corner of his eye was wrong with the picture. First thing he checked was his mask, smirking to himself when he realised it was still there; call him a kook but asking Question how he kept his mask on was one of the best things I ever did; then he checked himself over as he wriggled out of the sleeping bag he could just about remember dragging from his room before the lights went out. Everything seemed to be in working order, though his nethers still tingled a touch as he stretched out, scratched the back of his now-ruined hairstyle and tried to recall both what had happened last night; well, that's obvious – we were all just acting like teenagers.

The sudden thought made him stifle a snort of laughter, hand over his lips as he tried to avoid waking anyone up, least of all the girl sprawled on the kitchen countertop only a few feet from where he'd ended up crashed out, the Tamaranean warrior unconcerned by mere human concerns such as blankets in the face of a 'party of slumber'. Gazing down at her sleeping face and seeing Silkie curled up at her hip, Robin couldn't help the secretive smile flowing over his face, one he only allowed himself when he was sure no-one else would see it. Ever since she had literally crashed into his world he'd known he was never going to back to the person he had been in Gotham; no matter how long a shadow Batman cast over him, Robin knew he would never be fully eclipsed by that seductive but terrifying call of the night while Starfire was there illuminating him with her courage, her adorable cluelessness and her atrocious cuisine; though having said that…

Thinking about the abominable slop brought back memories of the previous night, starting with Jinx and Cyborgs' little tete-a-tete; the two hadn't stopped glaring daggers at each other until the game was booted up and had seized the controllers as though they were duelling pistols. Along with the others Robin had cheered and hollered for his team mate as Titan had fought H.I.V.E and the look of crushing despair on Cyborgs' face when he'd mashed one of the buttons too hard and his car, nose in the lead with the last lap begging, span off the track had been absolutely priceless, Jinx left to savour her victory despite his continued denunciations that her bad luck had hexed him. And, of course, someone had to break out the armoury at that point - we'll be picking foam bullets out of the carpet for weeks; even as he tried to glare at his oblivious team mate he just didn't have the heart to hold it for long; still, hell of a training session, and it gave the two gamers a way to try and kill each other without killing each other. For that he was eternally grateful; after their challenge the warring sorceress and machine-man had been trading increasingly sharp barbs until, forewarned by a Tamaranean battlecry, everyone had scattered to avoid Starfires' strafing run. Dropping an armful of loaded foam pellet guns and digital life counters set to 99, the highest they could go, Starfire had promised the full pan of the Broth of Victory she'd been making during the game to the winner as everyone grabbed a gun and went running, the five-minute countdown on their wristbands ticking down as soon as they all had one on.

The result had been utter bedlam; Robin had tried to impose a no powers rule but swiftly been forced to capitulate, hastily sealing off the more delicate areas of the Titan base before he and the other nine players rampaged through it with abandon. There were no teams and even less loyalty, abilities were abused to attain priceless shots or lose tenacious foes (who would have guessed Raven would be such a ghost with her teleportation – that bore thinking about for in-field work when she was back at her peak) and he was proud that even without powers he'd been fourth-to-last eliminated, a double-knockout with with Gizmo after the two had stalked each other through a variety of storage rooms, not realising they were both on their last life until their fatal shots hit simultaneously.

After a brief laugh at the irony the two had dragged themselves upstairs, collapsing drenched with sweat in the main common room with the other eliminated competitors as Cyborg, Jinx and Beast Boy were left to finish the game. There were no doubts about the eventual winner, a tower seeming to shake from the 'booyah!' that echoed from its lower levels, the originator of such jubilation bowing himself into the common room some minutes later to ironic cheers and with both former competitors nagging at his flanks and accusing him of outrageous cheating. Fortunately Cyborgs' smugness had been neatly extinguished by Starfire's presentation of the Tamaranean Broth of Victory, a gloopy, viscous mess akin to a cross between primordial soup and an escapee part of Plasmus. Along with the others Robin had watched in ill-disguised glee as his would-be excuses shrivelled in the face of her earnest expectation and his face had swiftly followed at the taste of the concoction, though the devious sod had gotten his revenge on them all by demanding it be shared out to the others as 'without players, there would be no victory'; and I doubt the house ferns will ever recover. Still, she got one convert to Tamaranean cuisine, that was a surprise; rubbing his eyes the Titan leader glanced around the rest of the room and quickly surveyed the carnage.

Everyone appeared to be where they'd collapsed during the post-battle movie marathon, though even as he'd retreated to dig his sleeping bag out of his room he'd been amazed to see the H.I.V.E. Five already settling down in a manner that had surprised him, declining the offer of rooms. From where he was he could see Mammoth on the floor, a cushion under his chin his only compromise for comfort as Gizmo was between his shoulder-blades, covered with a blanket and snoring like a miniature buzz-saw. The tips of Jinxs' hair poked out from one end of the settee, her feet tucked up where she was top-and-tailing with See-More as the cyclops's head rested on the back of where Billy Numerous was curled up like a cat. What was it he told Star – he grew up sleeping on chairs and car seats, can't get comfortable any other way; an uncomfortable pang pricked the heroes' conscience – though he didn't agree with their choices, he knew many villains became villains simply because they fell on hard times or had no other choice. Overseeing all was Cyborg, wires from one of the secondary charging ports scattered throughout the Towers fitted into his He was, however, jarred from such musings when he realised he was being watched and turned his attention to the watcher; the two regarded each other for several seconds before Mammoth folded his massive hands under his chin and batted his eyelids several times,

"Like what you see hero-boy?" Robin blinked, blinked again and then shuddered,

"Please never do that again," he asked deadpan, "I don't think I can afford another therapist." The older boy snorted,

"If you had any sense you'd not need one," he pointed out, nodding past the Boy Wonders' shoulder, "you and her…?" Guessing his insinuations, Robin tried to answer suavely whilst wrestling down a blush,

"It's complicated."

"She's an alien princess with metahuman powers linked to positivity, a knockout body, an extendable tongue and she cooks; it should be simple." Well, when you put it like tha…; at that instant Robins' thoughts caught up with the larger metahumans' insinuation and he really did blush, glaring at the prostate villain with hard eyes,

"That's disgusting!"

"Not if it's done right," Robin felt he should have been outraged on his teammates' behalf but Mammoth wasn't leering, in fact if anything he looked surprisingly like Cyborg when the half-android was in full elder-brother mode as he fixed the hero with a piercing gaze, "girls like that drop into your life maybe once if you're lucky – don't be an idiot."

Ouch; left undefended against such brutal honesty Robin could only nod; was it Bruce who said friends tell you what you want to know, enemies tell you what you need to know? No, that was Alfred;

"I try not to be, and anyway regarding her cooking you earned a prize," he chuckled, Mammoth raising an eyebrow and shifting slightly as Gizmo, still on his back and sleeping soundly, squirmed a little on his unusual pillow, "never thought Tamaranean dishes could be contained within just one stomach."

"I've eaten worse." Robin shuddered at the thought before glancing at the current spokesman for the Five,

"So, when you're all awake we can drop you off around your base and we call it all quits until the next time you go on a robbing spree?"

"Sounds fair, though a hot shower would be nice before we go, Giz is still trying to fix ours," Robin considered this a fair trade and nodded, though as he did he caught sight of something and, despite his stance on relationships between superheroes and heroines, found himself smiling slightly.

He'd been surprised Raven had joined in the free-for-all battle but he reckoned she'd forfeited at some stage; certainly she'd gotten in a few shots on him before mysteriously disappearing; but he doubted she'd seen past the first ten minutes of the movie before drifting into slumber. However she hadn't gone into the darkness alone; as the two smallest and slimmest Titans the grey and green members of the team were just about able to sleep side by side on her chair, something Robin guessed Raven would do something about as soon as she woke up; though hopefully BB will be up before then, or he will if he has any sense and-stroke-or survival instinct. Even as the thought crossed his mind he shook his head – he'd suspected the two held something for each other; Beast Boy certainly did, refusing to let the grimmer team member seclude herself even when she expressly stated she wanted to be left alone; and as he noted the green arm tenderly folded over the swaddled cloak he felt his suspicions were confirmed. I should really take a picture, but I won't; it was a sweet moment, not one to be later soured by ribald jokes and teasing, though as he committed the scene to memory he suddenly realised something about how the two of them were laid and what Beast Boys' hand was covering over the smooth material of the cambions' cloak; and was that the hand… yes, yes it was! That's interesting, I wonder if it means anything – I'll keep an eye out…

Despite it being a fleeting observation Robin took it as seriously as he did anything else to do with his team and, because of that observation, some years later on one of the happiest days of his life and after hearing Victors' best man speech, he was able to state his observations out loud and then observe their dumbstruck expressions when, in front of the whole reception, he was able to prove it beyond doubt…

XXX

"Better add this one to the list then," Beast Boy sighed, "leave it to Rob to document everything – seriously who gives a dossier for a wedding present?"

"The second-greatest detective in the world?" Raven suggested innocuously, shaking her head against their shared pillows, "Still, can't deny he was right."

"Sadly not, obsessive git," Garfields' comment lacked heat as he recalled some choice annotations of the Bird Boys' diary, each one detailing a time where both parts of their anatomy touched by the otherworldly being so long ago had come together. From pulling the red-faced and exhausted mage from the floor a few days after the H.I.V.E. Five had left the tower (Jinx under extreme protest, claiming she needed to both marry the power shower and make Cyborgs' life miserable) to ending the last slow dance of the annual Titan reunion ball with an extra spin onto one knee to ask for her hand, the fist Hardcore had bumped had covered the mark left in his wake in all manner of scenarios. Since realising this during their wedding reception Raven had tried to work out if there was any residual magic or other compulsion but had found nothing, either because there was nothing there or because it was a type of magic she didn't know she couldn't say, and in the end neither of them particularly cared, this little quirk being just one of a multitude that had bound them together as they'd matured through fire, fear and supervillain attack. The two lay in companionable silence until Garfield shivered with a suppressed laugh and asked,

"Reckon Cy's figured it out yet?"

"Hopefully not," Raven answered, recalling the latest escalation of the ongoing war, "she's just lucky his scanners can't penetrate magical concealment, just as well considering what he said he'd do to the guy who swapped his car paints around."

"I'm surprised the colour didn't give it away," Changeling admitted, recalling the look on the Cyborgs' face following his precious baby emerging from the spray booth a hot shade of fuchsia, "reckon he'll propose soon?"

"Oh definitely," Raven assured him, "he'll get down on one knee by the end of the year, even if I have to pull a Mammoth and knock his leg out the park."

And people say we were a match made in Hell; lightly kissing her closest shoulder at the same time as stifling giggles Changeling thought back to the fractious relationship of their joint best friends. In the aftermath of Trigons' final death things had fundamentally changed between the Five and the Titans; though the villainous group still caused trouble their hearts didn't seem to be in it, and neither did the Titans retaliate as much as they perhaps should have done – more than once they even teamed up to take down other villains threatening Jump City. Throughout all of their interactions, however, one thing that never changed was the friction between Jinx and Cyborg, the two of them renewing their rivalry at every turn be it in battle or during unexpected encounters in the streets, and when Cyborg had finally achieved his life-long dream of entering the ranks of the Justice League it had only escalated further. The first the Titans had heard about it had been an infuriated Jinx all but hammering the door of the Tower flat and demanding the insufferable robot show himself, the rest of the H.I.V.E. sheepishly at her heels and drawing straws to decide who was going to try calming her down.

Eventually the story came out, Cyborgs' informing one of the honorary Justice League about the existence of another magic user in Jump City resulting in Zatanna paying the villains a visit under the illusion of her tip-off. The resultant 'attack' had pushed them all to their absolute limit and left Jinx herself battered, humiliated, drained of every scrap of magic she possessed and then amazed when the elder mage dropped her disguise, stated she had a talent for the arcane arts and told her to look up the show she'd be performing in the future, stating she might be in the market for an apprentice soon. More importantly the magician also accidentally let slip the name of her tip-off and Jinx was now out for blood and oil, demanding to be admitted to the Watchtower to 'do the world a favour and shove an electro-magnet somewhere a cotton bud would be kinder',

"Though fortunately it didn't come to that," Raven remembered, chuckling slightly as she recalled watching the horn-haired girls rampage through the space station on live-screen after she'd been granted access clearance from Flash, who hadn't stopped smirking for days after the situation had been explained to him. Unfortunately he'd had just enough decency to avoid showing the face-to-face but, given that Cyborg had eventually answered the communicator with a large red mark on his cheek and Jinx wrapped around his neck in a shameless hug that she refused to relinquish even as he fielded questions from the others, the result being a torturous interrogation she made infinitely worse at every turn,

"Not yet but give it time," Garfield answered with a chuckle before sobering up, the memory of the next time the two enemies had come together sore in his mind, "still he can say he hates her all she wants, he was there after the Big One."

"We all were, for each other," Raven added sombrely, recalling the day Jump City had shaken with awful clarity, as always forever grateful the Tower had been empty when the earthquake had struck and all but reduced it to rubble. One of the largest quakes to strike the mainland in years, the only mercy that it hadn't been generated in the ocean and sent in a tsunami to finish the job on the devastated city. It had been a panic on a level not even the most powerful supervillain had ever managed, destruction even the Justice League together would have been hard-pressed to contain and repair, and the worst of the aftermath had been largely averted by one individual. Even as the battered emergency services tried to swing into action the streets had filled with red-clad bodies; as the Titans rallied and began to co-ordinate with the city government Billy Numerous had taken matters into his innumerable hands. Rescues, fighting fires, helping search parties, shifting rubble, re-uniting families and manning aid stations or co-ordinating the movement of people on the ground as a one-man radio network Billy had done it all and, at the end of the Jump citys' darkest day, become the final casualty as he paid the ultimate price for his heroism.

It had been swift, the mental trauma of so many clones dispersing at once resulting in a stroke so massive it had been instantly fatal, but that was little comfort to the rest of his devastated team. If Trigons' death had marked the H.I.V.E. Five's distancing themselves from villainy Billys had shattered their relationship with it utterly, all four present for the city-wide unveiling of the stone monument to remember the fallen six months later and left inconsolable when Green Arrow, speaking for the Justice League, had finished his brief eulogy and symbolically engraved the initials JL next to the name William Strayer with one of his arrows. From there the Five had fully disbanded, Jinx taking up Zatanna's offer of apprenticeship in the art after exhausting her tears and grief on Cyborgs' stoic shoulder and the others to their own devices, though the Titans kept tabs on both Gizmos' minor tech start-up and See-Mores' end of pier caricature service. Mammoth, after ensuring his younger charges were settled and well enough, had simply left Jump and drifted, working on the road where super strength and toughness could be gainfully employed though he kept in touch with his friends and, surprisingly, Starfire as well, calling in on the Tamaranean on the rare occasions he returned to the rebuilt city to share copious helpings of the 'Dessert of Friendship', much to Robins' dread.

We've all grown up; the thought somehow didn't seem as frightening to Garfield as it once had, back when all he'd been interested in was beating the bad guys, hanging with his friends and trying to snaffle the last slice of pizza without anyone noticing; for better and worse we've all changed. Though for some of us; rolling his eyes sideways he pulled slightly, Raven rolling over and partially onto his chest after a seconds' token resistance; that change was definitely for the best;

"Sorry for waking you," he apologised, knowing it was hard for her to drop off at the moment and grateful for her answering chuckle,

"You didn't, I was waiting for you to fall asleep to see if it would happen again," Raven told him, nuzzling slightly into his shoulder, "though in this case you didn't even wait that long."

"More data for the observation book," Garfield reminded her with a wry smile, "you're free to hold my hand any time you know?" Raven quirked an eyebrow,

"That so? I'll remind you of that a few months from now."

"Go right ahead," the anamorph told her, a familiar shot of nervous excitement shooting through him as his free hand ghosted over the slight swell just below his wifes' stomach and what it would soon mean, "though I reserve the right to squeal like a little girl throughout the whole thing, assuming I don't pass out first."

"You do and you'll be in the doghouse for the next six months, literally."

"You're a cruel woman Mrs Logan; I must be a masochist."

"Since when has that been a secret; you were on a team with me for years."

"True," he admitted before his hand found her wrist again, thumb tracing the slightly raised scar over and over as he looked into her beautiful lilac eyes, "do you miss it Rae?"

She was silent for a long moment and he felt a twinge of unease that he might have been a little too direct before to his relief she shook her head,

"Sometimes," she admitted, knowing that even now her powers would never be quite what they were in her youth; whatever the stranger had done had scarred more than just her flesh. Though she still sought out the exact mechanisms, whatever the mark was severely diminished the powers granted to her by her demonic nature, preventing her from calling on the strength that could have levelled the world for good or for ill. Nevermore had also changed, her emotions seemingly purged from all but the faintest trace of her darker half, even Rage recognisable as more human than monster as the crimson mark seemed etched in every surface, burnt onto every field and engraved in every wall, a physical manifestation of power far greater than her own or her fathers.

Despite her loss of power and the gruelling training she'd had to endure to recover even a shadow of her former self, however, Raven couldn't find it in herself to hate the stranger who'd enacted the change as in diminishment came freedom. Whereas before it was a continual struggle to contain the volatile power through meditation and self-denial, since that day she'd had to work to summon and channel her strength almost regardless of her emotional strength; and boy did I find that out the hard way? She shivered at the memory; after meditating and seeking guidance from within herself for some days after the branding Raven had emerged and found her friends being run through a training circuit by Robin, though this was quickly suspended upon seeing her in the flesh again. She had explained her initial conclusions and wondered aloud if experiencing strong emotions could be done under test conditions, like that scary film that had caused such trouble before; in hindsight she'd been an idiot for not running the second she'd seen three of the assembled swap glances before breaking out in identical evil grins.

With a victorious cry of 'vengeance for our grabnarks' Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy had piled into her and to her horror she'd quickly discovered she was a lot more ticklish in a lot more places than she'd ever imagined. How long the torture had carried on she'd never know; she distinctly remembered begging Robin not to take her boots off at once point and that Starfire had misunderstood her pleas for help and pitched in with the rest of the team before she was able to snatch a breath to correct her error. She was left a shaking, sweaty mess, not even able to slap Beast Boy upside the head when he peeled her off the floor afterwards but, as the only damage had been the free weights thrown around the place and a few large cracks in the gym mirrors, Robin was content to declare her conclusions sound before embracing her softly, welcoming her back to the Titans officially. From there it had been a slow integration into normal life while mastering her powers as much as she could; power for normality, a trade every super makes at some stage. Still, enough of that for now; another pressing need made itself known with a low growl and at her husbands' groan she could only rub her hands together in glee; time to enjoy a pregnancy plus;

"You cannot be serious," Garfield moaned, pulling his hand down his face, "can't you get your cravings at a reasonable hour?"

"Well, I could always go for my default option – wow, didn't know you'd be training with Wally again…"

"Leave my blood out of this," the shapeshifter demanded with a shiver, having vacated the covers with alarming alacrity, "go on, hit me with it."

"I feel like," Raven began, trying to voice what her taste-buds were aching for, "something bitter-sour, but with crunch."

"Salad?"

"For the crunch but it needs some flavour; a nice dressing, something sharp."

"One sour-cream salad wrap coming up," Garfield announced, taking half a step towards the door before pausing and leaning down to press his lips softly to the tiny crease in her brow where once a jewel of condensed evil had nestled, "you know I love you right, crazy as you send me?" Even as her forehead tingled Raven gave a playful laugh,

"You stood in front of the doom of my father, that proves either you love me or you're already crazy."

"Couldn't it be both?"

"Get out, I'm starving," she demanded, brandishing the pillow she snatched up like a weapon towards his fleeing green buttocks before settling back down, eyes on the door as it swung shut behind him and a last whisper on her lips that she knew his enhanced hearing would notice, "and, crazy as you are, it hasn't stopped me loving you yet."

A/N: Okay, took a little longer than I expected but I still managed to best the challenge; hope you enjoyed it sprout. However as I am now officially an 'old git' I supposed I'd best explain some of the disses Jinx and Cyborg used to the current T-rated audience:

Floppy: Back in the day before I-cloud, USB or even (gasp) CDs, the only way of storing data was a re-writable plastic square called a floppy disk; if you open Microsoft Word, you can see one on the Save button. The most common size for these floppy disks was 3 and a half inches and yes, the jokes just wrote themselves from there.

Tic-Tacs: Short for 'two Tic-Tacs on an ironing board', this is an extremely derogatory way of describing a lady with a small bust (for the sake of completeness, a lady with the opposite problem may be described as 'two fried eggs on a slice of toast' or 'two beachballs on a flat lilo').

If anyone is else in interested, the full details for the challenge that spawned this story were:

The Titans are facing off against the Five until one of the bigger villains acts and forces them to work together.

There's a cross-over with the hero/protagonist of a non-comic franchise, who helps the heroes fight off the bad guy but isn't the full focus of the story (hopefully you've all worked out who Genocide/Hardcore actually is – there's a clue in the title); for bonus points, it can't be the hero of a franchise you've already written about.

H.I.V.E. Five and Titans share a victory scene.

Raven must legitimately laugh at one of Beast Boy's jokes.

Must be written within a month.

As I know nothing about the Teen Titans I spent some time researching (wikis, video clips and, of course, this site) and came up with this quick snippet – hope you all enjoyed it and, if I get time in the future and finish one of my other projects, I might have a chance to come up with a fuller story for the Titans in time, it looks like it's got potential. Hopefully catch you all in the future when I've got time to write more again – until then, enjoy what you read and good luck in your own writings.