"Like hell no", she said, pointing her sword at Demian. "Like I said- you're mad. Plural universes? I could have invented something more credible than this, boy. Now put that wand away and follow me."

"No! You don't understand, officer!" he shouted. "You've been tricked! Kin is somewhere out there, planning to return- we'll have to stop him-!"

RING.

RIIIIIING.

RIIIING RING RING RIIING RING.

'I hate phone calls' the teenager though while putting her pencil away and raising slowly from the writing desk. 'There is obviously no one important, because no one that I care about has my number. And by the time I'll end the call I'll probably have forgotten all my ideas with the story…so, Demian tries to run away, Akira captures him with her special ability of blood-bending, the guy gets thrown into jail but at about that time his lawyer realizes he's speaking the truth. However, Kin controls everything so…'

Ouch.

There are a few things a person should avoid in order not to suddenly fall on the floor with a painful knee, and these include 1. Cardboard boxes which should definitely not be laying everywhere, even if you just moved in, and 2. Random thoughts that stop you to notice the respective boxes. But the cardboard boxes were everywhere in Alex's little hotel room, mostly filled with books, and the random thoughts were her nature. However, this incident had a good part (depending on what you classify as "good"): she found the telephone. It was on the floor, just in her front, and God knows why it was there and not on a table, like it should (actually it's because Alex needed some space on the bed table, and didn't bother to move it somewhere else). Extending her arm for the receptor while trying to get up, the black-haired girl picked up the phone and answered:

"Hello?". But the cold, metallic voice in her ear made her wish she had never come to Jump City in the first place, and even less to have answered the phone:

"It's nice to hear you again, Alex. Remember me-?"

SMASH. The girl hang up, basically destroying the phone in the process.

'Hell no' she thought, shivering, and stumbling over the same box, again. 'Not again. Why doesn't he leave me alone already?! How does he always find me?'

For over a year, Alex had been travelling around the globe, running from her nightmare.

New York, Tokyo, Bangkok, London- she'd seen them all, and not only. But every single time she tried to repair her life, to establish in a place, this man appeared. She never met him face to face, but when he phoned it meant she had to pack her things and go, or… else. Alex didn't want to think about it. Last time there had been a ninja sent after her.

'I have to run away' the thought boomed in her head.

But what could she solve, even if she did? Slade was going to follow her everywhere, on every frikin place on this planet. What could she do against him?!

"I'm just a teenager" Alex whispered to herself, her dark eyes widening and blinking as she tried to stop her tears. "And I'm mad. Why do I have to go through all this?!"

She slowly walked to the window, putting her hands and forehead on the cold glass. Just panicking was never going to solve things. Trying to relax and not to think too much, her eyes automatically registered what was going on in the world outside: a lady with a yellow hat walking on the street, the station, which looked a bit depressing in her opinion, the cloudy sky, cars, a freight train slowly exiting the station…

It exploded.

As the shockwave from the explosion hit her window and ears, Alex didn't move a muscle. But while her eyes were fixed on the cloud of dust raising from what had been a train just one minute ago, her face turned as white as paper. Alarms started. And the phone rang again.

'No. Please.'

A little suspicion formed in her mind, and grew until it overpowered her hope. It couldn't have been a coincidence. Coincidences never existed- not with him around. As the phone continued to ring, making her head hurt, Alex moved hardly towards it and picked it up.

"It's rude to hang up on someone, Alex" her Nemesis stated in a frozen tone.

'Why?! Why the hell, you maniac?!' the girl shouted. However, just in her mind- her lips seemed paralyzed; her mouth seemed to have forgotten what speaking is.

"That was just a warning- in case it passes your mind to leave the city. It could happen to a passenger train next time, or, who knows…a hospital. Better think before you act. Don't think I would be as merciful as the other times- those were just tests."

'This explains a lot'

A pause in the conversation. And then the man added:

"It's disrespectful to not answer someone, as well"

Basically forcing her words out of her throat, Alex replied:

"…I-I'm sorry. I understand"

She'd rather swallowed fire than say that, but couldn't risk attracting the anger of this mad man. The voice replied, this time a bit…amused:

"…do you?" Alex wanted to punch either him or himself in the face, but didn't have the luxury of unnecessary actions at the moment.

"…no. No, you're right, I don't. The majority of my powers are useless to you, unless I get a new brain. Because they're based on the subconscious, and you know it as well- I can't control them. If I could…" she whispered, "then I wouldn't be in this situation. Running away and everything. I'm not even smart or strong-willed. Although, this can be a reason of why you chose me and not somebody else-"

"Enough." Slade interrupted her. "Don't worry, there are enough methods to change somebody's mind" he said in a tone that reminded Alex of the Spanish Inquisition. "Now, I give you three days to meet me- after that, I'm not responsible for my actions. And, I think you know already- those 'Titans' won't help you at all. More probable, they'll try to lock you in an asylum if they find out what you are"

The girl let the receptor from her hands drop, without even realizing it. The connection interrupted- but Slade didn't phone again- he had sent his message. Alex collapsed on one of the boxes, holding her head with her hands. He was right, she was insane. More exactly, the poor girl was schizophrenic.

Etymology

First attested 1910, from germanized Greek Schizophrenie "split mind", coined by Eugen Bleuler, from Greek σχιζοφρένεια (schizofreneia), from prefix σχιζο- schizo-, from Ancient Greek σκίζω (schizo) "to tear, to split, to cut" + Ancient Greek φρήν (fren) "mind, brain, diaphragm". (wiktionary)

She could always feel her mind twisting in two separate directions. One was the so-called "real world", the place which everybody could see, feel, hear, taste. But the other one was a universe of her own – a place where nothing, and everything existed, and where the laws of probabilities meant nothing. But, for Alex, this place was at least as real, or even more, than the real world itself- a common sentiment for the victims of this mental disease, who could no longer distinguish hallucinations from truth, the psychiatrists said. But the girl had an advantage- she could control her visions.

This meant she could make them appear at any time she wanted, and control their content to a limited extent. One may ask, if she could do that, why did she keep having those illusions? Didn't that mean she wanted to have them? Isn't that wrong and insane enough? But such people don't understand- for Alex, her hallucinations were like playing on the computer, or taking drugs.

And addiction. Something to get her far away from reality. Something to make her forget everything, for a limited period of time.

And still…it was dangerous. As Alex attempted to enter her own universe, to calm down after Slade's phone call, a little alarm signal flashed in the back of her mind. Her mother. Apparently, she has had the same disease, even though the two never met. But everything she knew about her now is that she was in a hospital, catatonic.

She had twisted the roads between reality and imagination too much, and her mind failed to control her body anymore. Now, the woman was living just inside her brain in an endless dream, her body's functions supplied by machines. Alex was horrified by the perspective of ending the same way- though she'd have never realized it, if she did. But, as the girl had mentioned earlier in the conversation with Slade, her will power was weak. She was like a druggy desperate for the substance slowly killing him, even though he knows at least several people that either died or lost their minds because of it. And everything for a small piece of heaven, which is actually the pathway to hell.

Alex couldn't take it any longer. One more minute worrying about Slade, and she felt she'll go (even more) insane, with or without schizophrenia. Forgetting everything, and staring blindly in her front, she made the world dissolve in pastel colors around her. And then, the world was nothing but a dream.

***

In her room, Raven was meditating.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos" the girl repeated her mantra to no end. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos"

With her hood down, and her white legs crossed in a lotus pose, the girl was focusing her energy, calming her mind. Even though her father was long gone, and couldn't control her any longer, Raven felt that the daily meditations, far away from being a burden, were helping her. Especially now, when apparently Slade had come back. A minor train attack was proven to be his fault- why? Why would he do something so pointless?

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos"

Floating a few inches above the floor, the girl had her eyes closed. She had to concentrate.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos"

And then, behind Raven's closed eyelids, despite the darkness in the room, a light emerged.

It grew bigger and brighter, heading as a lightning towards the blue-haired Titan, and the girl soon discovered that she could he nothing to stop it- not even to open her eyes. In less than a second, the light filled all her vision and she found herself surrounded by fragment of thoughts, which most surely belonged to somebody else.

'A psychic attack' Raven thought, panicked. She had almost never sensed such a strong mental power before. But still- it wasn't harmful. If it resembled anything else in the world, that was the mind of a dreaming person, his subconscious.

'pointing her sword at Demian'

'Happiness. Peace. Freedom. Hope. Flight'

'it's an addiction'

'leave me alone'

'what are you doing in my world? Who are you?'

'are you as mad as me?'

After the last words echoed a few times in Raven's head, the voice disappeared, and the light faded out. The girl opened her violet eyes, just to discover that she was lying on the floor, and that, apparently, in contact with that strange mental power, her powers lost their focus and destroyed the room. Either this or it had been devastated by maniac robot monkeys with industrial chainsaws. Her eyebrows twitched as she studied the mess, and got up.

"Raven? Are you okay?" she heard Robin's voice calling from behind the thick titanium piece that was her bedroom's door. Putting her hood back on (that discouraged almost anyone from talking to her, even the leader), the dark Titan opened the door a few centimeters, just so she could see the boy. Hopefully, he won't be able to see into her room as well.

"Yes"

"Well, I've heard some noises coming from here and I came to check if…"

"I'm all right" Raven interrupted him. "I just accidentally dropped something on the floor." She added, and then closed the door in Robin's face. It wasn't her style- she normally respected the Boy Wonder, and even she doubted he could believe that lame excuse. But the guy had already enough problems with Slade returning, there was no need to bother him with an unknown telepath that possibly didn't even exist. If there was someone who could find out about him/her, then she was the right person for that.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos"

Oh wait- she knew that mental print. It was the same as the one she felt earlier that day, in the pizza store. Coincidence?

***

Coincidence-

You weren't paying attention to the other half of what was going on.

("Stand on Zanzibar"- by John Brunner)