Chapter 2

Cyborg didn't know how close to the truth he was when he said that Raven was having "One hell of a nightmare." Her mind had become a jumble of overlapping thoughts, visions, and feelings. Though she would remember little of it later on, she could remember clearly the singing. The sound made from the millions of roses that grew around the Dark Tower. She would also have a vague recollection of seeing different worlds, different realties infinite in number and each as diverse and strange as the last. She also remembered what was lying in the darkness between these worlds.

She had once played a game called Silent Hill. The game contained a number of very disturbing looking environments and monsters, monsters that she found very cool at the time, but she remembered thinking to herself that they would probably seem far less interesting if she was seeing them in person. This theory was now proven. The creatures that lived in that darkness between worlds were very much like the monsters in Silent Hill, they were large, with undefined features, covered in a strange reddish-brown substance that looked like blood that had dried and long ago turned into a kind of clinging dust. Some had large arms, arms that seemed to reach out to her as she passed, while others had their limbs twisted in grotesque positions. They called out into the darkness, the sounds that escaped their throats sounding to Raven like muffled screams of sadness and anger. Even some of the most frightening enemies she had faced in her time seemed mild in comparison.

The song of the Tower drove them back, and their cries intensified. Raven was suddenly torn away from this dark place between universes, much to her relief. The song was rising to a crescendo, and if Raven's disembodied spirit had had hands, she would be most certainly be putting them over where her "ears" would be. With the gentles of a light breeze, Raven felt herself set down in a very familiar place: The field of roses around the Dark Tower.

There was something different this time, though. The Tower itself seemed blurry, almost as if her eyes could not focus on its tall visage, and looking at it for too long made her head hurt. This was totally unlike the other times she had been here. Other times being in this field before the tower gave her a sense of peace, and it was difficult, if not impossible, to tear her gaze away from the obsidian building in the center of the field. The singing had fallen to a dull murmur, and Raven became aware of a woman in white striding through the roses towards her. A woman she knew very well. Her mother.

As she approached, it sounded almost as if she were talking to herself.

"The Tower must have a sense of irony indeed."

Before Raven could speak, she continued.

"That it should choose one that almost destroyed one of its worlds to save it."

"Mother." Raven replied calmly, although a rather strong surge of anger came at her Mother's words.

She continued on as if Raven had said nothing.

"Better people have died on the road to the tower. Stronger, more capable, more experienced. What hope do you possibly have? Some of the strongest ka-tets a group of people bound by fate in the history of existence have been destroyed seeking the Tower. Even now the beasts you saw in the todash darkness feast on their spirit energy. When the Tower finally falls, these creatures shall cover all existence with their evil." Her eyes gleamed with a contempt Raven thought was as deep as the darkness she spoke off. "And you think you can save it? With your petty abilities and what you call determination you think you can save the Tower and the worlds that sprung from it? You would not believe the vast array of enemies you would face on this quest. They are powerful indeed, and would not allow a child to undo what they have worked for for uncounted millennium."

As the woman continued to rant in this fashion, Raven noticed that the singing had begun to swell again. The woman who was obviously not her mother continued, unnoticing.

"You're scared." Raven said at last, interrupting her. "You're scared I can do it. Scared that you and whatever sent you will be defeated, after all the time and effort you've put into this will be for nothing."

The woman began to change then, her dress turning from an intense, elegant white to a deep red. A circle appeared on her forehead, within it was a symbol Raven couldn't identify.

"Go then." The woman's voice was suddenly very deep. "Your death, and the death of the Tower, lies ahead." She made a broad gesture with her arm, sweeping it over the endless field. Raven saw that she held four tarot cards in her hand: The High Priestess, The Hanged Man, The Moon, and The Empress.

Pain exploded in Raven's head as the song rose to unbelievable heights. The Tower snapped into focus, and just before she fell into a more peaceful sleep, she saw one thing. A door: A door that stood with no building around it or behind it. It sat on a dark cliff, with violent waves crashing from the vast ocean below. On the door was a strange symbol, and above the symbol was written: The High Priestess.

CJ had also fallen into a more peaceful sleep as well. He had been there, with Raven, though he'd been unable to speak or get her attention. He felt more like a voyeur than one who was openly there, as neither of the women acknowledged his presence. Used to being the center of attention, he had had a number of sarcastic comments to make to the woman that Raven called mother, and had cheered when Raven had told the obvious truth: the woman was scared. They were both pulled away at the same moment. And as he was pulled from the field, he saw something different. It was the exact same door Raven saw, but to his eyes the writing above the strange symbol read: The Hanged Man.

To Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Starfire, who were now even more worried than before, it seemed that the two became quiet at the same moment, and the weird comma-like states they had been in had changed into normal sleep. The monitors confirmed this.

"Dude, there is some weird shit going on here." Beast Boy said his brow furrowed. CJ had gone from fully awake to out like a light again in an instant.

Rather than wake him, the other Titans decided to leave the two in peace, with the monitors to watch over them, not realizing that this could very well be the last time they saw either of them.

Raven awoke with a start. It was night outside, and the sky was clear, showing the beautiful stars and thumbnail moon outside the infirmary window. Beside her was a heavily snoring CJ.

"What in the world is he doing here?" She thought to herself. She got up slowly from the infirmary bed, but was pleasantly surprised to find the pain around her temples was gone. There was still a good deal of nausea as a result of her little "shower", but she hoped it would not distract her from her work. As she rose she suddenly felt very sick, but her stomach settled as she began to walk briskly from the room. She couldn't let anyone know she was going. Being the faithful friends that they were, they would want to go with her. The thought of their loyalty brought a smile to her lips. But this was a quest only for the chosen, and while she was not too confident about her own chances of even seeing the Dark Tower, she knew that the journey there would only mean certain death for her friends; death in obscurity upon a nameless world, victims of the enemies of the Tower.

She silently entered her room, phasing through the walls so as not to make unnecessary noise. She would have to pack light, she didn't know how long this was going to take, but she knew it wouldn't be a day trip. She gathered her winter clothes, a couple of very important books (including one on tarot cards, a book she hoped to study at great detail), as much food as she could carry, and other essentials like matches and bandages.

She floated out of the tower, saying a silent goodbye to the friends inside. She did not wish farewell to the Weretiger, however. She had always had a strange suspicion about him, much like the one she had had towards Terra, and had not been able to shake the feeling that something lurked underneath the light-hearted exterior of the man. So intense were these feelings that she had broken into his mind once, something she had sworn never to do, but she could not allow another betrayal within the Titans. She had seen many things there, many things that surprised and alarmed her, but she did not see betrayal. And since she was far from perfect in how she handled her own internal conflicts, she had let sleeping dogs (or in this case cats) lie. She had covered her tracks well, and had told no one about her transgression. Still, the feeling of suspicion remained.

As she exited the Tower, Raven began flying slowly westward along the coast. She couldn't be sure in witch direction she needed to go, but she had progressed so far on instinct, and she felt the best course was to continue to do so. Nevertheless, she would need to fly slowly, so that she did not overlook her target: a certain door on a dark cliff overlooking the water.

CJ was sleeping deeply (as he rarely did) and of course could not even begin to hear Raven's stealthy departure over his own snores. He was dreaming as well, though a far more normal dream than what he had grown accustomed to. Whether it was his Tiger half, or just some deep personal preference, he loved fish; so much so that he sometimes dreamed of catching and eating vast quantities of river salmon (his favorite pastime when he lived in the wilds of Montana and Canada), and that's just what he was doing when the Weretiger showed up.

It wasn't exactly a common occurrence, meeting his other half in a dream like this, but the few times it had happened he had never found any real meaning or extra depth in that dream, and so didn't expect it now.

The massive shape strode through the river, scattering the salmon and sending them downstream.

"Hey buddy!" CJ exclaimed, a little angry, "There's plenty for the both of us, you don't have to scare mine away. Why don't you head downstream or something?"

The fearsome creature ignored him. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" It asked in a deep, growling voice that had an edge of anger in it.

"What in the hell does it look like I'm doing?" CJ replied, even more pissed. "I'm trying to…"

The Weretiger cut him off with an angry roar. "SHE'S GETTING AWAY! IF SHE GOES NOW WE MAY NEVER FIND HER!"

Before he could ask what in the hell the Weretiger was talking about, he caught a glimpse of a door on a dark cliff; Raven was there, reaching out for the large ornate brass knob.

With a flash of insight, he knew where she was going: to the world of the Dark Tower.

The Weretiger grabbed him around the shoulders, and pulled him to within an inch of his huge maw.

"OUR KA-TET SHALL BE BROKEN BEFORE IT IS EVEN FORMED! RUN NOW, REMEMBER THE FACE OF YOUR FATHER, AND RUN!"

CJ awoke with a start, sitting straight up in bed. He immediately looked over to the bed next to him; hoping it was still occupied. But of course he was wrong.

"Oh, SHIT!" CJ swore before realizing he needed to be quiet as well. The rest of a long stream of curses were under his breath as he ran as quickly and quietly through Titan Tower as he could.

"What about food? What about gear?" He asked himself as he descended the last flight of stairs.

"NO TIME." Came the reply, echoing within his mind.

At last he ran through the main entrance, and with an angry cry, transformed. In an instant the Weretiger stood were CJ had a second earlier. All thoughts of stealth were now thrown to the wind, and with a below, the Weretiger sprinted with incredible speed westward.

He only had one hope: that Raven would hesitate before going through the door. Unlike Raven, the Weretiger had recognized the cliff with the door, for he spent a good deal of his time roaming as the Weretiger, exploring the uninhabited areas around the city, and had been to that particular bluff several times. Of course nothing was there on those occasions, but he had no doubt in his mind whatsoever that there would now be a door sitting astride the cliff.

With another roar he ran, pushing himself as hard as he ever had.

About twenty miles down the coast she saw it. A long bluff, bare of any plants or other features, jutted out over the water like a pointing finger. As she neared, what Raven saw made her heart skip a beat. While she had never been one for questioning her own sanity, the thought that this was all very crazy had occurred to her over the course of the events that had led her to the door. And even though she had long accepted her dreams of the Dark Tower as reality, having physical proof of it right before her eyes was certainly validating. And there it was, a single oaken door with ornate brass trim and an intricately designed brass knob. The wood had trees and a lake carved into its surface, and Raven let her hand roam over the etching, looking at the high level of detail. A foot or so above her eye level was a brass plaque that simply said "The High Priestess."

Raven swallowed the lump of excitement in her throat, and was just reaching for the knob when a noise rose behind her. Turning, she saw the Weretiger bearing down on her, the strain on the large frame was evident.

Of all the Titans that could have come after her, why did it have to be him? He would ask her lots of awkward questions in that loud, flippant voice of his, all the while calling her Sunshine (his favorite moniker for her) and certainly not understanding or believing a word of any kind of explanation she tried to give. She couldn't waste her time or her words on him, and that meant only one thing: no more stalling.

With one last deep breath, Raven flung open the heavy oak door and strode into the nothingness that lay beyond.

CJ could only watch as the large door closed behind Raven without a sound, sealing her on the other side. He reached the threshold a second too late, but without hesitation gripped the knob in his massive paw and pulled with all his considerable might. The door did not budge in the least. As was the tendency of the Weretiger, he tried the most direct approach first, clawing and hitting the door, hoping it might give just a little. No such luck. His claws left no impression on the door, and his punches only made a quiet thud as they connected. Finally he just stood there, looking at the door with his narrow eyes, trying to think.

"Every second counts now." He thought to himself. "The door could disappear, or change exit points. I've got to do something." He examined the door carefully, looking for some kind of clue that might aid him. Finally his eyes came to rest on the brass plaque. "The High Priestess" it said.

"But that's not right, is it?" He said aloud in the gruff Weretiger voice. "When I saw it in my dream, it said "The Hanging Man" or "The Hanged Man", or some crap like that, right?"

He leaned in to get a closer look at the plaque, the breath from his nostrils leaving a touch of fog on the brass surface. This had to mean something, but what? Then he remembered. In his dream, the words had been etched into the door, like the forest scene below, not written on a plaque. Could it be that simple? He reached over with one of his claws and barely tapped the edge of the plaque. It fell off as if it had had nothing holding it in place at all. Below, written in the same script, was etched "The Hanged Man."

"I pummeled this damn door!" He roared in frustration, "How the hell did this thing not go flying off?" It was a rhetorical question, and as such, did not need an answer. The Weretiger grabbed the knob, and with no resistance at all, the large door swung open. Wasting no more time, the Weretiger leapt through.

As Raven had stepped through the doorway, two massive hulking beasts, both of which seemed to be in a very pissy mood, had greeted her with bellows of rage. These creatures were nearly as large as the Weretiger, and wore blue armor over most of their bodies. On their left arms they had massive shields that looked like they could take a tank round dead on. In their right hands they both carried some sort of projectile device, a device that fired green energy rockets that exploded in a shower of plasma. Somebody had really rolled out the red carpet. They had obviously been waiting in this exact spot, as one of their rockets had nearly taken her head off the second she stepped through the door.

She had found herself in a foggy swamp area, surrounded by pools of stagnant water and dead trees, the exact opposite of the lovely forest scene that had been carved into the doors surface. The two creatures had been standing knee deep in one of the disgusting ponds, and had been staring right at her as she appeared, almost as if from thin air. Raven was someone who prided herself on being aware, ready for action, and this time it saved her life as two green glowing rockets flew within inches of her head and exploded somewhere behind her. The creatures, undaunted, had rushed at her with surprising speed, firing more rockets and brandishing their shields like clubs. Heavy grunts issued from their chests as they charged, their featureless faces showing neither rage nor exertion.

Raven had pulled two dead trees up by their roots and had flung them at her attackers. It was a good tactic, for while it did no real damage to the pair; it did temporarily trip them up, allowing Raven time to think.

Reaching out with her power she grasped a large collection of vines and used them to essentially tie down one of the beasts. It responded by sending a hail of rockets her way, but in its haste it had not aimed well, and the rockets went wide of their target. Raven raised a shield around herself just in time as the other creature lurched forward, swinging its shield in a long arc, and hitting Raven and her barrier like a major league batter getting all of a fastball. Raven let her shield dispel as she picked herself of the ground. She was laying in a mud pit now, her pack and its contents strewn across 50 meters of the marsh. As she heard the telltale discharge of the energy launcher (as she had named it in her head) she practically threw herself into the air, flying low and fast across the swampland. The rockets traced her path, the heat of the explosions growing as the beast traced her through the air. The other creature ripped itself free from the vines and fired just ahead of Raven. Raven juked just in time, but the blowback from the explosion threw her to the ground. Spitting out mud and muck, Raven rose to her feet, raising another barrier. Rockets slammed into the black shield, and with each one she could feel her strength slipping.

A strange humming filled the air, and the place where Raven had appeared shimmered for an instant. Without a moment's hesitation, the beast that had broken free of Raven's vines whirled, and fired a rocket into the shimmering air. A rocket that connected with the chest of the Weretiger as he materialized in this world.

"If he had come through in his human form, there'd be nothing left." Raven thought to herself wryly as a second rocket pummeled the newly arrived Weretiger.

The Weretiger was thrown back, the force of the two explosions sending him reeling, and leaving two very painful looking patches of burnt hide where they had hit.

The Weretiger had begun to gather his thoughts however, as now he was running quickly through the swamp, ducking behind the small hills in the area. Raven didn't know how he had gotten here, but it didn't matter. He couldn't take many more of those rockets, and the preoccupation of one of the beasts was an opportunity for her to concentrate on defeating one at a time. The two attackers were incredibly coordinated, savage, and fearsome, their attacks showing a high level of strategy. The two of these things against any one of the Titans might have meant defeat, but with the two divided they had a chance.

Raven inverted her shield, creating a kind of large black bulldozer blade, and flung it at the closer creature. The scoop picked the angry creature up and flung him into one of the ponds with a splash. As he tried to rise, Raven sent a cascade of boulders down on its head, striking him hard. As the creature cast of the rocks, Raven enchanted one of the trees she used earlier, and mimicking the thing that had hit her, swung it in a fast arc that broke the tree over her enemy's shoulder. The thing staggered, and fired blindly at Raven. She could see the exposed flesh of the creature's neck now, as before it always had held its head down. Levitating the more jagged of the two pieces of broken tree trunk; she sent it with uncanny speed towards the unprotected patch of skin. A fountain of neon orange blood gushed from the things neck, and it expired with a savage gurgle.

Raven allowed herself a grim smile, but her little celebration was a bit premature. At the death of its mate, the other creature had become insane with rage. The Weretiger had tackled it to the ground and was clawing at the armor when the creature let out its bellow of sadness and rage. It tossed the Weretiger aside like a rag doll, and proceeded to send a virtual hail of rockets at Raven. Raven dodged quickly, levitating ahead of the savage attack.

The Weretiger landed on his feet, and then pounced again on his enemy, this time from behind. The spikes on the thing's back dug into the scruff of the Weretiger's neck, but he ignored them. The Shield connected with the Weretiger's ribcage with several brutal hits, but he was not to be thrown off now. With one set of claws dug into the beast's right arm (disabling the energy launcher), the Weretiger let loose a roar of his own, and swung his other set of claws across the struggling creatures throat, tearing out the brownish skin and allowing the orange blood underneath to gush forth.

The Weretiger leapt off as the thing staggered forward, then dropped dead to the ground.

Raven looked at the still form of the creature for s second, then heard a muffled cry. When she turned, CJ was standing there, in human form, covered in filth and breathing hard. She realized she was breathing hard too, and was likewise covered in muck. They sat down in unison and looked at each other.

"Well Sunshine," CJ said with a wry grin, "They sure know how to welcome tourists here, don't they?"