Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos !

This time, I'll start wz sending my most sympathetic vibes to all the casualties (and their families) of the city of West (TX), where took place that fertilizer plant explosion. This is another hard blow on USA's head, and this right after Boston… So, you poor victims of West, please receive my kindest thoughts ! I hope that all those seriously injured right now will get better and live !

Hopefully things will calm down a tad… That's the best I hope, really !

Now, regarding this story here…

I was pretty pleased to see already three people on it on the first day of publishing (last Monday)… but was also disappointed to have no more feedback the full week. Bah, I will just "lay the blame" on the endless publishing/update of the TT fictions, which drowns my first fic' into a sea of stories, while MBC had far less stories uploads/updates and this therefore made people focus more on my stuff. So, just as I guessed, it will be more difficult for me with TT than it was wz MBC. Fair enough though. ;)

Anyway, nevermind. Here's thanking those who read my first chapter and enjoyed it, special thanking xsammiegirlx for her very kind and encouraging reviews, and extra special thanking Style 1234, who not only was the first to review but went as far as making it all : favoriting AND following BOTH the story and the author ! Thanxxxx loads, Man ! Would ya just have also posted a review, it would have been per-fect ! =)

Okay, so we'll go on wz this fiction, hoping things will move a bit. Fingers X.

N'joy !

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"Never concede to evil…. When we concede to evil, even in a small way, we feed it, and it grows stronger." – Dave Wolverton

8.2 */*/*/* MASTERMIND */*/*/* 8.2

"But what the heck…?" started the robotic Titan.

"What's with the lights ?" wondered the green one.

They looked around them and could easily notice that all lights had died down. They were in complete darkness now. Not even a single standby signal lamp.

"There is some power outage in Jump City ?" asked Star.

"No, there isn't" replied Rae. "All lights are still on in town. It therefore means that only our tower is affected."

They all looked to where the goth pointed : and sure enough, through the large picture window, all buildings opposite still had their lights on.

"But why only our tower ?" questioned Cy.

The masked Titan narrowed his eyes.

"It could be related to the trouble downtown" he spoke up. "If things are that hectic and people are behaving that wild, I wouldn't be surprised if someone had found out a way to cut power in our tower only. I just don't get how they did it exactly…"

"What are they trying to do with that power cut ?" wondered the bubbly alien.

"Maybe trying to prevent us from locating the places where trouble is going on, by shutting down our supercomputer…" suggested the half-demon. "They could have figured out that we can't track down trouble without our technology, and thus provoked this incident to bypass us and avoid our intervention."

Robin nodded.

"Yes, that's what I basically thought."

"Well, too bad for these morons, coz they're messing with the wrong guys : the Teen Titans are not that easily countered, and we're gonna so kick their butts in a while !" yelled BB.

"So we should be going to the city now, yes ?" Star wondered.

"Yep, definitely ! We'll show these troublemakers we're still here, no matter what they do to prevent our action !" exclaimed Cy.

Just when this was uttered, the lights came back, but a tad less bright than before.

"Dude, how come it's working again ?" said the changeling.

"Someone has forgotten about the generators, it seems…" Raven whispered sardonically.

The green Titan crossed his arms and glared at her.

She smirked at him.

"Right, I'll just restart the supercomputer and then we-"

But Robin was cut short by all lights unexpectedly going out simultaneously.

"Is it normal that we lose the lights again ?" questioned Starfire.

The masked Titan and the African-American exchanged looks.

"Absolutely not !" replied the second one. "The generators are not supposed to fail us. At least I've never ever heard of such an issue. And I honestly can't get what caused it now."

Raven seemed absorbed in her thoughts, but she finally snapped out of it.

"So you're saying that it is not possible to mess with generators like happened before with standard lighting ?" she phrased, staring at her robotic friend.

He shook his head.

"I can't see how. The generators are in our tower. So the only way it could occur was if someone had sneaked inside the tower. That could explain about the first power cut. But be sure that, should an intruder have sneaked inside of our building, the related alarm would have gone off immediately. Which wasn't the case."

"So if nobody could access the generators without us knowing, but we still were deprived of light again… it means that it could be some other cause ?" said Rob, aiming his look at Rae.

She closed her eyes and focused her powers, trying to detect any threat.

After a moment of concentration, she reopened her eyes and took a look around before stopping on her leader.

"I'm sorry, I can't detect any bad vibrations" she explained. "But that doesn't mean that there is no dark presence behind this. Some enemies have such great powers that they can hide their presence from any other person. Even from someone with sensitive powers like me. It could be a possibility here. But we should first take care of the population, before we try to find out who provoked all these dysfunctions, both in town and in our tower."

"That's right ! No time to lose ! Let's set out !" commanded the Boy Wonder.

They now needed to leave, but couldn't open the door because of the power cut. Still, the superheroes had plenty of resources to force a door to open.

The first possibility was to require the help of the team's tech.

"Alright, Cyborg, can you open the door with your integrated emergency monitor ?" asked the leader.

"I'm on it !" confirmed the one concerned.

He opened the small box containing the commands of the common room and plugged in his own connecting device. Then he typed something on the mini-computer set on his arm and…

"Here we go !" he stated as the two metal doors slowly parted, revealing the pitch-black hallway leading to the rooms and the training premises.

"Good ! Now we will have to do the same with the elevator. You can close back the command panel, then we're off !" instructed The Boy Wonder.

Cyborg finished his business, closed said panel and turned towards his friends.

"Booyaah ! And now, here's time for real act-"

But before he could complete his utterance, something bizarre and scary took place.

The automatic doors, that the tech had just opened up, closed extremely rapidly, making the metal halves bang together loudly.

It was a real luck that none of them was already engaged through the doorway, otherwise there would have been one or more team members injured.

"But what...?" began the African-American, not believing what his eyes just showed him.

He really didn't understand what had just taken place.

"Getting somewhat rusty with some manipulations, Buddy ?" Beast Boy teased him.

The half-robot shook his head.

"Not a chance in hell, Man ! I know what I do, and I know when it has to work. And this definitely had to work ! There's no reason for a malfunction here !"

The Tamaranean laid her hands on his huge shoulder.

"I am sorry that what you had managed to do came undone, Friend Cyborg ! Perhaps there is an insect in the system ?"

"It's called a bug, Star, not an insect, although both words are synonyms" retorted the strong Titan. "And there is a bug only when the system is working. And now, it's down."

Robin took his chin between his fingers, pondering all this. Then he faced his dark friend.

"Maybe you were right, Raven. Maybe there is some powerful enemy behind all this. And he can control our technology, as well as people's mind."

She narrowed her eyes.

"If this is so, this next mission will indeed prove much tougher than the previous ones. See, we can't even leave our own tower to go help people. But this isn't over yet ! Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos !"

Her eyes suddenly became white, shining intensely.

Black energy covered the automatic doors, then the empath made a parting gesture and the doors were pulled open by force. Finally, Raven pushed her hands farther to the side and both parts got built in inside the wall, blocked for good.

The sorceress's eyes turned back to normal.

"Thanks, Rae." Robin acknowledged the half-demon."Now, Titans, move !"

Beast Boy rushed first through the doorway… but crashed against something and collapsed to the floor !

"Jeez, what the heck happened ?" shrieked BB. "I tried to run into the hallway and… I felt like I was bumping against a wall ! But there's nothing there ! Absolutely nothing !"

All Titans were staring intensely at the hallway, and sure enough, there was no obstacle in front of them. Nowhere.

"Wait !" ordered the purple-haired teenager.

She approached the place where the doors banged when closing and held out her arm.

And it confirmed what she had suspected : her hand had met with a solid part, although nothing was visible.

"There is an invisible obstacle, isn't there, Rae ?"

The cloaked one looked at the masked speaker and nodded.

"Dark magic" she briefly indicated.

The others couldn't utter a word for a moment, trying to figure out why dark magic was blocking their way in their own headquarters, who could be doing that, where was that mysterious enemy and so on.

"So we are… stuck inside the tower ?" hesitantly questioned Satrfire.

"I will try to break that invisible barrier, but it is not certain I will be able to make it : some dark wizards are very powerful and most difficult to defeat. It is therefore not guaranteed that my powers will outdo the dark ones at work here."

The grey girl stretched both hands in direction of the hallway and focused her energy.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos !"

Large black whirlpools emerged from both palms and hit some invisible obstacle standing in the doorway.

It's very powerful ! I have to increase my magic ! But will this be enough ?

"AZARATH, METRION, ZINTHOS !"

Black giant orbs were shot from her hands and hit the barrier. But the latter held on.

Raven made another attempt, even more powerful, but she soon realized there was nothing to do about that magical phenomenon. So she ceased her action and turned towards her teammates, shaking her head.

"You can't break it ?!" said an astonished Beast Boy. "You ?! The most powerful Titan ?!"

"I may be the most powerful, as you say, but I cannot defeat ALL our foes. Some are mightier than me, and either I can't win, or I can but have to find the Achilles' heel of the enemy. And that's easier said than done, even for a sorceress…" she calmly replied.

"Achilles' heel ?" Star repeated, surprised.

"It means the weak point of someone" Raven explained. "Most fighters have a weak point, and we call it Achilles' heel. And the thing is that you can't possibly beat some opponents unless you discover what their weak point is. So, if we are to battle a very powerful enemy, one using magic, we will have to do all we can to find his secret weakness, so we can enfeeble him and get the upper hand. It won't be easy, though, because some beings have a high defensive level, like dark wizards. And I suspect a dark wizard to be the puppet master behind it all…"

"What about we try another way ?" suggested the morpher. "Maybe you can teleport us downtown ?"

She shrugged.

"Yes, I can try, but I wouldn't be surprised if our foe had already neutralized my teleporting powers to prevent us from leaving the tower. He must have sensed I have that ability and set up a counter-power so that I can't use teleportation for us all. Let's see."

The young Azarathian invoked a portal, but no sooner was he opened that it immediately closed. A second attempt yielded no better result.

"You see ?" sighed Rae. "That mysterious force is stronger than me. Therefore, we are stuck inside of here and can't do anything. We have to wait until the enemy contacts us. And when we fight him, we'll do our utmost to figure out how to destroy him and release the invisible prison in here. I just hope our foe will show up soon, because our city badly needs us…"

As if on cue, the screen of the supercomputer turned on but showed only static.

"Is it normal that the computer has switched on all by itself ?" asked the alien girl.

Rob's eyes narrowed as he stared intensely at the large screen.

"Absolutely not, Star ! First, a computer doesn't "auto-switch on" and second… if there is a power outage affecting the whole building, there's no way one piece of electric or electronic equipment could function ! Therefore, as things appear, this machine is going against logic : it just cannot get switched on in absence of electricity !"

He looked straight to Raven, and she instantly knew what he meant. But before he could actually go on and expose the implied matter they both were thinking about, Cyborg spoke up and expressed it aloud for them, thus showing he got it all as well.

"Therefore, if the supercomputer can't switch on by itself, and all the more during a power outage affecting the totality of our tower, then it means that…"

Cy took a brief glance at both the acrobat and the sorceress.

"…that there was some will behind it ! That someone has such powers that it can cause inert matter to get to function, even when the context should prevent it. And who better than a magician or a wizard can do that ? You were definitely right about dark magic, Rae ! And whoever did this probably is the one who induced population to start acting that crazy, that violently !"

"So how do we find the bad guy ?" pertinently asked BB.

Again, Raven caught Robin's eye.

And again, they understood each other without uttering a word or using telepathy.

"I think there's not much to do to find him… because I'm persuaded that whoever is doing this will find us himself, and not the other way round" explained the empath. "Actually, although I still can't sense him, I wouldn't be surprised if he was watching us right now…"

And as she ended her sentence, she let her purple orbs wander up to the giant screen filled with static and narrowed her eyes at it.

The leader caught her drift and imitated her, his sharp look resting on the large screen which had enigmatically switched itself on in absence of any electricity…

"Show yourself !" shouted the leader in a cold, domineering tone.

Nobody moved.

Nobody added anything.

All of them were now observing the static-filled surface.

They wondered whether the one who had switched it on with his mysterious powers would show himself on there, or if the screen would merely remain blank, possibly even getting switched off again.

No movement.

No noise.

No change.

Just the faint sizzling sound of the static, discreetly troubling the heavy silence in the moonlit room.

Robin began to think that perhaps Raven may have been wrong, when she had turned her gaze towards the supercomputer screen, and that the villain was not spying them through it, hidden behind the static, and he was about to open his mouth to suggest that she maybe had had the wrong intuition, when suddenly…

"AH AH AH AH AH !"

It was a very frightening laughter, echoing through the dark room. It wasn't evident to know where the laughter originated from since it reverberated in the place and didn't seem to come from any precise spot in there. This made it seem as if that scary laughter was actually generated by the room itself, as if the place had become alive all of a sudden.

The Titans looked around them with hasty head motions this way and that way, turning around, then turning back again, trying to determine the place of origin of the loud noise. But naturally in vain.

Actually, four Titans did that, but the fifth one didn't even move and kept her narrowed eyes stuck to the screen.

I'm sure you are in there, whoever you are. I may not be able to sense your presence right now, but my intuition tells me you're concealed behind that static, which you use as a way of hiding yourself from us… as a smoke screen. Show yourself, if you've got courage left !

"Where… where is that guy ?" screamed a freaked out Beast Boy.

"Is he hiding in the kitchen, maybe ?" suggested Starfire, as she wasn't able to make out any newcomer in their common room.

"Don't think so…" Cyborg put in doubt. "I have an inkling that he's in this room, with us, right now. Maybe invisible to us thanks to some device of his invention… or thanks to his powers !"

And as he finished uttering the last part, he directed his eyes at his dark friend.

She hadn't moved, not even the slightest change in her position, her acute gaze still set firmly on the enigmatic screen displaying its static after unexpectedly being switched on despite the power cut.

The Boy Wonder was staring at her with intensity, his 6th sense whispering his brain that the most perceptive member of their team may well have caught some extrasensory element hinting to the presence of their enemy inside this mysterious static.

"Raven…have you localized the one who just laughed ? Where is he ?"

Without even looking at him, she moved to face the supercomputer screen, her frown accentuating, her loose hands curling up into fists, and simply replied : "Here !"

Robin and the rest of the team followed her gaze and settled on the screen.

And it occurred.

The static slowly faded away, showing the black rectangle of a switched off screen (A/N : told ya my grammatical formulation sometimes leaves a bit to be desired… so much for being a non-native English speaker…;).

But soon the outlines of something else appeared on the dark surface.

It looked like a gigantic ball, around which was a circle.

The object emerged gradually on the screen, gaining substance as well as colour.

It lasted maybe forty seconds till the elements displayed up there were fully neat, fully formed, fully coloured.

And when it stopped, it showed a huge green ball and a green halo around it, both separated by the black halo of the screen, in the background.

Inside the ball were scattered tiny reverse spearheads, and they either were black or consisted actually of spearhead-shaped holes, the black colour belonging to the background of the black screen. (A/N : don't get it ? Ask the non-native-English-speaking author ! XD)

The Titans seemed hypnotized by the strange design they were staring at. None of them had ever seen such a thing…

Well, none of them… except, once again, a certain sorceress !

She knew.

And because she did, she opened her mouth and pronounced one single word : "Fraktal".

Robin looked at her when he heard this, and the others soon imitated him.

They now all had turned their attention away from the screen and observed the cloaked figure whose face was the only one to show anger, or at least enmity, while the rest of them all had surprise and a bit of anxiety on their features.

"Fraktal ?" questioned the acrobat.

She finally broke her posture's stillness and allowed her purple globes to leave at last the screen, on which they had remained stuck obsessively for minutes, to meet with the masked look of her leader.

"Fraktal is the name of a dark wizard, one of the most powerful in the caste of wizards. He was the one who laughed previously and what you see on the screen is his eye."

There was a silence, for them to absorb those bits of info.

"That… that's an eye ?" finally reacted her green teammate, pointing at the green ball and circle.

"It is. And he has got only one eye, like Cyclops" she informed.

"Cyclops ?" asked a confused Starfire.

"It was a one-eyed giant, in the Greek mythology" the goth further explained.

But Robin was concerned with more important stuff.

"Who is this Fraktal ? And how do you know him ?" he asked her.

She locked her purple eyes with his masked ones, her expression most serious now. It was time for them to know who they would have to fight. And that fight would be everything but easy.

"I already faced him twice, the first time as he tried to take over Azarath, the second time when he fought Azar, my mentor. Both times, I have been the one defeating him. I wasn't as powerful as I am now, of course, and neither was he. Back then, I could sense his presence, while I couldn't today, which indicates he gained new powers or developed those he already had. He is motivated only by one thing : enslaving others and making them suffer. He draws pleasure from others' pains, depressions, breakdowns, sadness, unhappiness. He is a sadistic being who finds his own contentment in creating chaos and seeing it consume all living beings, be they aliens, humans, animals… no matter where the suffering comes from, as long as there is suffering ! He feeds on it, he is addicted to it ! Fraktal is one of the worst beings I've ever met, one of the most contemptible, most despicable ones ! I hate him as much as I hated… Trigon."

She uttered that name with obvious disgust, visibly loathing the memory of the intimate bond she unwillingly shared with the red demon… a link she would have liked to destroy, to cancel, but that she never would be able to, no matter how much she detested it.

"THANKS FOR THE NICE COMPLIMENT, RAVEN ! AND NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN ! BUT SORRY TO HEAR YOU STILL HATE YOU FATHER THAT MUCH…"

The loud menacing voice echoed powerfully in the room.

The dark Titan gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.

"Silence, Fraktal ! And tell us what you want from us instead !"

"OH, DID I ANGER YOU, RAVEN ? REALLY ? BUT YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T DENY YOUR DEMONIC LEGACY : HE WAS YOUR FATHER AFTER ALL AND-"

"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT YOUR BLOODY MOUTH, FRAKTAL !"

Raven was now considering the enormous green eye on the screen with so much wrath in her eyes, her fists clenched so tight that the joints had turned lighter under the pressure.

Her teammates had never seen her this fuming. Angry, yes, but livid… not that they recalled.

And Raven cursing ? That also was absolutely unusual. The influence of Rage, now perceptible in her harsh snapping at the enemy, made her act unlike herself.

But nobody, not even Robin, dared to utter any single word. For in her actual condition, it would be no good talking to her and trying to comfort her. She was so furious in this moment, almost raging mad, that one could have got lashed out at, even upon simply trying to show sympathy to her.

"SOMEONE'S DEAD ANGRY RIGHT NOW, EH ? HOW PITIFUL ! I THOUGHT YOU HAD IMPROVED A BIT IN MONITORING YOUR EMOTIONS, RAVEN ! I'M REALLY DISAPPOINTED…"

His voice sounded as mockery, as it seemed he sneered as he spoke.

"Fraktal…" the sorceress began, her voice trembling with utter fury.

But then she stopped and closed her eyes.

He is absolutely despicable, but he is right : I should be mastering my emotions better ! I have been improving at it, but here comes this piece of crap and he just finds the hurtful words to make me lose my temper. He knows what to say to anger me. But I mustn't listen to him ! I mustn't give way to the loud voice of wrath ! I won't listen to you, Rage ! No matter how much you growl in my depths, I will not ! Azarath, metrion, Zinthos ! Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos !

"AH AH AH ! BRAVE RAVEN ! YOU ALWAYS USED TO BE SO COURAGEOUS ! YOU SELDOM EXPERIENCE FEAR, AND THAT I ADMIRE ABOUT YOU ! AND YOU'RE AN EXCELLENT ADVERSARY WITH GREAT MIGHT ! BUT ALAS, THAT WON'T BE ENOUGH THIS TIME ! YOU'VE DEFEATED ME TWICE, BUT AS THEY SAY, THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM ! I'M GONNA GET RID OF YOU FOR GOOD, AND YOUR TITAN FRIENDS AS WELL !"

Robin felt anger boil inside of him. That mysterious enemy had no right to speak as he had spoken to Raven. His toying with her anger had made the team decider mad. And the latter didn't intend to let the foe hurt her any further.

"Leave her alone !" the masked one screamed, his forefinger pointed at the large green alien eye watching the common room.

"WELL WELL WELL, IS THE LEADER OF THE TITANS UPSET ? YOU THINK SHE CAN'T TAKE IT, DO YOU ? THAT SHE IS UNBALE TO BEAR MY CYNISM ? BUT SHE CAN ! SHE IS MUCH STRONGER THAN YOU THINK ! AND I CAN TELL HER WHAT I WANT, SHE'LL DEAL WITH IT NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES !"

The black-haired teenager clenched his fists and made a menacing grimace, jaw contracted, teeth uncovered, eyebrows frowning deep, heart beating fast. He was not going to let a puppet master lack respect to any of his teammates, particularly not to the one he considered the bravest and the most powerful.

"If you address her the same way again, Fraktal, I swear that-"

"Robin, no !" gently interrupted the sorceress, her hand on his arm. She had quickly got closer to him and made that gesture to imply she wanted him to stop talking. "I know you're trying to stand up for me and avoid his hurting me, but I'll be okay, really. I'm over it, although I admit he badly upset me when he mentioned my bonds with… with Trigon."

She just couldn't resign herself to using the words "my father", because she hated him the most, and always instead used his name, Trigon, which didn't imply any family bond with him.

Robin had a concerned appearance.

"Rae, are you sure that you'll be alright ? I mean, he just has no damn right to behave that harsh with you, no matter how much he may hate you."

The brief sketch of a smile lit up her features for two seconds, and it was gone as it had appeared.

"Robin… I know that you're my leader, and that you feel obliged to protect your teammates, and I thank you for doing so with me right now, but I swear I'll be okay, no matter the horrible things he may utter later. I can take care of it. But thank you."

And as the cloaked girl ended her utterance, she gently squeezed the masked one's arm, as a sign of gratitude, and a quick smile crossed her lips, which vanished short after.

Then the empath turned around and faced the huge screen again, her purple orbs locked with the gigantic green one.

"And now, Fraktal, tell us what you want from us. Tell us what ordeals we'll have to get through if we intend to save the population of Jump City. I'm sure you have a few hardships for us up your sleeve, so go ahead and spit it out !"

Her tone was a most disdainful one and her look as sharp as it could.

On the screen, the central ball shrank while the circle grew wider.

"YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S IN STORE FOR YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS, DON'T YOU, RAVEN ? WELL, WHY DON'T YOU COME FIND OUT BY YOURSELF, MMMH ?"

There was silence in the room.

"Rae, what does he mean ?" asked Cyborg.

She turned to look at him.

"He wants me to read his mind, and thus discover what he has imagined for us. Reading his mind will allow me to know what is plan is."

"You… will go inside his mind ?" asked a confused Starfire.

"I will have to, Star, if we want to know what we're up to…"

"Watch out ! That must be a trap !" warned Beast Boy.

"It may be, yes… but what choice have we got ? We're stuck in there, and that's the only possibility we're left with…"

Robin laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Be careful, okay ? We want you back safe with us."

She looked him square in the eyes.

"I will !"

And again, the sketch of a smile wandered on her lips for two or three seconds.

Then she once more faced the supercomputer screen, closed her eyes and focused.

"COME TO ME, RAVEN ! COME INTO MY MIND AND SEE.."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- /-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Vault.

Portals.

Subterraneas.

Guardians.

Limbo.

Keepers.

Spirit World.

Mastermind.

(A/N : okay, I know, "Subterraneas" doesn't exist (while "subterraneaNs" does, I believe)… but now, it DOES, as I just made it up ! XD)

SO, YOU SEE WHAT'S WAITING FOR YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ? DO YOU THINK YOU CAN MEASURE UP, REALLY ?

I know we will, and we will send you where you belong, Fraktal !

AH AH AH, YOU'RE ALWAYS SO SELF-CONFIDENT, RAVEN ! YOUR FATHER WOULD BE PROUD OF YOU !

Shut up ! I never had a father ! And maybe I'm self-confident, but keep this in mind : since our last encounter, you may have grown much more powerful, but so have I, so don't underestimate me and my friends ! We have achieved great things, and we will this time as well !

YOUR OPTIMISM IS ADMIRABLE, REALLY ! WELL, WE'LL SEE.. WE'LL SEE… I NOW AUTHORIZE YOU TO ASK FOR OUTER HELP, FOR YOU'LL NEED SOME. YOU CAN USE YOUR POWERS TO CALL SOME OTHER SUPERHEROES, WHO WILL BE ABLE TO HELP YOU IN THE GREAT ORDEAL WAITING AHEAD. GOOD LUCK, RAVEN !

I don't need luck. I need faith in good. And that's what will help us defeat you !

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- /-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Raven ! Raven ! Raven !"

The half-demon opened her eyes slowly and looked at Robin, then at each one in turn.

"You've been… hum, "absent" for so long that we were worried" explained Cyborg.

"Yes, we were, but we are happy to see that you are fine" declared Starfire.

"So, tell us what you saw in that perverted mind of his !" urged Beast Boy.

"Yes" confirmed Robin. "What has he got in store for us ?"

She looked seriously at her four friends and sighed, then spoke up.

"I will explain you later, not right now. Because I'm gonna get us some extra help, and I want to explain things only when everybody is here to listen. But all I can tell you is that…"

She paused before ending her sentence on a dramatic tone.

"…it will be very difficult for us, and we are all going to suffer… a lot !"

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Okay, so now you know the face of evil. Or rather : the eye of evil, since it's everything the Titans saw of Fraktal. ;) And Raven already fought that enemy twice, so she knows about him and may help the team find a way to defeat it. Unless he proves that much powerful or tough ? Wait and see to find out.

I know that Rae and Rob's relationship in this chapter makes it seem as if they feel something for each other, but I didn't plan to make love bloom between them (although if I was to make a pairing in a story, it would definitely be a RaeXRob), so they are merely caring a lot about each others as very good friends do. No more. Yet, as I re-read this chapter, I wondered if maybe… maybe I would or could have the caring friendship relation evolve into love, slowly but surely, as story progresses. Ya know, friendship gradually turning into love, but very slowly, imperceptibly. I'm still hesitating if I should have Raven and Robin remain close caring friends or have them gradually fall in love with each other. You opinions would be welcome here, fans ! C'mon, tell me… =)

And what did Raven see ? What are these Guardians ? These Keepers ? What kind of place is Subterraneas ? Limbo ? The Spirit World ?

All this and more, you'll know… in the next chappy !

Thanxxxx all for reading & reviewing, your opinions matter a lot to me !

Take care ! And good luck wz yr own stories !

Peace, Love Ecstasy !

XXXX

(The Mad Hatter)