I do not own anything relating to the Teen Titans.
Opening the Closet Door a Crack – Chapter 4
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At first, the work was tedious, as is all detailed deductive work. The excitement shown in the movies and on television is fiction, to say the least. Truth to tell, detective work is intensive, painstaking attention to details. Therefore, Robin paid attention to the details. Although he had glanced through the Necronomicon, without references, it meant little. Therefore, Robin spent the rest of the day going over Dr. Carter's notes. Fortunately, as with many academics, Carter carefully documented his search and his resources. While much of it did relate to the Necronomicon, he added his own notes and concepts. After a great deal of cross referencing and analysis, on the second day, Robin decided he was ready to actively begin analysis of that cursed book.
At first, the work was even slower than normal. Robin would carefully, painstakingly transcribe the noted passages and pages from the tome and then, in another room, he and Beast Boy would go over the section and attempt a translation. The work began to move faster after Cyborg volunteered to help.
"Yo, Robin," he had asked. "I can give you a hand to make this faster you know."
"How?"
"Look, instead of you actually writing everything out. I can scan it with my electronic eye and download a copy to the computer system. Then it can be printed out and I'll bring it to you. That way you and BB can spend ALL your time translating."
Robin considered this for a moment. So far, he had hesitated to bring anyone else into the obvious danger of the Necronomicon. Robin was definitely prone to taking on more than the others and reluctant to expose the other Titans to danger, preferring to watch take the risks himself in order to keep his friends safe. Still, his drive to solve this case warred with this need. And he knew, as with any good detective, the more time that passed, the colder the trail was likely to become. Torn between conflicting impulses, he went with the path of expediency. Almost always, the wrong path.
"Look, Cy," he replied, "BB and Raven both felt this book was dangerous. Are you OK with going through this?"
"Rob, it's a book. It's made of paper and cardboard. I don't even KNOW latin. All I would be doing it making copies of pages and downloading them. How dangerous could it be? This way, I could contribute. So far, there's NOTHING I've been able to do."
Robin pondered, if Cyborg wanted to help, and was unafraid of any consequences, he could use the help. "OK Cy, if you're willing to copy the pages, it would save Beast Boy and me a tremendous amount of time. Time that we could spend translating" Robin gave his approval.
After that, progress went much quicker. Surprisingly, or maybe not, Beast Boy and Robin worked well together. While their personalities tended to clash at times, both were extremely competent, even though Beast Boy conveyed an air of incompetence. Robin, although obsessive, worked well with people who knew what they were doing. Beast Boy, generally, avoided work. However, when push came to shove, Beast Boy could throw everything into his task to get things done. Here, since the Titans were relying on him, he did so. Remarkably, he focused on his task with commendable diligence.
After two days of concerted work, Robin and Beast Boy had fallen into a routine that produced a considerable amount of results. Remarkably, the Necronomicon was far more extensive than originally anticipated. Still, Carter's notes were extensive and while the Titans did not have to look at every section and page of the book, there was a great portion of the book that had to be examined. On the evening of the second day, during a break, Cyborg went to Raven.
"Uhh, Raven, could I talk to you for a second?"
They were in Raven's room. Generally, Raven rarely allowed anyone into her room. However, since that book had entered Titan's Tower, she had spent a great deal of time in her room meditating in order to counteract the influences of the Necronomicon. In order to talk to her, Cyborg had braved the lioness's den. Normally, he would wait until she was in any of the common areas. However, this was a situation that couldn't wait. While BB was his best friend, this wasn't something he could talk to him about. Raven was his confidant, he could talk to her.
"What is it?" Raven responded. She looked at her friend. He looked tired. Moreso, he looked stressed, as if he hadn't slept in days.
"Uhhh, I'm not sure." Cyborg looked embarrassed. "Never mind. I'm sure it's nothing." He made to leave. Raven put a wall of black energy in front of him.
"You interrupted ME. Don't tell me it's nothing. What's going on?"
"Uhhh, ok, I'm going to ask you a stupid question. Have you heard anything…weird?"
Raven looked askew at her friend. "How do you mean weird? You mean like Beast Boy acting responsible and intelligent?"
"No, do you hear…." Cyborg looked around furtively, in a whisper, he continued, "voices?"
Now Raven faced Cyborg directly, the look in his eyes was particularly troubling. Well, the look in his human eye was troubling. It looked, haunted. "Do you mean human voices? Are you hearing the other Titans?"
Cyborg looked around again. He practically twitched. "Noooo, I'm….it's not the others…it's….It's not English. I don't know what's being said. It's…" he paused again. "It's some weird language, kind of like that galactic language that Starfire talked about. I can't make out words, it's…it's more like a whispering. But the words, the words, they're becoming clearer. Yog-Sothoth. Hastur." Cyborg's breathing became labored, "I hear…wings, leathery wings flapping. They're coming closer. Always closer."
Raven looked alarmed. "Cyborg…Victor, STOP READING THAT BOOK! Your part is OVER, NOW! Stay here, I'll be back in a moment." Leaving the room at a run, Raven ran to Robin's workroom. She burst in without knocking.
"You pompous, arrogant, STUPID, idiot!" she shouted at Robin. "We warned you, ALL OF US, warned you. But NO, you had to open that damned, evil book. And now you've exposed Victor to that monstrosity. Well, I'm putting an end to it. Victor will NOT be helping you any longer." The fury in Raven's eyes was such that the hint of four red eyes was there.
Robin looked abashed. Seldom did ANY of the Titans refer to each other by their real names. To do so meant that the situation was desperate. "Raven, what's happened, is Vic all right?"
"NO HE'S NOT ALL RIGHT! That book is corrupting him. He's hearing things, the influences in that book are affecting his mental state. It's opening his psyche to those beings beyond time and space. The more exposure he has, the more exposed he is. Soon, very soon, he will reach the point where they will see him and take him over."
"But, half his mind is computer. That's why I permitted it, it shouldn't affect him as much."
It was all Raven could do not to blast Robin into the nearest wall. With the greatest of effort, she held her anger in control. "YOU IDIOT! The computer portion of his mind means he can't FORGET what he read."
"So?"
"Look, the benefits, the blessing that humans have is that they quickly forget what they've read, what they've seen. The human mind is soft, it forgets. Therefore, what most people read is quickly forgotten, except for the larger concepts, unless the mind remains focused. But a computer remembers EVERYTHING. Therefore, Cyborg remembers everything, even though he may not understand it. Therefore, a trace remains in his mind. And it's affecting him. I'm going to have to wipe some of his computer memory to save his human sanity." She breathed heavily. "I'm not sure how to do that and I hope I won't do any permanent damage to him. But it's better than the alternative."
"What's the alternative?"
"Madness, permanent insanity. If we're lucky."
"And if we're not lucky?"
"Then," Raven paused, "then it means his mind becomes a conduit for whatever is affecting him. They will use him to reenter our universe. Afterwards, he will die, horribly. In more pain and suffering than you could ever imagine."
Robin, who over his brief lifetime, had been exposed to a tremendous amount of pain and suffering, shuddered. "I didn't know. I thought that the computer part of his mind would insulate him from whatever those influences were. Otherwise, I would have done in myself. Raven, you KNOW I would never deliberately put any of you in danger." The look on Robin's face was sheer torture. As their leader, he took their care and safety to heart. Unless it was in the heat of battle, when civilians were in danger, Robin would never risk his teammates. Although weaker than the others, he would take the brunt of the action on himself rather than put his friends in danger.
The look on Raven's face softened. "I know. I know you would never deliberately harm any of us. I was angry. Angry because you were not aware of the consequences of your actions. From this moment, Cyborg is NOT allowed near that book."
"Agreed."
"I have to get back to Cyborg. I left him in my room. Once I get there, I'll work on erasing as much of his recent computer memory as I can. Right now, as long as he stays away from that book, he should stabilize in his current condition. But I can't leave him for long. So, what have you found?"
Robin let out a long breath. "A great deal, and not a lot. From what I can see, Carter was tracking down a cult of water god worshippers, the Esoteric Order of Dagon. He seems to have cross referenced this against the ancient worship and belief in this Cthulhu that Starfire talks about. Apparently, he believes this is the source of devil worship." Rubbing his hands against his eyes, he continued, "We were just about finished anyway with the translation. By the way, Beast Boy's knowledge of Latin is far more extensive than he let on. He could practically read this without my help. I wouldn't be one-tenth as far as I am without him. He's sleeping now. You might want to check up on him as well, just in case."
"And you?" Raven inquired.
The Boy Wonder looked up at the grey sorceress. "I'm all right," he answered sharply.
"No voices, no sounds in the distance?"
He looked at her. "Don't be ridiculous. I never have issues with imaginary foes."
"Ohhh, and what about Slade's costume?"
"That was a chemical reaction, not a 'supernatural' occurrence."
Raven pursed her lips together. This was not the time to start a fight, she still had Cyborg to attend to. So, she continued in a different vein, "So, where do we go from here?"
Looking up at Raven, Robin replied, "I don't know. There's a page missing from this version of the book that seems to be key. From what I can tell, it's not a recent tear. Apparently, this page was torn out years ago. Carter noted it and was trying to decipher the surrounding encryptions. He seems to have come to a dead end and decided he needed to look at one of the other remaining copies."
This surprised Raven. A dead end was NOT usually where Robin ended up. "Well, what's your next step? Did Carter say what he was planning?"
Rubbing his eyes again, Robin responded, "Not precisely. Carter decided that he needed one of the other copies. Since three of the others aren't even on this continent, I suspect he won't try for those. That leaves the two on the east coast. Now, among his papers is this map of Massachusetts with a number of notes on it. Since one copy is at Princeton and the other is at this small New England university in Massachusetts, I suspect that he's tried the New England school first."
"So, we're going to New England?"
"Yes, we'll go to Miskontic University in Arkham, Massachusetts first, to get the references in the book that Carter mentioned."
"You said, first, where afterwards?"
Again, a long breath was expelled from Robin's lungs. "Afterwards, and after you've wiped Cyborg's computer memory, of course, we'll head where Carter's original destination was. It's a small town in Massachusetts, near to Arkham. That's why I suspect Carter went there. It's convenient and close to where his ultimate goal was. The town he's heading for has been abandoned for decades. From my research, I've hit a number of dead ends, mostly because of the US government. Something extremely odd happened there a number of years back." He mused, "That in itself is curious. I've never yet seen a government office able to keep a secret, yet this one has been hushhush for decades."
"So where are we going?"
"Innsmouth, Massachusetts"
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That's right my friends, after a brief stop at Miskatonic University, the Titans will head to cursed, shadowed Innsmouth. For those of you unaware of Lovecraft's mythos, one of his greatest tails was "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". I realize that I said we would be heading for Arkham in this chapter, but the transition got so long (and I wanted to include Cyborg in the general horror, he's been pretty much ignored up to now) that I decided to shorten this chapter and go to Arkham next chapter.
Fortunately, unfortunately, I've only had two reviewers. Unfortunate, because it's only two (I'm feeling neglected). Fortunate, because it's my two most faithful reviewers and colleagues. Onward to the reviews.
The Force Is Strong With This One – I KNOW your counter is broken. I'm reading Joker's Shadow (and enjoying it immensely. You're the first one I've seen add the Creeper to the mix). People tend to forget that Starfire is only CULTURALLY ignorant, not stupid. I tried to show that here. Yes, since BB is my favorite character, it's only natural that I will focus on him, even if he's not in this chapter.
Novus Ordo Seclorum – As always, my thanks for your kind words. Again, I understand BB (I think). While he may play the clown, NO ONE could survive as long as he has being as stupid as he pretends. People forget, he's been around roughly as long as Robin and is just as experienced. During this entire storyline, you will see what I believe to be the natural competition between the two experienced sidekicks. BB doesn't want the responsibility, but he's also not going to just 'go along' because Robin says so. It's not like he's only 12 anymore and worshipping Robin. But remember, the foundation will continue to be, they're always friends. As for the hags, I will reference them when appropriate, in keeping with the arc and feel of the story.
Until next time, my friends.
