Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

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Rise Of War

Chapter 10: Second Strike

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After successfully retrieving Cyborg, the Titan's spent their last couple of hours together before returning to their quarters. All the while, Raven had spent the time meditating up on the roof. Now utterly exhausted from deep concentration she returned to her room and sat upon her room. Raven tried anything and everything to rid of Trigon and from not allowing him to take control over again. She didn't know yet whether she succeeded in doing so. Right now all she wanted to do was go to sleep. Not bothering to throw her cloak off, she lay back on her bed and closed her eyes as soon as she her head touched her pillow. A thought then struck her and she immediately opened her eyes. Previously, Trigon took control of her when she was asleep. Could it be possible that it was only in the night Trigon decided to strike? Raven instantly sat up and thought about the chances. In deep slumber she was an easy target to be controlled over. She didn't feel Trigon's hold on her through out the whole morning but when night struck she did receive constant anguish through her whole body. Raven didn't want to take any risk on the matter and end up killing again.

"It wouldn't hurt to meditate some more." Raven concluded as she crossed her legs and lifted herself slightly above her bed. She let out a heavy sigh before closing her eyes and started her meditation.

'It may help. If I can just keep myself in control, Trigon can't get me.' Raven thought before going resuming her meditation. She started at 11:30 and continued on till 2 o' clock in the morning. Sleep was threatening to come but she tried as hard not to fall asleep though it proved a difficult task. She remained deeply absorbed in meditation, trying hard not to allow anything to break her away.

'Must continue…can't stop…can't fall asleep…'

She repeatedly ordered herself. Her mind was on the edge to shut off, it was already difficult with her eyes closed, tempting her to now lay back and fall asleep.

'Must not sleep…can't fall asleep…can't…'

Her mind felt ready to close down, not accepting any rejection. Her hand started to lower down to her knees, she was already seated on her bed and her head bowed down slightly.

'Can't…fall…' Raven couldn't stop herself. She was already asleep, finally in peace after long hours left inattentive. Much to Trigon's pleasure.

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She didn't how she found herself here; it was like she just woke up and found herself covered in blood. The vile taste of blood in her mouth, hands covered in dark crimson blood, a mauled dead bloody body lay at her feet and her whole body in pain. She knew what was going on, she knew what she had become, she knew what she had done, but it was like she wanted to. She didn't know why but all questions were ignored, she was being subjective to do all this by Trigon's own free will, or was it her owns?

Raven looked down at the body she had just mutilated. The night was dark, cold and lonely and she was hungry for more blood lust and destruction. Her sharp teeth bore out, enjoying the devastation she caused. She walked through the shadows in search of fresh blood. She soon found two men walking out of pub yawning and stretching their arms. She disappeared within the dark and made her to her prey.

"Dude, I am totally beat." One of the men said as he pulled on his arm behind his head. "Remind me never to let Tony talk me into another outing to a late night pub. The guy had nerves to go and ditch us and run off with that bimbo." He said yawning. As he spoke, the other one looked across the dark streets. He suddenly caught sight of two red eyes in darkness. He squinted his eyes to get a better look but he couldn't find it anymore.

"Hmm…come on let's get out of here Jason." The other man said as he walked past the other man named Jason. Jason decided to ignore the set of eyes he saw and followed behind his friend. Something then swished past in the darkness and a very low growling sound could be heard. Jason immediately stopped and investigated the site. Looking around he saw nothing until he saw the same pair of red eyes flashing in an alleyway.

"Hey…hey T.J!" Jason called to his friend T.J but kept his voice in a whisper. T.J stopped and looked back to Jason. "Look over there in the alleyway." Jason said pointing to the alleyway. T.J looked towards the given site but saw nothing.

"What is it?" T.J asked.

"I-I…I saw someone…well someone's eyes. They were like red and glowing." Jason explained.

"You had too much to drink." T.J said dully before turning around and walking away. Jason looked back to the alleyway and saw nothing. Either T.J was right or there really was something out there. Jason quickly turned around and ran to catch up with his friend.

"Hey T.J wait-" Jason ended his sentence with a high scream as something tackled him from the back and he felt it's claw buried in his neck.

"Jason…" T.J turned around slowly when something got thrown into his arms. It was a large sticky object. Bringing it under his view he saw that it was Jason's head, mouth wide open, eyes petrified and blood dripping from the bottom of his head. T.J yelled as he dropped his friend's head and watched it roll away. Something then grabbed his face and lifted up in the air. He continued to cry out in agony and he gripped the wrist of his aggressor kicking his legs. Raven snickered as blood began to draw out from his temple as she squeezed his head, her nailing digging into his skin. The man cried out shrills of scream as his life was being sucked out of him. There was a loud crack and then the man's screams subsided as he fell limp. His skull was crumbled in Raven's hand. She let him drop to the floor with a loud thud, blood pouring around him from his head. Raven licked off the blood that was sprayed across her face with her vampire like tongue. Raven continued to snicker evil taking pleasure in her handy work. She walked up to the body and sneered. Tentacles grew out from under her cloak and lashed out at the body ripping it apart limb per limb, blood spilling everywhere.

It couldn't even be distinguished as a body when she was done mutilating it. Raven wasn't done yet with her slaughtering. She sniffed the air able to smell the meek flesh of humans traveling through the night ready to meet their faith.

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Raven's emotion of timidity sat alone by a cliff with tears rolling down her cheeks. When Raven was no longer in control of herself it was like her emotions were thrown away, ignored, trapped, mere elements in her head having no influence over their main counterpart. It was like they were all broken. Timid clutched her cloak around her tightly fearing everything around her as if it was going to attack her. Brave stood behind her, hands on hip and her eyes on the ground. It was like she couldn't show her confidence anymore. Happy sat on the ground beside her, a very small smile on her face but for an emotion of chaste happiness it was nothing.

"So um…what are we gonna do?" Happy asked looking up to Brave.

"Continue to look for Rage." Brave said as she turned and started to walk away.

"Aren't you scared?" Timid asked sniffling.

"Ha! As if! I'm not scared. I can't be scared." Brave reassured Timid and her own self. Happy and Timid both stood up and followed behind their leader.

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Sunlight poured through Raven's window landing upon her. She winced from the ray of lights before slowly fluttering her eyes open. Raven eyes instantly widened as she remembered last night.

'I fell asleep! That means…what if…I am still in my room. Maybe Trigon wasn't able to subdue me…' Raven thought as she looked around her room. She was in her room and lying on her bed, maybe it was true. Raven sighed in relief and smiled as she sat up straight in her bed. Just when things seemed to be perfect, the perfection had to vanish. Raven was covered in blood. Raven looked all over herself, blood everywhere. There was a trail of blood from the middle of her room and up till her bed.

'No, no, no, no, no…' Raven pleaded as she put her finger in her mouth. Bringing it back out it covered in blood as well. The despicable taste of blood was in her mouth. It all started coming back to her, everything she had done last night, the number of helpless people she had murdered. Hot tears started to form in her eyes as she dropped her head in her blood covered hands. She felt liking tearing her own head off. Raven had to act quickly to rid of the evidence on her. Standing up she gathered up the bed sheet which had blood sprawled over it as well and quickly walked into the bathroom. The first thing she did was wash all the blood off her and any trail of blood on left on her. She left her bed sheet to soak in the water before it was completed cleaned from blood, the water transformed to pinkish color.

When she was free from all blood dried on her skin she looked at herself in the mirror. No one would be able to tell, that she was the blooded mass murderer. But she wanted them to know, she wanted help but she couldn't bring herself into doing so. After taking one last look at herself in the mirror, she sighed before heading out of her room. Slowly walking through the hall there was complete silence. She couldn't smell the scent of Cyborg's cooking, she couldn't hear his constant bickering with Beast Boy or Robin turning up the volume of his music to subside their voice, she couldn't hear anything. It seemed to quite. Upon reaching the door of the common room she stopped and looked at the door. No sounds were erupting from it except a muffled sound. Raven then slowly walked in and sure enough everyone was there but standing in front of the TV. There was a news reporter with several ambulance and police cars scattered around behind him. They were all silent except for Robin who was silently cursing under his breath. Raven quickly halted and realized what they were watching.

"I can't believe it…I just can't believe it!" Robin yelled the remote being crushed in his hands. Raven slowly walked forward to behind the others and listened in to the news.

"Five more bodies were discovered after the first find. All severely disfigured like the previous. Police are expecting it to be the work of the same slayer as of the incident on the previous night. The bodies were unable to be identified; all that was left of some were arms and legs. One was identified to be a woman named Katrina Lakefield, the same woman who had given us an interview of when her building was attacked on the night before and witness to her sisters death by the hands of the individual. During the night she was accompanied by her young niece who had witness her aunts demise but was able to escape without being seen. The police tried to retrieve some information from the young girl but all she could do was cry for the death of her family." The new reporter said as it showed a footage of a young blonde girl bawling her eyes out in the arms of mans. Raven placed her hand over her mouth. She remembered that young little girl; she had first killed her mother and now her aunt. Raven felt like she truly was a monster.

"Titans, let move! I want full scale investigation on this and we're not coming back until we any evidence." Robin ordered the team as he ran out of the room. The other stayed in place taking in all that was happening.

"Oh man…" Cyborg said rubbing his head. "Who or what could be doing this?"

"Well whatever it is, it's so gonna pay." Beast Boy said in an aggressive tone as he ran out of the room followed by the others. Raven saw the look on his face when he passed by her. She never seem him like that, he was set out to rid of this killer. What would be his look when he found out she was the killer? Raven slowly turned and followed the others but keeping a distance.

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The Titan had investigated the site the five deaths and now headed towards the location where the three other bodies were found. They found no such clue at all to find with mass murderer, no finger prints, any left behind items, nothing. Upon arriving the looked around, police huddled up everywhere, two ambulances near by and four body bags placed on the ground. Robin walked up to one of the police men standing next to the body bags.

"Ah Titans, we have been expecting you." The police officer said when he saw Robin walk up to him.

"Only three victims were found?" Robin asked looking down at the body bags.

"Yes. This first was a woman, her torso was ripped open. The second had several gash in his back and lost his head. And this last was thorn apart completely." The police explained pointing to each bag. Robin leaned down to one of the bags about to open it up. "I really wouldn't open them up if I were you; it's not a pretty sight." The police officer warned him. Robin took his warning and stood back up. "We already took a look at the body and didn't find anything to help."

"What about the autopsy results of the bodies from the burning building?" Robin asked looking up to the police man.

"Nothing at all." The police man said as he shook his head. Robin sighed in response.

"This killer didn't use any weapons or so but bare hands." Robin said.

"Claws in fact. Whatever it is it's not human. Seeing as this happened like in a chain, we've planned to have a team out securing the city during the night. Hopefully we'll be able to catch this thing." The police man said.

"If that's even possible." Robin said. The other Titans looked around the area. A trail of blood was dried on the streets.

"The sight of so much blood is most unpleasant." Starfire said wit her hands cupped under her chin.

"You're telling me. Man there's so much it's making the stomach. This thing obviously is one ruthless killer." Cyborg said.

"But dude how are we gonna find this thing?" Beast Boy asked.

"I…really don't know." Cyborg said. Beast Boy groaned in response as he looked up into the sky. Raven was basically petrified through out the whole time. She heard the police man's description on the victim, it was too hard to believe she did that all. She couldn't exactly remember everything from last night, she didn't even recognize most of the bodies from the previous location, the only thing she remembered was the blood, people's screams and cry and the death she caused. Raven looked around the region until her eyes landed at a police car. The back door was open and she could see a little girl wrapped up in a blanket hugging a dog.

"Hey, there's that same little girl." Beast Boy said nudging Starfire. Starfire looked towards where he pointed and smiled as she flew over to the police car. Starfire sat by the girl while Beast Boy kneeled in front of the door.

"Hiya Sarah." Beast Boy said in a soft tone remembering the little girl's name. Sarah was still silently crying.

"I want mamma…" she said as she sniffled. Beast Boy looked up to Starfire uncertainly unsure on how to answer the girl. "Where's aunt Katie?" she asked desperately to the two super heroes. This was too much pressure for a young girl her age; she was obviously confused and lost without her family around.

"Uh…" Beast Boy hesitated.

"I want mama! Where is she? Bring her back!" Sarah cried as she started pulling on Beast Boy's sleeve. Starfire wrapped the child in a hug and she continued to plead for her mother.

Raven watched as that went. It was a heart breaking scene. What was she to do know? She caused all this, how was she to fix this all alone?

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The Titans had returned home after the investigation. Robin retreated to his research room while Starfire accompanied him. Beast Boy, Cyborg and Raven sat in the common room at the couch. While Cyborg and Beast Boy were watching TV, Raven had her head rested in her palm while staring out into space deep in thought. Cyborg flipped through the channels until he landed on a news station giving the headlines of the recent kill.

"Dude, this is just too depressing to watch." Beast Boy said.

"You got that right." Cyborg said as he changed the channel. He sighed before speaking again. "My guess is we're gonna be stuck with this case for a long time. So much for Bruce's party." At the mention of Bruce Wayne's ball an idea struck Raven's head. "With all this going on Rob is gonna be glued to researching and investigating, doubt we'll be able to go."

"Guess so." Beast Boy said.

"Actually I think we're able to go." Raven said sitting up straight.

"Uh how so?" Cyborg asked.

"Um…well it look as if this um…killer only attacks after midnight when we're all asleep and Wayne's Ball is gonna be keeping us up late, plus the police could always then call us when they find something. Beside this little party could help with some tension for us." Raven explained.

"Hmm…what about Boy Wonder?" Cyborg asked.

"I'm sure a little persuasion from Starfire will help." Raven said.

"That definitely will work. Alright, I guess I would be looking forward to a lil fun. Since when were you so eager to go to this Ball?" Cyborg asked leaning back on the couch. Raven quickly thought up answer and scowled at him.

"I didn't let Starfire get me into buying that dress for no reason." Raven said.

"Ooh dude, I wanna see that dress. Put it on!" Beast Boy asked eagerly jumping to Raven's side.

"No."

"But I wanna see it!"

"You'll see it when we go to the party."

"Aw come on I wanna see it now!" Beast Boy pleaded. Getting irritated by his begging, a zap erupted from Raven's charka and kicked Beast Boy behind the couch. Raven smiled before picking up a book and began to read.

'This is perfect! We'll be up all night at the Ball and Trigon won't take control of me. He obviously would not want to be discovered so he won't attempt to control me in front of everyone.'

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When the evening had struck, the Titans began to get prepared for the Ball. The boy all got suited in black tux; even Cyborg wore one after much convincing from Starfire. He thought it might seem weird but he looked good. The boys were ready and waiting in the common room for the girls. The door then swished open and Starfire flew in but not dressed up.

"Starfire why aren't you ready yet?" Robin asked.

"Friends it would be best if you all went ahead to Mr. Wayne's Manor. Raven and I will join you shortly; we still have some preparations to make." Starfire said smiling brightly.

"Um well ok. That's not a problem." Robin said as they all exit the common room. Starfire flew into raven's room while the boy headed down into the garage and boarded the T-Car.

"This was a bad idea." Raven said sitting on her bed with her arms crossed.

"Raven you must wear this elegant dress. And then we shall apply your make up and then do your hair and then…"

"My hair stays as it is." Raven said protectively putting her hands over her head.

"Oh, very well but you must now got ready." Starfire said as she dropped Raven's dress in her arms and pulled her up, pushing her towards the bathroom.

"No." Raven said pushing back.

"Yes." Starfire said pushing Raven towards the bathroom door.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No." Raven said pushing back firmly. Starfire's eyes glowed green agigtated by Raven's continuous disapproval.

"I said YES!" Starfire yelled as she fiercely pushed Raven forward, breaking through the door, the opposite wall of the bathroom and landing into a different room. Bricks stumbled upon Starfire and Raven as the lay on the floor. When the dust was cleared Raven looked back at Starfire.

"Well since you put it that way…" Raven said.

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I never get to update on the day I always say I will. Another to add to the bad luck list. Review plz!

-C18G-