I don't own the Teen Titans or any DC properties for that matter, if I did I'd treat them a hell of a lot better.
Beating the game Ch10 – Violation
With a shuddering gasp Raven started awake. She quickly felt all over herself not finding any injuries with her head clearing of the typical fuzziness that came with waking up suddenly. Chest still heaving she threw off the covers on the bed and stood up looking around the room.
There wasn't much to the room.
A simple bed in a corner with a night table beside it and an open door to a bathroom across from it.
A single window with sunlight filtering through and a faint breeze pushing the curtains.
A simple pine six-panel door with a plain silver knob.
All around nothing remarkable about the room yet Raven couldn't shake the feeling she was in enemy territory and in terrific danger.
Looking down at herself she saw she was in a simple set of cotton lilac pajamas. She took an inventory of her powers noticing there were no power nullification bracelets on her wrists.
Her wrists.
She noticed that there were no chaff marks or irritation where the bracelets were. There was only flawless pale gray skin with the slightly darker veins running to and fro.
She felt for her power, she felt for that cold dark power that gave her slight goose bumps every time she drew on it for the first time in a day.
There was nothing.
She felt deeper within herself unsealing that mental construct that she used to hold her power in check.
It was just a notch above totally giving in and letting go, it was a power so pure that despite its dark origins it was white.
Again there was nothing.
Raven was beyond puzzled and was, despite no outward sign, panicked as she cast about in her psyche for her power.
"Ahem." a smooth voice sounded behind her.
Raven whirled around and saw the red and black mask that all of the Titans knew and hated.
"Hello Raven. How are you feeling?" asked Slade sitting in a chair in a corner of the room.
Raven thought quickly.
"I didn't hear him enter the room or see him? Was I so frantic that I missed him?"
"You're wondering what's happening aren't you?"
"Yes. What's your plan here? You always have one." said Raven adopting her usual monotone, though it was strained as she frantically tried to access her powers harboring no illusions of fighting Slade on anything approaching fair otherwise.
"Clear. Concise. As controlled as always no matter the situation. Let's see how long that lasts." Said Slade rising from the chair and walking across the room to stand before her his hands held behind him in perfect parade rest.
"Thank you for the compliment."
"You're welcome. Tell me Raven, what do you know of cryptography?"
"Cryptography? Nothing really, you know I'm not the technical one of the Titans."
"DES. Data Encryption Standard. It's a pretty old algorithm and has been thoroughly beaten, from a mathematical attack standpoint and sheer brute force via advances in computing power from 1973 when it was first conceived as Lucifer by IBM." Expounded Slade as he slowly paced the room while Raven looked on lost as to the importance of this history lesson.
"The algorithm was very simple and after a bit of tinkering by the NSA, which actually made it resistant against a very specific attack, it was adopted as a standard. Everyone knew its inner workings and its strengths and weaknesses. Yet it held. It literally took decades of advances in both computer and mathematics to break it."
"What's any of this got to do with me?"
"I'm going to break your mind Raven. I'm going to bring you to my side as an apprentice and you will help me kill the Titans and then the Justice League. I'm going to twist your reality to a point where you'll even question if your name is Raven Roth, if Robin is really Richard Grayson, and if you're not just a girl having a delusional fantasy in an asylum."
Raven repressed a small shudder as even through all of the Titan's battles no one had ever so succinctly and casually described their plans to harm them.
"Raven you should know something. You're going to know all of these things and still be absolutely loyal and willing help me. There will be no nanobots in your friend's blood waiting to kill them. There'll be no one tied to a chair about to be harmed if you don't help me. I'm going to make you do it and more willingly." Said Slade in a voice that was as certain as someone stating the sky was blue with a look in his eye of something she couldn't quite place.
"How?" asked Raven extremely apprehensive knowing someone as methodical as Slade would never say something like that without being absolutely certain it'd come to pass.
"What's reality? Is it what you hear and see? Is it what you decide it is? We both know what you see can be any number of illusions and no matter how strong your will is if a bullet is flying toward your head its effects will be very real no matter what you believe."
"…"
"After our little fun with Trigon I started looking further into your power and how to work with it and found some very interesting things."
Raven remained silent while Slade listed off what he'd learned in a classic monolog. She opened her senses to the room, straining to hear or smell anything that'd give her a hint as to where she was. She kept her eyes on him at all times but she found her attention beginning to inexplicably drift towards one corner of the room.
"Interesting isn't it?" Slade suddenly said grabbing her attention again.
"Yes it is."
"What is?"
"What you said."
"What did I say?"
Raven realized that to be maneuvered into such a verbal sparring position with such ease spoke volumes about her state of mind with a growing of something being dreadfully wrong with whatever place Slade had stuck her.
"What's your game here Slade? What do you really want?"
"Really? Well since you asked nicely… you."
"You already said that. That you want an apprentice."
"Are you sure Rachael? Is it ok if I call you that?" asked Slade sitting down across from her.
"You can call whatever you want… and yes I'm sure."
"I actually said "I want a sandwich.""
"Please look over there and tell me what you see."
Raven turned and saw that the room had somehow doubled in size without her noticing and she stood and watched herself talking with Slade and handing him a sandwich. It was no hologram and then there was the sound. A perfect echo with none of the small audible artifacts you could normally hear in android speech patterns.
'So not robots then…" she thought while observing that there was nothing to stop her from going over there and seeing how real that thing that looked like her was.
With a quick glance over at Slade and seeing he made no effort to stop her she ran up to the pair and stepped between them.
"Hello Raven. How are you feeling?" asked the second Slade.
"What the hell is going on here?" asked the second Raven.
"That's what I'd like to know too." The first Raven muttered trying to wrap her head around whatever was going on. She looked at her double and then lashed out with a quick jab intent on trying to disrupt what she assumed was a hologram wrapped around an actor like the hologram watches that Beast Boy and Cyborg wore when they wanted to be incognito in public.
"Hey!" Yelled the second Raven standing up holding her nose.
Suddenly pain flared in the first Raven's nose and she quickly brought her hand up to pinch what she knew was a bloody nose. Looking down at her hand she turned and looked at the end table for a cloth or tissue of some sort. She saw a box of tissue and after grabbing a handful she wiped her hand and then stuffed a wad in her nose to stop the bleeding. Intent on asking what happened she looked up and saw that the other room was gone.
"What are you doing?" growled Raven as she whirled to face Slade.
He was gone.
Looking around she saw no sight of him. Again he managed to move without her noticing. Realizing she was stuck wherever she was for the moment she decided to try and see how much of her power she could access if she took some time to meditate. Sitting down on the bed she sat in the familiar lotus style and straightened her back mentally opening her chest and turning her focus inward listening to the beat of own her heart as a focal point. She felt her breathing slow and then braced herself for the brief bout of dizziness that she always felt when pulling on her power deeply or after a long sleep. She could tell she was getting to that point. She felt the prickling of her skin and she couldn't wait for the heady rush of power that followed. She'd never admit it to anyone but she got off on it and the more power she used the better it felt; she'd always suspected her father put this there to encourage her to use it. She felt herself get to that perfect focal point. She steadied her breathing and prepared to pull and feel her power.
Searing pain.
Screaming as she'd never screamed before with pain so intense she actually fell off the bed she was sitting on and on the floor writhing as she tried to frantically put out what she thought must be the fires of Hell all over her.
Suddenly it was gone. All of the pain. Not even a tingle remained as she lay on the grass with her chest heaving and head still ringing from what had to have been some sort of attack.
Wait grass?
Rolling over and pushing herself up on her hands and knees Raven looked around and tried to figure out what had happened. Now she was in the middle of a field on a perfect summer day without any indication of a building in sight. How'd she get here?
Stumbling to her feet Raven tried to get her equilibrium back as she looked around for any indication of civilization.
"Amazing isn't it?"
Raven spun around towards the voice and saw Slade standing in the glade again no indication he'd even arrived.
"How are you doing this?"
"I'll show you but first you need to know the rules."
"Rules? Is this some sort of sick game?"
"Some sort of game? Yes. Sick? Hardly… but I guess that's a matter of opinion. Anyway here are the rules.
1. You must fight back.
2. You can attempt to get help by any means necessary.
3. You follow whatever rules I tell you apply for that time."
"Let's say I play along with you… how do I win?"
"When you do whatever I say without question. Now I'll show you how I'm doing this."
It was if the world dropped away to nothing in all directions at an incredible speed.
It was dark and wet.
She felt like she was lying in a bath tub full of oil. Her eyes opened and slowly adjusted to the dim lighting. Everything was tinted pink as she swiveled her head around looking down at head body. Tubes, probes and catheters ran every which way in the pink liquid around her. She tried to move her arms to pull them out but found them securely tied down. She realized in another moment that she was naked and there was something else dreadfully wrong. She couldn't feel it. Her powers were always in the background requiring constant control from her every moment. There was always a pressure begging to be released in a near orgasmic display of destruction.
There was nothing there now.
She tried to touch her other selves.
Again there was nothing there.
She looked around and could see men in the background holding some sort of prayer beads and though she couldn't hear it through the small motions of their lips they were chanting something. She felt a push on her mind from off to the left and noticed two men chanting together and then one rose while the other sat, and then the pressure stopped as the now standing monk stopped speaking.
Out of the corner of her eyes she saw something.
There were thick bundles of wire floating next to her head. She started to hyperventilate into the oxygen mask she was wearing realizing they were leading to what she could now feel as small piercings all over her head. She then realized with mounting terror after she had moved around to try and look for her captor(s) that she felt the probes move seemingly within her skin. Not even Raven could remain stoic after she finally understood what had happened and began screaming and frantically trying to tear out of her restraints to escape.
Slade had drilled hundreds of pins into her skull and brain and was directly manipulating her mind.
AN: Yeah it took a little while to get here as I kept debating on whether to rewrite the last chapter as I felt it was a bit rushed. What do you guys think?