Chapter Twelve: Fight
The Titans braced themselves as Raven opened the door with her powers. They all knew that anything could come out at them. As soon as the door was opened they tensed and readied. However, nothing came out at them; it was dark in the room. Nothing was visible in the room to them and they were wary about entering. Cyborg popped up his shoulder light and walked in first.
"Ya all stay behind me till we get the clear." Cyborg's shoulder light swept the area. It was dark and cold in the room. The walls were plain and clear of any ornaments or pictures. There was only two pieces of furniture in the whole room. One was a wooden chair and the other a long table, the same table from Raven's nightmares. She walked next to Cyborg and pointed to the table. Placing the light right on the table they saw a young man with strawberry blonde hair on it. It was Beast Boy and as Raven started for the table she was caught by a robot.
"Raven!" Everyone shouted at once. Together they all started for her to free her from the robot but were caught by similar robots and held against the wall.
"Welcome Titans." Looking towards the area the voice came from they stared into the darkness. The room was soon bathed in light and standing before them was a young girl. She had long dark hair and shining grey eyes. She had a school uniform on but Raven could tell she was not from the school. She was long and lanky and stood proud next to the table holding Beast Boy.
"Who are you and what are you doing to the people here?" Robin who was the only one able to speak shouted out. Raven had her mouth covered by one of the robots keeping her from saying her magic words. Starfire was help back by several and had her eyes covered to keep her from shooting out her eyebeams. Cyborg was shut down most of the way to keep him from being able to break free. Whoever this person was she was obviously ready for anything to happen.
"I am Sara Nichole Philemon, I discovered this special machine about four years ago." She pointed to the menacing machine above. "I discovered it and started to experiment with it while I was still here. The day before I graduated two years ago I discovered what this machine was and how to use it. I calculated a plan in making myself the greatest human alive. That I would use the most prized talents and abilities of people here. I would take only the best of the best and once I was the best I would take over the world." She laughed at the Titan's shocked appearances and walked over to the person she knew only as Garfield Mark Logan.
"What do you want with him?" Looking at Garfield the woman laughed and smiled.
"He has one of the few talents I don't yet have. I've always wanted to be able to play the piano. However, I was always told the same thing. My fingers were not long enough or I wasn't quick enough to learn." The Titans watched in horror as she began to start the machine before them. It started to hum and warm up. Turning back to the Titans she looked thoughtful.
"You know we'll get out of this and stop you!" She laughed at him.
"No I don't think you will get out of this. Besides when I am done with him I'll see what I can do with you four." Looking them over she smiled.
"What do you think you can do to us? Were the Titans you can't harm us."
"Oh dear, what ever shall I do with the great and powerful Titans? HA whatever. I know exactly what I'll do with you. If I recall you each have special talents unique to your own. Let me start with big and blue here. If I recall correctly you are what they call Cyborg. Part robot due to an unfortunate accident in his youth and has lived with the accident his whole life. The guilt of it almost destroyed you that is in till you met the other Titans. They gave your life meaning and something to live for did they not. I think from you I'll take the increasable knowledge of technology." Cyborg and the others stared at her like she was crazy. She had broken them down in just a few simple moments and basically spilled their life to the others. She then went to look at Starfire and reached out to touch her exposed face.
"Don't touch her!" Ignoring Robin she continued on and caressed her face.
"Hmm, orange skin is very unique here on earth. However, you are not from earth are you girl. No you are the alien of the group. You are a princess of your planet and were kidnapped by other aliens as a ransom to have you planet give up. However, you planet being of a warrior thought process they did not and you escaped from your captors and landed her on Earth. Where you met the Titans and decided to stay and live with them. Let me see your race has super strength and special star powers. I think I'll take both from you." Moving on she turned to Robin and smiled.
"I'm totally human what can you possible take from me?" Her smile got larger as Robin said this to her.
"Oh plenty Robin, plenty. See from you I could take so much and more. From you I can replace the already amazing Kung Ku skills or I can take that amazing detective ability, seen and fostered by Batman. When your parents died he took you in seeing in you what he saw in himself. In fact you are so much like him you left him to go solo somewhere and you ended up starting this team. Yes from you I will be taking your detective skills as my own." Robin stared at her in disbelief. This woman was crazy and really needed to be stopped.
Before continuing on to Raven the woman stopped and looked back to the machine. She smiled and walked back over to it.
"It seems it is ready to begin. Please be patient dear Raven, I will be getting to you very soon I just need to start the machine on young Garfield. My there is so much this boy can give me. It seems such a shame just to take the one thing from him. Maybe I'll take more after I'm finished with you all. I'm sure his ability to learn languages quickly would benefit me. Oh, his survival skills in the wild and in the city would be nice as well. Oh this boy is just so full of talent he is like a gold mine." The woman gave an evil grin as she switch the machine to start taking a part of him out. The machine they noticed was set to his most prized talent. Raven who knew that it was not his playing he loved most but his shifting began to panic a little bit. Robin seeing the same thing began to yell at the woman.
"Stop you are hurting innocent people. Why are you doing this?" The woman smiled and walked back over and stood before Raven.
"Oh do shut up Robin. I told you already why I'm doing this I will not repeat it. Now for Raven, you my dear I most looking forward to getting my hands on. You possess the powers if not only a demon but an angle." At this they all looked at her in shock, even Raven did. "Oh dear did you not know that Raven dear. Yes you are the off spring of the horrible demon Trigon but you are also the off spring of an Angel. It is why your powers are in so much conflict and why you lose control so often. Your body does not know which one it is more. Angle or Demon? When you isolate yourself your body states it is a demon but when you are around others it feels more welcomed." It was then Raven understood she had so much more power than other half demons and why she had to work so much harder. If only she had known this all along things could have been different she could have stopped so much from happening.
From the table Beast Boy had woken up and heard that about Raven. He gave a slight smile and whispered more to himself then to anyone else.
"I knew it. She is my angel." He started to scream then as the pain of part of himself was ripped from his body. The Titans all looked up in shock and horror as Beast Boy had part of him ripped out. He was in pain and they could all hear it in his scream and it made them feel that pain as well. They all began to struggle harder as he screamed they all wanted it to end to stop. Finally it was Raven who glowed white that released everyone form their binds.
Sara who had walked back to where Beast Boy was lying looked up in shock as the now White Raven walked towards her. Rushing forward she called her robots back to her. The other Titans who were released where locked in battle with the robots. Each of them trying to get to the main controls of the machine; wanting to turn it off and end Beast Boy's suffering.
Raven flew forward to turn the machine off but was intercepted by robots on all sides. Fighting off the robots she watched as her nightmare came true right before her eyes. Lying on the table out cold from the pain was Beast Boy. Above him was the green light that had to be what helped his shifting along. It had to be the disease, the one that changed his life forever.
Raven having thrown off the robots rushed to where Sara had started to reach for the little ball of light. Blasting her away Raven rushed to Beast Boy's side hoping she wasn't too late. Before her was a slowly dying Beast Boy. Turning to the woman she screamed.
"How do I put it back!" The woman just laughed at her frantic state.
"Really now? Why would I tell you I want that talent and I won't give up." Sara launched herself at Raven. Raven who had not fought hand to hand in a long time found she was losing the battle quickly.
Raven and Sara started to trade back and forth punches and dodges. The other Titans who were still fighting off the other robots watched in awe as the two preformed what looked to be a dance before them. It was beautiful from what Robin could see. He didn't know Raven could fight hand to hand but now that he knew he planned to have more practices where he was teaching and training the others in hand to hand combat.
Raven and Sara fought back and forth each getting a few good hits in. Raven also had to deal with the robots that were coming to help once in a while. Raven tried her hardest to keep the fight away from where Beast Boy was, hoping that either Robin or Cyborg got to him quick to place the orb back into his body. Before it was too late and he died here.
However, it was in vain as Sara kicked Raven into a wall. Sliding down the wall Raven spit out some blood. Looking up she watched in horror as she scooped up the little ball of light and placed it too her chest. The machine had already started in taking other talents out his body when the first one had come out. The boy was dying and more of him was being taken out. However, the change in the Sara's actions was almost immediate.
"What, what is happening?" She screamed out as her chest began to glow green and her hair started to change green. However, while she was concerned with this Raven got up and walked towards the now dying girl. As she approached the girl fell to the ground in pain as she screamed out Raven explained what was going on.
"Well Sara let me see if I can explain it to you. The boy on the table is the one person who isn't here from the team. Didn't you wonder where the green member was, why he wasn't part of taking you down today?" Sarah just nodded her head. She had wondered but she figured either the woman now stalking towards her had either killed him or he was off leading another team. She had read and learned about his amazing ability to lead others without much difficulty.
"Well you see that boy on the table is Beast Boy. He is pretending to be someone else to get your attention. However, taking his most prized talent was not a very good idea. You see Beast Boy's most prized talent is not playing the piano but it is his shape shifting. But in a horrible accident as a kid he got a disease that you now have in your body. The disease only has one cure and that cure is his mutation in his DNA turning him into an animal himself." Sara looked at the girl in horror as her vision started to go black. Continuing Raven gave an evil smirk. "You see now you are dying and in a minute it is about to get pretty painful. Tell me now before it's too late how do I turn off your robots and how do I reverse the talent machine?" Sara this time gave a weak smile.
"Why would I do that? If I'm going out then I'm going to take out a least one of you with me and by the looks of it, it's going to be the little green freak over there." She started to laugh like a maniac but her laughing soon turned to screaming as the pain took over her body. The pain was so intense she was soon out cold lying on the floor, slowly dying.
Raven began to panic looking for a switch to turn everything off. Seeing that the machine was still taking a talent from Beast Boy she rushed over and turned it off. No sooner had she done that did she find the button that turned off the robots as well. Looking up she watched as all the robots fell into a heap on the floor.
Cyborg and Robin rushed forward to begin figuring out how to reverse the machine. Raven ran over to Beast Boy and watched as the ball of purple light went back into his chest. He was breathing heavily trying to hold on for them. Starfire came over and looked at her friend.
"Please Friend Beast Boy, please hold on for us we need you." Not getting any other response other than a slight nod form him Starfire rushed over to the boys to try and help figure out the machine.
"Star is right BB, you need to hold on for us." Reaching down she pulled the ring off but no change took place, without the disease he was normal looking. The only difference between him and other humans was the highly unstable DNA that made him an animal.
"Rae," He opened his eyes and looked at her. She was in her normal form his favorite form and he just had to smile. Seeing his smile made Raven smile too but it was a sad smile. He was dying in her arms and she couldn't do anything about it. "Rae I need to tell you something." She looked at him and prayed it wasn't to say good bye that he couldn't hold on any longer.
"You have to keep fighting to stay here with us." He gave another weak smile to her but continued talking.
"I don't know if I can, and believe me I'm trying I really am. But in case I can't hold on I need to tell you something. First my Will is in a bank valet password is simply Doom Titans. I know dumb password but it is the two greatest things that have ever happened to me. Second, I love you." It was then he started to fully fade from the world, from her.
"Beast Boy stay awake, please stay awake." Holding his head close to her own she cried onto his forehead, leaning closer to his ear she whispered. "I love you too." He was gone she didn't even think he heard what she said.
