He was still sitting with his head in his hands when she appeared in the doorway.
"I'm off" she said simply.
He lifted his head and looked at her over his shoulder, then looked back at the desk.
"Rae, I…"
"I know. Don't torture yourself."
"I almost made a big mistake" he said, not lifting his eyes, trying to keep his hands and his voice steady.
"I told you, I know. That is why I came, I know everything that was said. Don't forget the bond we share."
He kept staring at the desk. "I just hope… you and Garfield can forgive me."
She floated over and leaned on the desk, looking at him. He still avoided her gaze.
"I have forgiven you already, Richard. And Gar… When did you last see him holding a grudge? No, it's not us that need to forgive you" she said as she placed her hand over his. "You have to forgive yourself."
She looked at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to get over it and meet her eyes, but he studiously stared at the desk.
"You are not Batman" she said quietly. "Stop trying to be him."
His eyes snapped up at hers, widening. She smirked.
"I'd have to be blind not to see it, Richard. I didn't even need my empathic sense. You couldn't think of a way to rescue Gar, so you went into damage control mode. And that was a cold, ruthless, calculated decision. Something you are not."
"I've allowed myself to lose hope" he said, his voice trembling. "If it wasn't for Victor and Kori…"
"As I said, stop torturing yourself. You have a lot to do and you know it."
He took a deep breath and looked at his watch. "Twenty one hours and twelve minutes left. We'll follow after you the second the time runs out."
She squeezed his shoulder and walked to the door.
He rose from the chair and turned to her.
"Rae, before you leave…"
Almost at the door, she stopped and turned around, lifting an eyebrow.
"That resignation crap. Don't do it."
She looked down. "I had time to… think about it. I hope it will not come to that."
"Good. Because I'm not worried about you resigning. What I'm worried is what killing someone would do to you."
She nodded. "It's OK, I managed to… come to terms with myself. It… won't happen."
He studied her carefully. But if Garfield has been injured or… worse, all bets are off. I know that, Raven.
She looked at him, understanding flowing between them.
"I have to go" she said, turning and leaving his room.
She flew for at least two hours before she neared her goal. Checking the GPS receiver built into her communicator, she made a course correction, studying the ground below her, looking for landmarks that may indicate what her final destination may be.
She landed and walked the last few yards until she came to the spot that corresponded exactly to the given coordinates. She looked around. The terrain was semi-desertic, a few scraggly, thorny shrubs eking out an existence by miserly guarding the little water they could squeeze from the dry soil and the cool night air. A few large boulders were strewn about, but nothing indicated any dwelling nearby.
She closed her eyes and listened to her empathic sense, trying to discern if there were any living beings around. At first she was only aware of the primal feelings of small animals scurrying around, but soon she frowned as she felt a decidedly malicious sensation of satisfaction and sadistic expectation. She opened her eyes and looked at where the emotion was coming from, seeing a boulder sprout arms and legs and transform into a tall woman with an evil sneer on her face.
"You have come. Zat is good."
"You will now take me to see him and confirm that he is still alive and unharmed" Raven said quietly, but the menace in her tone was almost palpable.
Madam Rouge's sneer widened. "Or else what? Do you really think zat you can harm me?"
Raven's eyes glowed white in response. A black pit opened under Madame Rouge's feet and she fell in it, a surprised yell coming from her. The pit closed, and two seconds later a black disk appeared ten feet in the air. Madame Rouge fell through it down to the ground, smoldering, stinking of burnt rubber and brimstone.
"That was the Second Pit of Hell" Raven said coldly. "There are seven of them."
Rouge stared at Raven with murderous hatred in her eyes. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill your little friend right now!" she hissed.
"Because you need me. And because if you do, you'll wish you could go back to where I just sent you."
Madame Rouge took a deep breath, calming herself. Not yet. Later. I vill make you both pay.
She fished a communicator from her pocket. "Ve are ready" she spoke into it and closed it, returning it to her pocket, still glaring daggers at Raven.
In just a few minutes the sound of a helicopter approaching could be heard. It soon landed, four robotic soldiers jumping out of it and surrounding Raven. One of the soldiers handed something to Madame Rouge. She took it and offered it to Raven.
"Disabler handcuffs" she said. "You vill understand zat I require you to have zis on."
"Only when I see that he is alive and unharmed" Raven said coldly. Rouge studied her for a few moments, then smiled and said "As you vish."
Unsettled by Rouge's sadistic smile and the feelings of hatred and gloating expectation coming from her, Raven allowed herself to be escorted into the helicopter.
The flight was short, ending on a helipad masterfully camouflaged against the desert-like ground. They exited the chopper, Madame Rouge leading, and came to a hidden airlock-like door. She typed a set of numbers on the keypad and the two-inch thick steel door slid open.
Raven followed Rouge down several short corridors until they reached a large room. She recognized it as the same room from where the call originated. She looked around and saw the containment cell, starting towards it immediately, forcing herself to walk normally and not run.
Changeling was laying on a mattress, his back turned. She approached, careful to keep away from the plasma field separating them.
"Garfield?"
He started and twisted around, searching for the source of the voice, then sprang up.
"Rae? Why are you here? Why did you come? You shouldn't have…"
"Hush, Gar. Everything will be fine."
"You vill now put zis on" Madame Rouge interrupted with icy satisfaction, giving Raven the handcuffs with one hand, brandishing a small transmitter in the other. "Or I vill press zis button."
Raven turned around and offered her hands. Rouge placed the disabler handcuffs on her, locking them and activating the dampening effect. Her smile turned into a malevolent grin.
Her fist struck Raven below the left eye, throwing her back and down to the ground.
"You little bitch! You presumed!" she hissed as she kicked Raven in the gut. As Raven doubled over, painfully trying to get her breath back, Rouge wrapped a tentacle-like hand around her throat and lifted her up. Again the fist smashed into Raven's face. "You threatened me!" Rouge hit her in the ear, Raven's head ringing as it was snapped sideways. "You attacked me!" Rouge sank another fist into Raven's belly and then kicked her in the head as she bent in pain. Raven flew several feet away, blood from her nose and smashed lips spurting out.
Raven lifted herself on her handcuffed hands and knees, trying to clear the lights dancing in front of her eyes, fighting to recover her breath. Rouge approached with a smile and smashed her foot into Raven's ribs, throwing her aside again. The tentacle-like arm slithered after her, wrapping around her, lifting her and tossing her against the wall, where she impacted with a sickening thud and collapsed to the floor.
Rouge laughed out cruelly as she noticed Changeling throwing himself against the plasma barrier, only to be bounced back, his elbows and knees smoldering, his face burnt.
"I am nothing if not efficient. Two for ze price of one!"
Changeling got up painfully. For all his anguish, he realized that his reaction only encouraged Rouge to go on. He huddled in the corner on the cell, his back turned and his hands covering his ears, trying to block the sound of the blows and of Raven's agonizing groans.
Rouge finally tired of her sport and dragged Raven's barely conscious, unresisting body towards the containment cell. She disabled the plasma field and lashed out at Changeling, bowling him over, keeping him back. She threw Raven inside, her body slamming into the wall and crumpling on the floor. Rouge reactivated the plasma field and laughed.
"Zat, little ones, was just the entrée. Ze main course vill come soon. And zen, ze dessert."
Changeling got up and staggered towards Raven. She had hit her head against the wall when Rouge threw her in and was unconscious.
That's not so bad, Changeling thought. At least she doesn't feel the pain.
Hampered by the fact that the handcuffs covered his hands completely, he tried to move Raven into a more comfortable position. She coughed and a trickle of blood ran from her mouth. Changeling felt an icy stab in his chest.
Blood in the lungs. That means at least one broken rib. What do I do?
He tried to lift her upper body a little so she could breathe easier.
I must prop her up somehow, or she'll drown in her own blood. But how?
He tried to move the mattress using his arms and teeth. It was almost impossible to do without fingers, but he somehow managed to bend it and secure one side against the wall, while holding the other steady with one knee. He then looped his handcuffed arms around her and dragged her slowly and carefully, straightening her out, reclining her on the mattress. Her breathing came easier now, but she coughed again, a little more blood seeping out of her mouth. His nostrils flared as he sensed its coppery tang mingled with her own scent of aromatic herbs, the incense that she sometimes burned in her room and the soap and shampoo that she used. Something started moving in the back of his mind, a mindless rage slowly pervading him.
Changeling was not a stranger to rage. The cold, cruel one of the predator stalking its prey or the hot, volcanic one of the herbivore defending its turf. But this encompassed all of it, and more, and then it went even deeper. It was primal, unbounded, unreasoning and irresistible.
He forced his rage down, knowing it wouldn't help him, but it still simmered and bubbled inside. He shivered as he looked around the small cell, searching for anything that could be used to help them get away. After a while he gave up. He had done it countless times already. There was nothing that could break the barrier, nothing that could remove the handcuffs. He finally sat down beside her, his anguish overwhelming him as he watched the bruises on her face darken and the blood slowly congeal.
Her eyelids fluttered, then opened, her eyes unfocused. He bent over her.
"Rae?" he said softly.
She looked at him and started to smile, then the pain from her torn lips made her wince.
"Gar… You're well…"
"But you are not. We have to get you out of here!"
Her eyes cleared and sharpened. There was purpose in them.
"I know… kiss me…"
His brow creased, puzzled. "Um, Rae, is this the right moment? I mean, not that I wouldn't want to, you know, I'd love to, but I don't think we're in the right place –"
"Just… kiss me…"
"Rae, your lips are all torn up, it'll hurt you, I don't think –"
She frowned, her eyes filling with that mixture of exasperation and annoyance he knew so well.
"Gar… field… for once… just… shut up and… do it!"
He bent his head over hers and brushed his lips over hers gently. She surprised him as she suddenly pressed her lips against his, making him forget his apprehension as he lost himself in the whirlwind of emotions that exploded in his soul. Their kiss deepened, their lips pressing hard against each other, their tongues probing gently first, then more urgently.
A burst of black lightning shot from the jewel on her forehead and played around the room. The lights were the first to go. They were made of hard plastic, so as not to offer a possible cutting tool, but the force that assaulted them annihilated them easily. As the black arc continued sizzling around, electrical conduits in the wall overloaded and sparked until they burned out. It descended towards the sink, crumpling it as if it was made of cardboard, the thick plastic breaking in places. A crack appeared on one wall, the coating falling off and revealing the armored bulkhead underneath.
The black arc hummed and crackled as it moved onwards, until it touched her handcuffs. They exploded suddenly, pieces of them flying across the room. Garfield's own handcuffs were immediately covered in black mist, bursting apart.
And yet Garfield was not aware of all this. As he kissed her, he couldn't shake the image of her bruised, bloody face from his mind. His tongue cold feel her torn lips, his ears could catch the small whimper of pain coming from her. Each sensation heated the rage deep inside him, each strengthening it, causing it to overflow him, making him lose sight of what and who he was. As he sensed the taste of her blood in his mouth his mind finally and completely blanked out.
He rose up, his uniform stretching as the size of his chest, arms and legs increased. It burst open at the seams, the Beast emerging from it as if from a cocoon. Raven watched him, her features contorted in pain, but with a satisfied glow in her eyes. She managed to set them free and Rouge had unknowingly given them a powerful weapon. But it was not enough. Something more was needed if they were to escape, and Raven realized immediately what it was.
The Beast looked down at her, growling softly. It sniffed her, its growls becoming dangerous as it smelled her blood. Rage at whoever was responsible took it and it roared, turning to the plasma field and swiping a claw over it. The roar took on a painful note as the plasma burned it.
"Gar!" she said as loudly as she could, ignoring the agony that lanced through her every time she tried to take a breath. "Listen to me!"
The Beast turned back to her, a questioning rumble coming from its throat.
"We have to... do this together, Gar. Do not... be afraid."
The Beast snarled its consent. Raven closed her eyes.
Azarath Metrion Zinthos! she whispered. Her body transformed into a black, ghostly raven that opened its wings and floated above the Beast, then slowly descended as it entered the Beast's body, fusing with it, becoming one.
Red, meet the Beast. Beast, meet Red. You two have fun together now! she thought, then relinquished control.
The Beast lifted its arms and threw back its head, howling in triumph as four red eyes opened above its muzzle.
The plasma field might have been an air-conditioning unit for all the resistance and damage it offered as the Beast walked through it. It proceeded to smash and destroy everything it could see; machinery, equipment, computers, robotic soldiers. The alarm blared, calling more guards to subdue the prisoners. They ran in, firing their weapons, heavy slugs and laser beams striking the Beast.
The bullets bounced off, the beams did no damage. The Beast turned to them and roared, tearing a piece of machinery weighing at least five tons from its mountings with a deafening screech of torn metal, then hurling it at the attackers, blowing a large hole in their ranks. Additional squads of guard robots ran in to replace the destroyed ones.
Howling its pleasure for having more enemies to crush, it jumped over and in one sweep of its long, clawed arm ripped half a dozen robotic soldiers open, throwing them in pieces all around. With another swipe, five more enemies suffered the same fate. Soon the opposition in the room was reduced to a jumble of twisted metal and spare parts. The Beast sniffed the air, searching for its main enemy, then bounded down one hallway, leaving behind the scattered debris of what once were the robotic sentries of the Brotherhood of Evil.
The scent of rubber quickly brought it to the main Control Room. The four Brotherhood members were observing everything from the Command Center, thirty feet off the floor and behind a two-inch thick armored glass pane, proof against anything short of an armor-piercing round from a 120 mm tank gun.
Laser and chaingun turrets activated and sprayed energy and slugs all over the Beast. They lasted no more than a few seconds, as the Beast hurled itself towards the closest one, ripped it out of the floor and used it as a club to destroy the others.
A large side door opened and two enormous guard robots strode in. Each was at least twelve feet tall and weighed some twenty tons – most of it armor. With a challenging howl, the Beast fell on them.
These robots carried heavy weaponry, the caliber of the slugs and the power of the beams leaving a definite impression on the Beast. Enraged even more by the pain, it reached towards the closest robot and ripped off its Vulcan-cannon-equipped arm, using it as a club to strike the other one and throw it to the ground, while it tore limbs methodically off the first robot. As the second robot got up, the Beast rushed over and slammed its hand into the robot's body, the claws punching cleanly through several inches of composite steel armor. Roaring its victory, it discarded the remains of the huge robot as if tossing away a broken toy and turned to the Brotherhood members.
It crouched and jumped, smashing through the armored glass and dropping in their midst. It swiped Mallah away as if the giant gorilla was no more than a bothersome fly, slamming him against the wall. Immortus cut at the Beast with his sword, but it simply grabbed the blade, without appearing to suffer any damage, yanked it out of Immortus' hands, turned it around and stabbed it through him. Ages old dust poured out of the wound, as Immortus staggered back to escape the berserking monster.
Mallah recovered enough to see the Beast turn towards Rouge. Obeying a telepathic command, he quickly grabbed hold of the Brain and bounded away, carrying the Brain's case and leaving their comrades to their fate. Immortus climbed his hovering platform and floated out through the smashed plate glass, also escaping. Abandoned by her collaborators, Madame Rouge faced the Beast, a smirk of defiance on her face.
The Beast's clawed arm descended on Rouge in an arc, opening three large gashes in her body. Rouge laughed disdainfully as the gashes closed almost immediately. The Beast growled at Rouge with amusement, baring its teeth, lifting its claw and showing her the black flames that started dancing on the tips of its talons.
Rouge paled under her heavy makeup. The Beast roared and swiped its claw again, and this time the gashes did not close. It slashed at Rouge again and again, as the woman screamed her agony and tried to slither away from the burning talons that were causing her so much pain, but the Beast followed, rending, gouging and shredding until she finally managed to extrude herself through a ventilation duct. Small pieces of her body remained strewn around, curling up and disintegrating into fine dust as her mind's control over them disappeared. The Beast tore at the ventilation shaft, gouging out huge chunks out of the armored bulkhead and bedrock beneath, but it was unable to follow. Snarling contemptuously at its retreating opponent, it turned and loped off, searching for the exit.
The armored steel door exploded outwards, torn like paper. The Beast jumped out and bounded away, putting distance between it and the Brotherhood base, heading for the place where Raven met Madame Rouge. Reaching the spot it sniffed the air and swiveled its sensitive ears, making sure no danger lurked nearby. It lifted its snout and howled plaintively at the crescent moon. It sat on its haunches and bowed its head.
The ghostly black bird emerged from it and reformed into Raven. She swayed and collapsed, spent by the effort, still suffering from the wounds Rouge caused.
The Beast whimpered regretfully and sniffed at Raven carefully. Instinctively understanding it couldn't help her any more, it calmed down and allowed the transformation to reverse itself.
Changeling got up and moved closer, gently placing Raven in a more comfortable position, her back to a smooth boulder. He then realized he was completely naked, his transformation having destroyed his uniform and underclothes. He grinned and shrugged; there was not much he could do about it.
The next thing he had to do made him uneasy.
I hope you understand, Rae. Maybe it'll be better if you don't wake up until I finish.
He searched her cloak and frisked her, looking for her communicator.
If she wakes up and sees me pawing her, completely naked, she's gonna freak out and tear my limbs off one by one.
He finally found it, opening it quickly and calling.
"Come in, Chrome Dome! We could use some help!"
"Is that you, Evergreen? You guys OK?"
"Depends on what you mean by OK. I have no idea where we are and Rae is wounded. Would you guys mind giving us a lift back to the Tower?"
There was a silence for a moment, then Cyborg's voice came back.
"Cab's on the way. Hang in there, lil' buddy!"
Changeling smiled with relief, closed the communicator and sighed.
"Gar?"
"Rae? Don't speak, you're –"
"Gar, you need… to cover yourself. Desert nights… are cold. Take… my cloak."
He smirked. "For someone so smart, you're a bit slow, aren't you?" he said and promptly transformed into a green polar bear. He sauntered over and curled beside her, nuzzling her. She understood what he wanted and carefully moved herself over, grimacing at the pain every movement caused, finally sinking deep into the soft, welcoming fur on his side with a satisfied sigh.
He shifted his position slightly to accommodate her better and nuzzled her again. A large, wet and warm tongue licked her face.
"Gar… field! Don't… do that!"
He snuffed apologetically, gave her another nuzzle and sank his large head beside her. She put her arm around it and stroked him, relaxing.
"I could… get used… to this" she said, wincing painfully and snuggling a bit deeper into the warm fur. Finally feeling safe, she released the iron grip she had on herself and allowed unconsciousness to take her. The green polar bear waited, unmoving, watching and guarding.