A/N: Wow, it has been a while. I am so sorry, I've been working on this in tiny pieces over this past semester, it was super busy. I was in a play, I had two jobs, six very heavy courses, and a case of writers block the size of the Death Star. Anyways, here is chapter 21, I hope it doesn't disappoint!
Edit: I missed a segment here, my bad, I put it back in.
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Chapter 21: The Crack of Doom
A soft clicking was the first thing he noticed as he woke, a steady clicking like some nihilistic clock patiently waiting for the end.
The Doctor's nose twitched, and he groaned. Sleepy, his eyes cracked open; they were met with the sight of a rather distressed TARDIS.
Tracking the chaos he looked about, and found the control room empty. Seeing the core, still but still lit by its many panels and displays, he fully woke. The Heart, he had opened the Heart of the TARDIS, to save that kid... Beast Boy.
Why had he done that? Damned if he knew. Half the time he just did stuff, instinct he guessed.
Standing he felt like the whole room was lurching, and he put his hands on his knees. Might be a good idea to find a mirror, find out what exactly had changed. Why didn't he keep any mirrors around anyways? Oh yeah, the face thing. Too weird.
It had been, well, centuries, since he'd been hung-over, but he supposed this was how it had been. Utter lack of balance, a roiling belly, a throbbing skull... oh, and the bitter taste of bile.
The Doctor hobbled over to the control pillar, and pressed a few buttons, whirled a few knobs. The TARDIS warbled back to him, and he smiled, glad he'd decided to trust those five; they'd gotten them out of there, relatively intact. Speaking of which, where were they?
Balance slowly returning the Doctor went to the door. A cautious turn of the handle and a peek outside revealed nothing but water. He was on some kind of islet, it looked like. Stepping out he turned around and whistled, looking the lighthouse up and down, and eyeing the ones in the distance with interest.
Turning back to the sea he walked to its edge and knelt, dipping his fingers in the water. It was warm, he noted, and was about to stand up when he noticed his reflection.
Stopping in midrise, he leaned forward, and was surprised to find his young face looking back; he hadn't changed.
He hadn't changed... did that mean that... he was shocked, the years had finally caught up with him. He hadn't changed, he'd healed. That meant that this, this face, must be his last.
The Doctor settled down, brown pants touching gravel, the water lapping just beyond his toes. This was his last face then, he'd lost track. So many memories, but they were coming to a close; he was going to die, for real.
He sat there, alone with his thoughts, and felt something hit his hand. Looking down he noted a small droplet of water. Another joined it, a tear. He was crying? After all this time, after everything he'd done and seen, more than anyone ever, even among the greatest explorers of Galifray, he was crying at this?
Sniffing, he wiped his eyes. It is the nature of every living thing to mourn at its passing, even the oldest don't go without some sorrow.
He closed his eyes and brought his hands to his face, running fingers over one of several faces he'd had. The last, he never got to be ginger, he'd never been Scottish... and he never would be, anything new, again.
The Doctor slapped himself, and he opened his eyes, tears gone. If this was his last face he'd make good on it, he'd do all he could, running, saving. It was what he did, what he'd promised to do, so long ago. The Doctor helps people, and he always would.
So where in the universe were those Titans?
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Fire and brimstone rained down from the sky, and the peaceful sea buckled and churned with fury. Raven was barely conscious, supported by Beast Boy, and Starfire had drawn close to the pair.
"We gotta get outta here," Cyborg said, and he turned to the lighthouse.
Robin sheathed his weapons, "Titans, fall back!"
For the first time that day the Titans' moved as one, like the well oiled machine they were, and slipped through the doors.
The danger was not over however, as when they passed through they found the sea on their side shaking as well. At their backs the flame and debris had reached the doors, and crashed through, spraying molten air and water through.
Wordlessly, they kept running, along the bucking and cracking walkway, trying to remember which door was the one they'd passed through. To their luck, Robin had an excellent memory for this sort of thing, and guided them true, even as the pathway underfoot collapsed, sending them foot first into the rapidly heating water.
Beast Boy lost his grip on Raven in his fall, and Starfire caught her, holding her head above water. As they frantically swam they heard her muttering feverishly, and only caught "I'll never escape him,"
Soon they were through the next lighthouse again, and the fiery wrath of the newly born Trigon still followed, bursting through lighthouse after lighthouse.
As the Titans ran across the next set of piers, the lighthouse behind them sounded off an alarming cracking sound. Daring a glance back, they saw the metaphysical structure splinter, and explode outwards, leaving only a gaping hole in its wake, filled with fire.
"That shouldn't be possible," Cyborg said, and he nodded to Robin. The latter had drawn a pair of cryo disks from his belt, technology 'borrowed' off a certain Victor Fries. In one fluid motion he threw the disks at the opening, and Cyborg sent a low frequency sonic pulse after them. The resulting explosion sent the cryo vapour into a thick blanket that enveloped the dimensional tear.
"That won't hold for long," Robin grunted, Cyborg nodded, "It just has to hold it long enough,"
They kept moving, and Beast Boy was just under Starfire's elbow as she hovered along, eager but unsure of how to get the grey girl off of her.
A squeal of building pressure sounded behind them, and the ice barrier split, sending chunks of ice in all directions. Out of the hole came a rather large chunk of molten concrete, and careened through the air, followed by the wave of fire.
Hearing it more than seeing it, Starfire handed Raven to Beast Boy, and whipped around, sending a highly concentrated eye blast into the centre of the death boulder. The rock split in three pieces, and while the first fell relatively harmlessly into the once calm sea, the other two hurtled on, one above and to the side of them.
They passed by swiftly, but only then did they notice that the stone were headed for their lighthouse.
Beast Boy huddled over Raven as the molten stones struck, and the lighthouse crumbled, leaving a wavering wound in time-space in its wake. Behind them, the torrent of fire had nearly reached them, and in the distance of the sky Beast Boy could hear the waking shrieks of unholy creatures.
Not stopping to think, the Titans kept moving, and jumped one by one through this ugly scar in reality.
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"My, my, would you look at that?"
"What is it dear?"
"He's awoken, again. Or hasn't it happened yet?"
"Well, it has... had... will have. Oh, look at those!"
"Funny little people aren't they?"
"Very funny, indeed,"
"Should we help them? They seem a little lost,"
"I suppose we could. Where did we put that unpleasant one, a while back?"
"The lost one? I don't recall, it's all very subjective you know; hard to think like that."
"I'll call him then, shall I? He would like to help his friends, I reckon."
"I reckon he won't understand,"
"They never do."
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This time the passage between lighthouses was not clean, or remotely pleasant; it felt like every cell in their bodies was erupting all at once. Beast Boy fell straight away, and Raven seemed to wake slightly, as she grappled his shoulders.
Cyborg, noting the rise heat at his backside, picked them both up under his large arms, and Starfire kept close, ready to help. Robin kept a quick pace, but as they reached the first lighthouse they found its doors shut.
Robin pulled on the handles, shook them, banged away, but the heavy doors stayed shut. Turning around he saw the rapidly advancing wall of death, and he stepped in front of the other Titans in reflex. This looked to be the end.
Fate however had different ideas, and as they stood resolute in the face of death a brilliant point of light appeared before them.
The light split and stretched, forming a ring in space, and through it they saw a wall of dark red brick. A ruggedly handsome man in his late fifties or so stood in the breech, oddly familiar black trench coat flapping in the breech. He had a large belt, and what looked like an old school walkman on it, and his hand was spinning one of the dials.
Once the portal reached its apex the man took his hand off his belt, and extended that hand to Robin, saying, "Come with me if you want to live,"
Beast Boy's eyes almost popped out of his head, and he gasped "No way!"
Having no time for explanations, Robin took the man's hand and passed through the portal, followed by his teammates.
Once through, the man pressed something on his belt, and the portal closed, just in time, as the very air around it combusted as it shut.
The newly arrived silence was strange, and the man waited for the Titan's to speak.
Beast Boy, knowing who this figure was but not quite believing it, examined the man intently. He looked, for lack of a better comparison, like Kurt Russel, only ginger. His hair was cropped short to his scalp, doing little to hide the generous amount of grey in it, and his face was heavily scarred from what looked like severe acne. All of that combined with the coat, the belt, that smug smile, it was definitely him.
"Control Freak!" He exclaimed, and ran at the much taller man, giving him a fierce hug. The others looked on in confusion, while old man Control Freak patted Beast Boy's back. "I told you I'd find a way out,"
"Please explain, how is this man Control Freak?" Starfire asked, and Control Freak smiled.
"I missed your accent Starfire. I'm me, I pulled a Kubrick on you guys."
Cyborg and Robin nodded, getting then what happened. Starfire was still lost, "I was in Beast Boy's head, remember?"
When they nodded, he continued, "Well, I was kind of stuck. I mean, the door in only worked when it was on, and Raven ripped it off, and I couldn't go into Beast Boy's conscious mind like he could, so I had to wait."
"For what?" Starfire enquired.
"Well, for a portal to open."
"In my head?" Beast Boy asked, horrified.
"Yeah, it's happens all the time; where do you think nightmares come from?"
Control Freak cleared his throat and continued, the Titans still disconcerted by his weathered exterior. "Anyways, a portal opened, and I was in the Clone Wars, of all places. I was alone, and under attack, so I picked up a rifle and started shooting 'droids."
He smiled and patted his thick, but much more feasible, belly, "Turns out I was good at it too. So that's what I've been doing ever since, travelling around, fighting wars, saving people, closing tears. It's amazing how much of a mess the universe's are."
"It was him, the tears, it was him," Raven spoke up, awake now, in Cyborg's arms. He set her down carefully, and she leaned heavily on him, quite dizzy. "My father, I was always told he was the devourer of worlds... now I know why."
Control Freak approached the girl, and knelt to be at eye level; he really had grown a lot. "It' not your fault you know,"
Raven frowned at the man, deciding she didn't like him. She didn't like Control Freak to begin with, age had only made him irritatingly perceptive. "I was there. I watched him being born, and I did nothing. I prophesied his destruction of the universe, me."
Control Freak nodded, "And if you hadn't given that prophecy, would there ever have been one about you?"
That stopped her, quick witted reply dying on her lips. He might have a point, and she hated that.
"So what are we going to do?" interrupted Robin, looking a little shell shocked.
"We need to go back," Raven replied, quietly.
"Are you crazy?" Cyborg came to Raven's side, "That's Trigon back there, Trigon, at his full power."
Starfire interjected, "She beat him in the past, could Raven not defeat him once more?"
"I'm not the gem anymore..." Raven whispered, and Beast Boy grunted, "No way,"
They all looked his way, "We almost lost you last time. Hell, we did lose you."
"Like you said; you're not the gem, you can't use his power against him." Robin agreed, and crossed his arms.
There was a stare down between the two birds, until Raven looked away.
Control Freak looked on, feeling so much warring in his head. Here were his friends, his first friends, facing death, and he had to send them to it. It wasn't fair; the heroes never got happy endings.
"You have to go back."
"No," Beast Boy growled, and looked at the man, hurt in his eyes, "She doesn't have to do anything,"
"What do you think will happen if she doesn't? Trigon is tearing through realities as we speak, killing countless trillions. Look," Control Freak pointed out, to the space beyond the brick.
They were standing in a crumbling brick maze, red masonry that stopped at what would be the ceiling. Beyond was space, endless void, the place they had been before. Here though, there were billions of tears, like stars, twinkling, swirling down like a funnel to that distant darkness.
Down there, in the pit devoid of light, a red glow pulsed, like the beating of a heart. Tiny yellow tongues flickered in and of existence, and even as they watched, the red glow spread.
"It's the universe, the whole universe, all of them, and they're dying. Trigon is a fixed point in time, and a horrific one at that. When he was born, the universes started dying, and they've been dying ever since."
Control Freak sighed in frustration, not sure they understood but unclear on how to tell them, "Time is... bleeding. He is ripping through the fabric of reality, and it isn't confined to his birth. Do you get it?"
Raven nodded solemnly, "Then... what is this place?"
That gave him pause, and his face flushed. It seemed he wasn't often at a loss for words. "It's the back bone of the universe, the nothing that all of reality sits in. That down there," he nodded to the distant blackness, "You know what that is, don't you, Raven?"
"The Abyss," she nodded.
"I'm lost." Cyborg said after a moment, and the others nodded.
Raven stood, and Beast Boy moved to help her. "No," she said, raising a shaky hand.
"You can't go, you can't,"
She looked at him, and smiled, lips curling up into a genuine, if sad, smile.
"You won't go alone," Cyborg morphed his hand into a canon, and smiled at her.
"I know,"
They drew together into a hug, and Starfire for once didn't crush them.
Then Raven pulled away, and turned to Control Freak. She walked over, and spoke softly to him, and only Beast Boy's ears picked up the words. "Wait," he shouted, but he was too late. A portal opened beneath them, and the four Titans fell, reaching, flying, in vain to catch the edge as they fell.
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Raven felt a tear slide past her eyelids, and grimaced, wiping her face. Control Freak nodded, "It's never easy,"
"What do you know?" Raven growled, and crossed her arms.
"I know what it's like to say goodbye to friends."
Raven stopped at that; it really was good bye. She had no idea if she could stop him this time, no idea if she'd survive. She knew however that they would not.
"Can we just go already?"
Control Freak nodded slowly, "I can take you there, but Raven, you may not like what you find."
She steeled herself, set her jaw, and gave him her best death glare, and it made him chuckle. "You may win just yet,"
With that, and a quick flick to his belt, a tear opened up, and Control Freak pried it opened with his gloved hands, the silver material sparking as it contacted the portal wall.
Raven took a deep breath, and centered herself; it was time to die.
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They landed in a heap on a metal grated floor, the Titans scrambling to rise and go back after their friend.
"You're alive!" the Doctor was there, meaning they were back in the TARDIS. He ran up and looked each of them in the face, franticly looking them over for who-knows-what.
"Good, you're all here, except, Raven, where is Raven?" He asked, and the TARDIS shuddered as though echoing the question.
"The idiot," Robin grimaced, and walked past the Doctor, headed to the grated stairs behind him. The cockpit was a mess, debris strewn everywhere, and they had fallen on the second level, the TARDIS core in front of them.
Robin spoke as he marched, "She is going back, to fight Trigon, by herself,"
"Trigon? Trigon the terrible, Trigon?" The Doctor followed close behind, and stopped at the control panels, as Robin halted and frowned up at the machine.
"Her father," Cyborg filled in, and Starfire croaked, tears sliding out of her bright green eyes. "Friend Raven blames herself for his birth, we were there, and did nothing,"
The Doctor looked between them, "Trigon's daughter..."
"We have to find her, and help her," Beast Boy spoke for the first time, his voice low and dangerous. His ears had drooped, and his hands were balled into fists.
Robin nodded, "Obviously. Doctor, I wouldn't ask this if-"
"I know." the man interrupted, "I want to help. But what can we do, against Trigon?"
"Doctor?"
Starfire's voice broke through the tension, and she walked over to the man, who stood slightly shorter than herself.
"You have faced many foes yes? Some of these foes like gods? We too have fought gods, and we too still stand amongst the living. Is there so little chance of this happening again?" The Doctor looked at the sweet girl, and he felt his fears ebb. After all, if this was to be his last face, how better to use it than to save all of time and space and realities.
He was close to nodding, but snapped his fingers suddenly, "I have it!"
"Have what?" Robin interjected, "I know how we're going to stop a god!" the Doctor replied, and began fiddling with the controls.
Beast Boy watched on in silence, and fumed. His fingers, claws extended, dug into his palms, and all he could seem to picture was, not Raven, not Trigon, but a penny, a single, beaten penny. How he wished he could have held that penny for just a moment longer.
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A/N: Okay, so another one down. Maybe three more, big stuff coming up and finally the end. Thank you for reading, and I would love to hear what you think. Even if its scathing and guilt tripping for my heinous 5 month absence. Bring it, I'll cry.
See you soon!