Chapter 21: An Uninvited Guest
Disclaimer: I do not on the Teen Titans.
Malaki paced around the perimeter of the large throne room. He was thinking of a way to break it to Firenan that he disobeyed his direct orders, but nothing had gone wrong! Right? He had successfully captured they boy, managed to shake the rest of the Titans off his trail, and even murdered one in the process! Surely, if you looked pass the exterior, he had done nothing wrong, and in fact made their job a lot easier. Firenan is a reasonable guy, surely he can see the greater good in this story.
Malaki approached the altar in the center of the room for probably the fifth time, but now he was not backing down. As he grasped a handful of summoning dust, he could feel his alight eyes growing dimmer and dimmer. Malaki was more surprised than angry that fear was griping at him before the confession had even begun. He shook his snake-like head and tossed the golden dust into the purple flames before he had time to hesitate. He watched solemnly as the flames swallowed them up without a spew of protestant smoke.
Malaki fiddled nervously at his claws as he watched a shady form appear above the fire. It finally took shape of Firenan, sitting patiently upon his throne.
"I am pleased to see you have contacted me, Malaki. What is the news? Have you obtained food?" Firenan questioned.
"Aye, sir. What was wanted done, has been done." Malaki did his best to keep a straight face as he added, "Has the plague lessened any since my departure, my lord?"
Firenan looked him over almost suspiciously, "From what we have seen, there was no plague, Malaki. Perhaps... there were a few rotted vegetables, but no plague."
Malaki twitched his tail nervously, "Perhaps, and if so than it is my fault. Deep apologizes, lord Firenan."
"It is of no matter. Collect what you can, regardless, and be on your way back within a week. We have much business to be done about the boy."
Malaki grunted, "Lord, about the boy. You see... I met him on my 'travels', and he was pathetically vulnerable at the time. I fought him, and now he is my prisoner." Malaki grinned wickedly, "And you see, not only have I obtained the boy, but I have caused his group to become lost in the jungle, and even managed to murder his girlfriend."
"Did I not tell you to leave the boy alone before your departure!" Firenan roared.
"A-Aye sir, but..."
"But nothing! I should come down there and murder you on the spot for deceiving me! This whole plague thing, it was a scam to get to the boy, wasn't it? To kill him, but then you thought of your own pathetic life, and instead brought him alive, and give him to me as a gift?" Firenan's shouts echoed through the empty chamber, and Malaki had a feeling his eyes no longer poured even the slightest lick of flame.
"Your crimes will be severely punished, Malaki, and you will be lucky to come with your life." He spat. "I am on my way to acquire the boy, and he better not have so much as a mark on him." With that, Firenan broke communication
Beast Boy had not been sitting down long when shouts rang from above him. He recognized the voice instantly: Firenan. Was he here?
He got up cautiously and took hold of the rusted bars and flicked his ears to try and make out the words. Beast Boy failed at this, but he could tell Firenan was very angry about something.
As Beast Boy attempted to focus his keen ears more, there was a sudden clang of metal at the back of the cell. Beast Boy whipped around so quickly it hurt, and noticed his small window was lying on the floor. Looking through the agape space, was Robin. He was grimacing at the loud sound, but when he noticed Beast Boy looking at him he grinned. "Time for a jail break, if you ask me." He whispered.
Beast Boy nearly laughed out loud at the sight of his leader, but grinned back and morphed into a small hummingbird. Robin moved out of the way as he flew through the tiny space and out into the rainforest.
After changing back into his human state, Beast Boy immediately took Terra in his arms and squeezed her. "I thought you were dead... again!" He cried, and Terra chuckled while hugging back, "And I thought that bug had warped you to some other planet!"
After they both laughed a little, they just sat there in each others arms. Barely taking notice that Cyborg made mocking motions at the two. He finally nudged Beast Boy in the arm and joked, "Yo BB, we know you're happy to see your girlfriend and all, but can y'all please get your 'groove' on somewhere else? We have a mission to complete!"
Beast Boy immediately glared at Cyborg, and Terra did too. Beast Boy finally let go and looked at Terra, blushing. She smile and glanced away, blushing also.
"Mission? Aren't we like... running away from this dude or something?" Beast Boy asked. He didn't like the idea of meeting up with Malaki again, and especially not Firenan.
"We decided that we can't just leave these guys to whatever they plan on doing in the future. I know you may not like it, Beast Boy, but we have to go back and destroy Malaki." Robin informed.
"But it's not just Malaki! It's his master too, Firenan. They are planning something, I think. Can't we just get away?" Beast Boy whimpered.
"We can't just let a villain get away. It threatens not only your life, Beast Boy, but even the rest of the Titan's. Think about Terra," Robin pointed out, "She was nearly murdered, only because she was linked so closely to you."
Beast Boy looked down guiltily and refused to meet Terra's gaze, "True... but what are we gonna do? Do we have a plan?"
"I do..." A voice spoke up, and suddenly a cage shot up from under all six of the Titans, trapping them. Electricity flowed through the flooring, roof, and bars of the small trap.
"Raluk!" Robin cried, recovering from the surprise entrapment. "What are you doing?" He demanded.
"Ah, Robin, are you really that stupid?" Raluk asked, calmly, "I am trapping you here for Malaki. You know, he doesn't like it when his prisoners escape before the fun begins."
"You betrayed us! You were working for Malaki the whole time... all this was a set up!" Robin shouted, but Raluk merely smirked.
"Gee, are you the brains of the group?" He mocked, earning a growl from Robin.
"Titans, GO!" Robin cried, pointing at Raluk, and aiming his own bird-a-rangs.
Starfire was the first to ready her ammo, and just as her hands started to glow green, she fell to her knees with a gasp.
"My powers... have they vanished?" Starfire questioned, looking at her hands. She tried again and again to summon a Starbolt, but nothing came. Robin immediately turned and glared at Raluk, "What have you done to her?" He growled, dropping his two missiles on the ground. The fierce gazes of the rest of the team followed.
"Why, nothing at all. You see, this cage was specially designed to prevent any use of power. And although you yourself have no 'power', it is impossible for one of your projectiles to even escape the cage. The space between each bar is impossibly small, and even if you managed to throw one, you will more than defiantly electrocute yourself trying." Raluk smirked, and approached the cage at this point. "And this cage has enough watts to leave you just barely alive."
"That's impossible to do... this cage is not capable of doing something like that. It's just electrified bars." Raven spat.
"Ah, but my dear. It is magic," Raluk said, reaching through the bars, unharmed, and taking her chin in his hand. She roughly knocked it away, and Raluk pulled it back and glared at her. "Perhaps I could still get that Dragon spell sometime, sweety?" He cooed, and mockingly turned his back and strolled around the cage.
"Shut your mouth, Raluk, before you get yourself into more danger." Raven spat back.
"Oh, so we got a feisty one, eh?" Raluk smiled, ignoring the glare he earned from Raven, and once again head to front of the cage. "Malaki will be here shortly, and he will be pleased to see more prisoners." As Raluk turned his back and slowly started to make his way towards the corner of the temple, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "And don't go making any stupid escape plans. Malaki and I, we don't like our meat roasted."
Cannibalism O.O
Okay, so about this chapter:
Right from the start, I had originally planned Raluk to betray the Titans. The positioning of his hut just off the Titan's camp was planned buy Raluk and Malaki, and although the plan didn't go quite as they thought, it worked out for the better (at least for the bad guys anyway!). Apparently, Firenan wasn't too pleased that Malaki faked everything and came down to Earth to do exactly what Firenan told him not to! Poor Malaki, suffer the wrath of your master!
Sorry for the long update, AGAIN! I decided to pick up on my fan art (:eyes shoot nervously down to the piles of paper just to her right:), and that kind of slowed me down. Also, every time I sat at the computer and told myself to write this chapter, my brain just said: "Nope! Not gonna happen."
Chapter went shorter than usual again (:cry:), only 1500 words! I was actually getting better with the length of my chapters and now there is a tiny one again (:cries more:)... I keep on deciding to stop at a certain place and in the long run I regret it!
What will Firenan do to Malaki! What will Malaki do to the Titans! How will the Titans escape! Why am I asking YOU all these questions!
The final chapters of this story need love! R&R and give them that love (:smile:)
-LuftBlood