I do NOT own Teen Titans
Notes and replies to comments:
Yeah, I've thought about having the Endless play a role in some of the stories, and even briefly played with the idea of making Kishar one of them. I've also considered a BBxDeath fic, though the rule that if she falls in love with a mortal his downfall is assured would have to be circumnavigated.
If Beast Boy overheard the conversation Kishar and Raven had about grandkids, he was too embarrassed to say anything. Given his hearing, he probably did.
A God in the DC universe? That's so complicated I've given up trying to understand it.
Time: The next morning.
Breakfast,... Nevermore,... Meeting,... A Talk,... A Villain Strikes,...
"Come on B, aren't we best pals?" Cyborg pleaded.
"Dude. She's not a glorified mechanic." Beast Boy retorted.
"My baby isn't just a car either. I'm sure she'll be happy to help."
"You're a mechanical genius. Why would you need help fixing a car?"
The cybernetic teen shook his head in exasperation, and sighed. "You wouldn't understand, B. Sure I can fix a car, but she can make it as good as new." The boy tapped his chest. "My systems are like they just came out of the factory. If she can do that for my baby ..."
"Isn't fixed as good as new?"
"Dude." Cyborg screamed in horror. "There're only so many charge cycles a battery can handle, and metal can become fatigued. She didn't just fix my systems, she made them as good as new. There's a world of difference."
The shape shifter blinked. "Charge cycles? Fatigue?"
The titanium-clad Titan screamed in frustration, and tried to tear out his nonexistent hair. "It's like taking a first-edition comic book out of the plastic sleeve, reading it, and putting it back." He reached out the grab his friend's shoulders. "Don't you see? She can make it like it was never took out in the first place."
"So, is it worth your soul?" Beast Boy asked, deciding enough was enough.
"Huh? My soul?" Cyborg back off, looking confused.
"Well, she's a demon, so some sort of contract would be in order." The green-skinned Titan shrugged. "And they usually involve your soul."
"Umm... Well..."
"Anyway, I'll let her know. When do you want her to come for the ... umm ... payment?" Beast Boy deadpanned.
"You're kidding. Right?" There was a hint of doubt in the cybernetic teen's voice.
"And I'm pretty sure the contract needs to be written in blood as well. Let's see." The shape shifter turned and searched through the cupboard drawers, pulling out a knife. "Write it up and I'll hand it to her." He tossed the razor-sharp kitchen utensil to the stunned boy.
Raven cut a piece off a perfectly cooked waffle, and after making sure it was liberally coated with maple syrup, started chewing. "Do you think he'll take you up on the offer?" She intoned after swallowing, watching Cyborg race from the room. There'd been a look of indecision mixed with the horror on his face.
"I figure it's fifty/fifty." The shape shifter sighed, and sat down to his own breakfast. "It's the end of the world, but somehow things never seem to change." He smiled at her.
"True." Her heart raced, and she smiled back. "Wait." She blinked, looking thoughtful. "I can think of two things that's changed since we started this whole Titan business."
"Oh." Beast Boy furrowed up his brow, looking confused.
"Robin now lets Starfire help in the evidence room, and while making those discs he uses."
"True."
"And you can kiss me without worrying I'll knocked down every wall in the Tower."
"Also true." The boy glanced at his uneaten waffles, and then looked at the violet-eyed girl. "Speaking of which." He slid closer, gazing into her eyes with a hopeful grin. Soon the two of them forgot about breakfast, and focused on each other.
Having just left the commons room where she and Beast Boy had been interrupted by Starfire, Raven entered the portal to Nevermore with a grin on her face. Even the pink clouds and the pink grass didn't dampen her good mood. "Morning." She greeted her emoticlones.
"Morning." Several of them greeted her back, not bothering to look her way.
"Is that the spell we're planning for Adonis." She asked, looking at the strange sight before her. All eight of her emoticlones were gathered into a group, looking over Knowledge's shoulder. Rage was right behind the yellow-clad girl, determinedly holding her place despite the hostile postures from those around her. The others, with a suitable distance between them and the red-clad emoticlone, were gazing at only the book in Nevermore with the occasional fit of giggles.
"Hmm. We're working on it." Knowledge said, closing the book with a slight blush, while the crowd around her reluctantly dispersed.
"Let's see." Raven took the book from the emoticlone who resisted just a little. Opening it to the last page marked in the history, she saw the baby pictures Kishar had shown her. The violet-eyed girl blinked, and shook her head with a sigh. I guess it's better than when I thought they were going to kill Rage and bury her. She flipped to the page were the spell to punish Adonis was written.
"We'll have to use blood." The yellow-clad girl spoke up. "That's the only way to make the spell strong enough."
"I see."
"And we'll have to repeat it several times. Eyes, mouth and ears."
"I see." Her eyes wandered over the spell, taking in every word, studying how it was phrased.
Knowledge shrugged. "But you were right, if we use powers of three it's possible. What we had was a mess, so I started over again. It's pretty simple now, just needs a lot of power, and a lot of repetition."
"I see." The blue-clad girl smiled demonically, and closed the book. "Good work." She praised the emoticlone.
"The others helped a lot. Especially Rage." The girl grinned happily, sharing the credit.
"Any ideas on what to do about whatever that monster Adonis is planning in Africa?" Raven asked, frowning from the bad taste the name left in her mouth.
"Kill that Billy fellow, and let our Beastie rip the armor off that prick. Then we cast the spell." As usual, Rage was all for the direct approach.
"If we can't subdue Billy Numerous, I'm not sure how we can kill him even if we wanted to. Which we don't." She cringed a little, seeing the eyes of the red-clad emoticlone flare in anger.
"Killing is easier than subduing. We can kill him." The demonic looking girl shrugged. "We teleport in, and strike from behind. He'll be dead before he knows it."
"Umm. Any less bloodthirsty suggestions?" Raven practically begged.
"With the ring to amplify his strength and numbers, he really is a one-man army." Knowledge frowned, pondering possible solutions. "But he's an innocent in this. Sure he might be a villain, but he hasn't ever done anything to deserve being killed. As a minion of Adonis, he's to be pitied."
"Agreed. So how do we get him out of the way?" The blue-clad lead of the emoticlones asked. "And no. No more suggestions of killing." She added, seeing Rage about to speak. "Few of the villains we fight reduce themselves to such tactics, and I'm not about to start down that road." Her eyes meet four, glowing red ones in a staring contest. After a few seconds, the red-clad girl looked away, muttering angrily.
"Agreed." Affection chimed in, looking serious. "If we start down that route then so will the villains. They rob, or attack something, and we stop them face-to-face. Imagine if we start assassinating them. They could strike back at us at any time, and ..." She shrugged. "Unlike Batman our identities aren't all that secret, nor is the place where we live. It would be chaos, and we would most likely die. Including BB, and that we refuse to risk." She turned her gaze on Rage, and the dark muttering stopped.
"Agreed." The red-clad emoticlone replied. "That we won't risk."
"Suggestions?" The leader of the Titans asked an hour later.
Beast Boy frowned, realizing how easy it would be to become a snake, and slither unseen into the enemy camp. A single bite, and Billy Numerous would die. Even if he was to clone himself a million times it would be too late. Each copy would carry the poison, and as strong as they were with that ring, it would be over in minutes. Adonis he could handle. "None." He said, knowing Titans didn't murder. "But you should know that during the fight I felt five more of those wards against Kishar. Seems Adonis' count for killing is up to ten now."
Robin went pale. "You sure?"
"Yeah. He had them inside his armor, but they were there. So to clear the area to let Kishar handle things, we would need to take care of both him and Billy Numerous now."
"The League of Justice?" Starfire suggested.
"If we bring in more people, there's no way we could keep things quiet." A weary Boy Wonder told her. "As it is, we've got to be mind-wiped ourselves. If we were to call in the Justice League who knows how many it would wind up being." He rubbed at his head, and sighed.
"I have no suggestions that don't involve killing." Raven intoned. "And personally I vote against it."
"As do I." Robin replied, standing to pace the room. "We've never even talked of killing before, so let's not start now."
"Agreed." Cyborg and Starfire added their votes.
"Agreed." Beast Boy echoed. "We need to rescue Billy Numerous. Not kill him."
Their leader turned and flipped a switch. "I've kept an eye on what they're up to, and so far it's not much. They're just building a road to the nearest highway, which doesn't make sense. If Adonis wanted something brought in, he could just have it carried."
Raven slowly paced her room, once again condemning herself for having let Adonis drug her. That was where it'd all started. If she hadn't been taken in like some stupid school girl just because she wanted a boyfriend, then they wouldn't be in this whole mess now. There would be no talk of killing, and no danger of the world ending. At least not by her hand.
Knock! Knock! She turned and reached out to open the door with her dark magic.
"Why the pacing?" Beast Boy asked. "Meditation is usually your style."
The violet-eyed girl tossed the ward she'd just finishing making at him. "Nine hours is all I can stand before calling it quits." She smiled at him, looking tired and sad.
Turning to pace again, she found him standing in front of her. Slowly, his finger reached out to gently stroke her cheek, telegraphing the move so she didn't go nuts and break something, like the entire world. "Why did I make such a stupid mistake?" She asked angrily. "Things were so good. I like it here at the tower. I like having friends. And I like having you as my boyfriend. Why did I mess everything up?"
"We weren't dating then." Beast Boy pointed out.
"No. But if I'd just seen him trying to use the drugs then it would've been over. Then ..." She sighed, looking at him. "Then we would've found each other."
"Either way we would've." He agreed, unable to stop touching her.
"It's my fault." She sighed, and leaned against him.
Beast Boy held her close, resisting the urge to let his hands wander. "You're wrong." He whispered in her ear. "That bastard was looking for a way to get more power so he could beat us. He was going to look into magic and demonology regardless of what we did, or what you did. And eventually he would've learned something dangerous no matter what. You were just the closest, and most convenient target. " He slid his hands down a little lower than usual, and felt her tense a little before relaxing. "We made the mistake of thinking of him as a joke, but he's obvious a genius comparable to Gizmo or Cyborg, or else he wouldn't have been able to make that neural-interfaced suit of his."
"Mmm." The distracted girl snuggled closer. "Adonis a genius? I can see it, but I still don't believe it."
"Mmm." Beast Boy sighed himself, studying the ear that was so close. "With those skills he could've made a few million dollars from inventing stuff, and had all the women he wanted. But that wasn't enough. Jinx went into the villain business because she felt compelled to, being a bad-luck magnet. Gizmo I bet just wants respect. No one takes him serious since he's so short. Dr. Light obviously has some phobias when it comes to the dark. But Adonis ..." He paused, and nibbled on the ear for a brief second, feeling her tense once again before relaxing and trying to snuggle closer.
"But what?" Raven murmured, eyes closed as she sensed the love that radiated from him.
"He's more like Slade. He's obsessed, and doesn't care about hurting people. They're just tools to him. I can recall when I was the beast now, and even that most primal part of me had no desire to run wild, killing. Yet when Adonis had the same power he attacked. He needed to show his dominance, and the only way he knew how to do that was by challenging us, not caring if he kill or harmed anyone." Beast Boy paused, struggling to find words when his senses were so overwhelmed by the woman he was holding. "Caution kept him in check for a while, but he's a monster. When he kills I bet he has no remorse. Actually, I think he would love it. It would show his power, his superiority, and that would be like a drug to him."
"Beast Boy." The violet-eyed girl whispered in a voice that was suddenly very unRaven like.
"Yeah?" He let his hands roam a little.
"Sometime you talk too much." She pulled him backwards so they fell on her bed.
"I ..."
Raven silenced whatever he was going to say with a deep, lust-filled kiss that stunned the shape shifter. No longer able to think, just feel as his senses were overwhelmed by her scent, he returned the kiss hungrily. When she grabbed his hand to guided it to her breast, all reason left him, and in his world there was only the woman he loved. The woman whose lust he could smell, and which incited his own. Just how do I get this leotard off. The desperate boy fumed. Isn't there supposed to be a zipper or something? Raven's hand moved to help him, as eager as him to be rid of it ...
The alarm rang through the tower for several seconds before either of them took note of it.
"Ha." Gizmo taunted the girl. "Stupid witch. I upgrade my suit's software. Use a dozen hands, and you won't be able to touch me." The pint-sized villain paused in his rant and lifted his goggles. "Uh. Oh." He said, no longer sounding so confident.
Beast Boy, along with Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire nervously hid behind the T-car as the four-eyed girl went to work.
A twenty-foot by twenty-foot section of the three-foot thick concrete floor at the Seventh Westwood bank was ripped up, and slammed down on the shaking criminal whose most heartfelt desire at the moment was only to surrender.
"Some of us have lives." Rage howled in demonic fury. With a sound much like thunder, she raised her seventy-ton weapon to savagely slam it down again.
"We should stop her." Robin said.
"You go ahead and try." Cyborg told him. "When you're paste I'll make sure to put flowers on your grave."
"I'm sorry." Gizmo tried to flee when the floor segment was raised again.
"Some of us have needs." Rage bellowed darkly, causing the windows the shatter. This time when she rammed the makeshift weapon down, it broke in two.
"Mommy." The villain shrieked.
"Why is friend Raven so ... upset?" Starfire wondered, looking wide-eyed at Beast Boy. "What needs are she talking about?"
"Well see ..." Beast Boy really had no answer to that.
Searching for a new weapon, the half-demon girl reached out with her magic, and pulled the bank vault free. "Do you know what you interrupted?" She roared at the villain who was frantically trying to dig into the ground. Crunch! What remained of the bank floor shattered into several pieces, while the sobbing criminal was buried under several tons of gold bars that clanged through the open door the vault.
"What was friend Raven doing when she was interrupted?" A perplexed Starfire asked, still looking at Beast Boy for the answer.
"Do you know how pissed I am?" Rage brutally used her makeshift, reinforced-steel club again. The walls of the bank trembled as cracks ran up them.
"It would've been cheaper just to let Gizmo rob the place." Robin said, closing his eyes. "Let me know when it's over."
End of Chapter.
I think it's safe to say that Gizmo will be in the hospital for the rest of the story.
Many thanks to those who read and review.