Adaptation Chapter 36: Ascendance: Birthright, a teen titans fanfic

Disclaimer

Teen Titans is a registered trademark of DC Comics and Cartoon Network Inc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent. Additional information used in creating Teen Titans: Adaptation is courtesy of Titans Tower Online.

Dawn crawled under The Hideout's door. The warm color trickled down the stairs, pooling at the entrance of the bar below, where it cast irritant glimmerings at the bar.

Jinx felt the new day pressing on her back. She grumbled, and hunched on her stool. The heavy bags under her eyes wrinkled with her grimace as she drained her glass and pounded it on the bar top. "Another," she grunted.

The light snore drifting from Scruffy's beard became a snort. He jerked out of his light doze, pushing himself off of the mirror spanning the bar's back wall. A scowl fused the bushy brows over the old bartender's eyes, which he swept across the menagerie of children still haunting his establishment. "The hell? Are you all still here? It's…oh-six-hundred!" he grunted, checking his wristwatch. "Get the hell out. Last call was three hours ago."

A chorus of groans and grunts arose from either side of Jinx. At the end of the bar, a copper-headed behemoth lifted his glass as if to hurl it at Scruffy. The behemoth's eyes refused to uncross, he let his mug clunk back onto the bar. "C'mon, Scruff," Mammoth slurred. "W're celebratin'."

"Yeah," Gizmo sneered from the stool next to Mammoth's, "it's a party!" He raised his Shirley Temple and looked down the bar. Schadenfreude twisted his face as he called, "Here's to the Teen Tyrants! Great job, scuzzwads. Way to go."

Shimmer leaned around Jinx to shoot Gizmo a venomous look. "Don't get pissy with me, Mik. You two could've come back when you busted out. It's not my fault you've been moping around the city with nothing to do."

"Yeah!" chimed the trio of Billy duplicates sitting beside Shimmer.

"Maybe we didn't feel like crawling back to the same crew that let us rot in stinkin' jail," Mammoth slurred into his glass.

Huffing, Shimmer said, "Let it go, Baran!"

The middle Billy leaned back, and jeered, "Y'all got stupid enough to get caught."

"Why would we stick our necks out for a couple of losers?" the Billy at the end agreed, earning a nod from his duplicates.

"Getting dry here…" Jinx mumbled, pushing her glass at Scruffy.

The old bartender scowled. "We're closed. Go home."

"Home! Oh, there's another thing!" Gizmo cried, and jumped up on his barstool. "I spend weeks amping up that crappy hero high-rise into a masterpiece, and what happens? You let those jerk-offs stroll back in and take it from you!"

"Maybe if you had told us about their secret tunnel under the Tower…" sneered Shimmer. "Oh, wait. You didn't tell us about that. Didn't you know about it? Or did you just forget to mention it?"

A sylph of silver and lilac pushed Shimmer aside to shove her empty glass over the bar top. The glass shattered behind the bar, earning her a fierce look from Scruffy and Shimmer. Blackfire grinned sloppily at the disgusted Shimmer, and said, "You humans are hilarious. Look at you, whining about who betrayed who. You lost a little speck of a tower, and you can't stop mewling about it."

Shimmer cringed at the eighty-proof breath wafting from Blackfire's mouth. "And what are you doing, princess? Celebrating?"

The dotted brows above Blackfire's eyes crashed together. Blackfire swept the drink out of Shimmer's hands and emptied it, ice and all. The cubes crunched between her teeth as she said, "My little sister beat me up. You want to know what I'm going to do? I'm going to sober up, and then I'm going to figure out how to destroy her and everything she loves. And I'm going to get it done a lot faster without all this dead weight holding me back."

She squeezed the glass, shattering it. Shards bounced off of Shimmer's face, making her flinch. Furious, Shimmer rose off her stool, standing on tiptoe to crane her scowl toward the smug Tamaranian. "Listen, you fat alien bitch…"

Blackfire grasped the leather straps binding Shimmer's chest, and lifted the transmuter clean off her feet. "You want to say that again? Arthax ki rutha!" she snarled.

The air around Shimmer danced. "I will boil you from the inside," she uttered.

"Ooh, catfight!" one of the Billys crowed, elbowing his duplicates.

"Frag her, Sherbet," Gizmo cheered at Blackfire.

Mammoth's hand closed around Gizmo without warning. The behemoth lifted his impish friend from the stool in a drunken rage. "Don't you cheer against my sister!" he sprayed at Gizmo.

Scruffy winced, and prepared to take cover behind the bar. He knew from experience when not to intervene with disagreements in The Hideout, a common enough risk considering his clientele. But he stopped at the sound of rattling glass.

Without warning, every glass on the bar exploded, erupting into a spray of clear sand in bursts of pink radiance. The glass spray stopped everyone cold at the bar. Together, the former Tyrants turned toward the crackling source of the pink radiance, seated in their midst.

"Shut up," Jinx muttered at the dusty remains of her glass. "All of you just shut up. None of you even realize what we lost here, do you?"

After a moment of confused silence, one of the Billys raised his hand, and ventured, "Uh…a tower?"

"We had a real shot at being somebody. We had the power, the resources, and all the time in the world to make it into the big leagues. We had everything," said Jinx, her eyes still buried in the bar top. "We had something special. Now? Now we have nothing. We're less than nothing. We're ten months of time, wasted. I thought it would be different. I just thought…"

Jinx slumped forward. Her breath scattered the glass dust under her chin. "Whatever," she grunted. "Just whatever."

The rest of the bar stared at her, too confused to speak. Their dead silence broke for gasps when the door at the top of the stairs burst in with a bang.

Heavy boots traipsed down the stairs, carrying unsteady legs. Dull body armor followed, its blue and red paint scuffed with battle scars. A two-toned helmet lurched into The Hideout, the eyes within bloodshot and accusing as they fell on the gathering at the bar.

"Look who it is," Ravager slurred. He swept the empty bottle in his hand across the span of the bar, staggering toward them. "It's the biggest bunch of losers I've ever seen. What's up, losers?"

Shimmer fell, yelping as Blackfire flexed her glowing hands. Violet light poured into Blackfire's scowl as she turned on Ravager. "You speak boldly for the crown prince of fools, Wilson," Blackfire growled.

"All your big talk and plans," Mammoth grunted, "and what did we wind up with? Nothin'." He swiveled his back to Ravager and slouched over the bar.

"Why are you even here, numb nuts? Y' got another scheme?" Gizmo said, dropping from Mammoth's lazy grasp. Bending over, the imp slapped the backside of his green jumpsuit, and said, "Well, scheme this."

"Yeah," one Billy harrumphed.

"Go on an' get," the other two harmonized.

"You're the lamest, most pathetic bag of hair I've ever seen, Grant," Shimmer said, dusting off her taut leggings as she stood. "You screwed every one of us with your stupid plans. I am squatting in a bar—"

"Which is closed," Scruffy said.

"—because of you. So shove your plans, and your monologues, and your little toys, and your stupid, stupid mask up your ass, and get the hell out of here," Shimmer spat.

Ravager swayed, his boots planted to the floor. He stared. Then, he bent forward, and worked his helmet off with one hand. The red and blue colors spun together as the helmet bounced at his feet.

The face underneath gave pause to the crowd at the bar. Ravager's face held heavier bags than any of theirs, drooping above a thin, whiskery shadow over his jaw. His greasy hair jutted in wild directions. The wild caliber of his eyes shot through the bar, bounced off the mirror, and doubled back upon their owner.

"You're absolutely right," he grunted. "I made a mistake. I made nothing but mistakes, and I ruined it for everyone. And I'm sorry."

Booming silence met his apology. Then, Gizmo crinkled his cheeks, and drawled, "Okay…"

"I tried to honor my dad's memory. I tried fighting his war for him, the way he would have. With tricks. With shadow games. With layers, and manipulation, and subtlety, and guile." He staggered closer, his eyes locked on them even while his body tilted. "And do you know what I discovered?"

Jinx murmured, "You sucked at it."

He jabbed his bottle at her. "I sucked at it! Yes! I'm not my father. I don't fight in the shadows. I am what I am. I am a ravager! I tear out my enemies' throats with tooth and claw, and I revel in it!"

Three identical, quizzical looks filled the far end of the bar. "Y' lost us, hoss," the middle Billy confessed.

"Join me," Ravager said, and swept his arms out. "If this is the end of the Teen Tyrants, then let's end it right. One more charge! Half a league, half a league, half a league onward! Let's storm the ivory tower of those prim, perfect little do-gooders!"

Shimmer grimaced. "You're kidding. And drunk."

"'Yes' to the second, 'no' to the first," Ravager crowed. "Come on! No plans! No schemes! We batter through their drawbridge, and we mow through their castle, and we don't stop until six mutilated sacks of blood and bone lie steaming in our wake!"

A rumbling stirred Mammoth's chest as he glanced back at Ravager's breathless declaration. Mammoth flicked his eyes toward the rest of his former cohorts, gauging their lukewarm reactions. "No plans?" he mused.

"We'll kill the Titans! We'll grind them under our heel, and take whatever we want, and burn the rest!" cried Ravager. "Let's be Tyrants one more time!"

He hurled his empty bottle over their heads. It smashed into the bar mirror, shattering their long reflection into a thousand shards. The crash startled Scruffy, driving him under the bar for cover.

Blackfire rubbed her bruised jaw in contemplation. "Payback would be nice," she said. "And I love the idea of drunken idiot meat shields running in front of me."

Stumbling from his stools, Billy condensed his three selves into one. "Shoot," he said, "I'm up for a good scrap. After that beat-down they handed me downstairs? Hell, yeah!"

Mammoth's giant hands mashed the bar, splintering its lacquered wood as he shoved himself onto his feet. "No plans! Let's crush 'em like beer cans!" he roared.

Looking to either side of her, Shimmer sagged, and sighed. Then she drew herself upright, and said, "Screw it. Let's go melt some faces."

"Yeah! Slash and burn!" Gizmo squealed, and jumped from his stool. Four mechanical legs sprouted from his pack to carry him above the rest.

All eyes fell to the silent, wilted Jinx. She swiveled on her stool, her long braids swaying behind her as she affixed Ravager with a cold, crackling stare. He said nothing more, waiting unflinchingly for her answer.

"This is the last time, Grant," Jinx said. "I never want to see you again after this."

He smirked. "If we do this right, you won't have reason to." He brandished his sabers with a flourish, scoring deep welts into the floor as he swept them in a line. "Yes! One last, glorious stand! We'll tear them apart! We will conquer them!"

Then he doubled over and vomited.

Jinx sighed and lifted her boots while the other Tyrants skittered back from the advancing wave of Ravager's bile. "Let's run some coffee through you first," she said.

Teen Titans
Adaptation

By Cyberwraith9

Ascendance: Birthright

"…wow," whispered Robin.

He lay on the floor, staring up at the blackened ceiling through cracked lenses. His mask was the only thing he wore. His clothes lay across the room, scattered, but somehow intact. The first rays of dawn had awoken him after less than two hours of sleep. He felt exhausted, damp, sore, and sticky.

He glowed.

Beside him slumbered a glistening shape of sculpted gold. Her muscles and curves thrummed with shallow breath. Radiant hair curled around her, twisting around her arm, and trailing down her thigh.

Starfire glowed.

Robin sat up, bracing himself on his hands. He watched the sunrise through the bare window of the far wall. Sunrise shone across the opposite side of the Compound. Its colors filled the skyline, turning the wall of skyscrapers outside the window into a long, dazzling mirror.

The colors danced across Starfire's skin, filling every shadow with brilliant warmth. For the first time, Robin understood her Tamaranian lack of modesty. If everyone on her world looked even a fraction as she did in the dawn, he couldn't imagine ever wanting to cover such a sight.

He felt a curious tension in his cheeks. Touching his face, he found an enormous smile in his lips. It felt odd to feel such an expression in his features, as though it had wandered off someone else's face and onto his. The thought made him chuckle.

A soft gasp escaped the red curtain of hair over Starfire. She stirred, muscles bunching under her skin, rippling in the dawn. One green eye pierced her hair and found him at once, making his smile double.

"Good morning," he murmured.

The glaze in her eye faded. The tension in her body eased as she rolled up onto her hip, pushing back her scarlet curtain. Starfire blinked at him for a moment, and then turned her gaze to the rest of the room.

"You're just in time for the sunrise," Robin said as Starfire pushed onto her feet.

She ignored the comment, and found her armor across the room, where it had been flung violently enough to dent the wall. She stepped into its straps and worked her hips into the violet metal, her face a mask of concentration.

Robin stood and began collecting the pieces of his uniform. "We should go downtown to Al's for breakfast," he said. His smile watered at the thought of greasy pancakes dripping with butter and syrup. "After that, maybe we could find a real bed…for sleep, I mean."

Starfire pulled her boots up over her thighs in silence.

As he slid into his black leggings, Robin let his attention drift across the room and back in time. The memory threatened to break his face with the force of his grin. "You could use some furniture in here," he remarked, and popped his neck. "Not that I'm complaining, but after last night, I could really use—"

"Last night is done," Starfire said, and locked her bracer over her arm.

Her biting tone stopped Robin cold. He felt the giddy weightlessness in his chest falter as he looked up. "Kory?" he said, startled.

She secured her other bracer. Fully dressed, she met his gaze with piercing eyes. "Last night is done," she repeated slowly. "Please leave."

Robin's stomach plummeted. He dropped his tunic, letting the heavy vest flop onto the bare floor. "Kory, what is this? What's wrong?" he said. "I thought…after last night, I thought we…? We need to talk about …"

"There is nothing to talk about." Starfire strode toward him, exuding ice and purpose in her slow gait. Her eyes hovered in his face, pointedly ignoring the massive, whitish scar in the middle of his chest. "And there is no 'we.' You need to leave now."

His confusion collapsed into a scowl as she stopped before him. He frowned hard enough to fracture the cracked lenses in his mask, skewing her cold visage into fragments. "Last night was your idea," he insisted.

"Last night, you fulfilled a biological imperative," she said, cutting him off in a stern tone. "What happened between us could just as easily have happened with Garfield, or Ryuko, or any boy."

"Biological…?" Robin felt his heart stop. His fists shook at his side as he glared through kaleidoscope lenses. "You grabbed me. You kissed me. I thought…I don't know what I thought. But now you're telling me—?"

"I did not choose you," she told him. "You were simply there. I thank you for your assistance—"

"Assistance?" Robin roared.

She didn't blink. "You need not repeat everything I say, Robin," she told him. "And there is no need to shout."

"You kissed me! You dragged me into your room!" Robin shouted. "Biological imperative? What the hell was I last night? Your stud? You just needed a quickie to get your hormones in check?"

Starfire let his comment stew between them. She watched him heave, his cheeks flushed, his jaw set. A sliver of her sated hunger arose, until she tamped it down with a cold thought.

"Did you think that intercourse would magically remedy your previous actions?" she asked him in a low voice. "That I would forget that you abandoned me? That you replaced us all with your team in the East? That you treat everyone in your life as a disposable resource?"

"I thought—"

"You were mistaken. Now please leave."

Robin trembled. His voice thickened into a hoarse whisper. "Coming here was a mistake."

She blinked once. "Yes. It was."

Kicking his boots ahead of him, Robin stormed out of her door with the rest of his clothes bunched in his arms.

Starfire watched him vanish behind the closing doors. Her eyes lingered at the scar on his back, the one that matched the scar on his chest. She lasted until the doors sealed shut before she broke into tears.

Incense cradled the room in a muted fragrance. The shades were drawn, their edges glowing with a fresh day. A new day. Another day in a string of days that made no sense, but were all the same.

Bushido knelt before the altar, his head bowed, his posture perfect and relaxed. A pair of candles flickered at either end of his altar, gilding his keikogi with their glow. His katana rested between the candles, unsheathed. Its steel reflected his gaze back upon him.

He spoke, breaking an hour of silence. "I have been patient. I have done all you could have asked," he said.

He waited.

"I am not asking for forgiveness. I merely wish for a sign."

He waited.

"Speak to me," he said, bowing his head. "Give me a sign."

He waited.

"Give me a sign."

Nothing.

His eyes snapped open.

Roaring, Bushido grasped the sides of the altar and ripped it free from its mounting. The altar shattered against the far wall. His sword flashed at him in the dark before it clattered to rest on the floor amidst splinters and smashed, smoldering wax.

He stared, reining in his heaving breath. A sigh dropped his chin to his chest and crushed his eyelids shut. He crossed the room and collected his sword from the wreckage, wiping the blade clean before sheathing it at his waist. He left his room without giving the ruined altar a second glance.

By the time he reached the Commons downstairs, Bushido's sullen demeanor had submerged beneath a smile. A tantalizing aroma wafted through the open door, accompanied by sounds of sizzling bacon and clanking pans. He beamed as he entered, and chirped, "Good morning."

Victor glanced up from the stovetop. Despite the bags under his eyes, the erstwhile cyborg grinned with good humor. "Morning, Ry. You're up early."

"A day of possibility cannot begin until you do," Bushido said sagely, and bellied up to the island counter on a stool.

Victor's smile spread as he turned back to his burgeoning breakfast on the stovetop. Dual griddles cooked his pancakes on the front burners, while the back burners cooked his bacon and an omelet in separate pans. Shaking his head, Victor said, "You always come up with the prettiest ways to say really obvious stuff. With that kind of talent, you oughtta write fortune cookies."

"Alas, the secret to my wisdom has been exposed," Bushido said. Then he asked, "And you? You seem to be handling yesterday's 'changes' quite capably."

"Sleeping on the couch isn't as easy as a good ol' recharge," admitted Victor, as he twisted his neck with a long, loud series of pops. "But nothing's gonna beat a full-on breakfast to top off my brand new tank." He tossed both griddles, flipping his pancakes.

Frowning, Bushido said, "I actually meant your being a living hive of technology now. But your voracious eating habits are also good information to keep at hand, I suppose."

"Oh, right. That part."

Victor reached for the bacon pan, and then hissed, and pulled his hand back from the hot handle. Closing his eyes, he flexed the offended hand. His fingers blackened, merging together as they ballooned into a quilted oven mitt. The seamless transformation took Bushido aback as Victor used his mitt-hand to pick up the bacon pan.

Once he set the pan on the counter, his mitt reverted into a hand. He held his wriggling fingers aloft and grinned. "It's gonna take some getting used to, but I think I can get a handle on it. Getting the 'all-over' thing down pat is a must before I stick my pretty new mug back into a fight, I'll tell you that."

"Of course." Bushido's gaze wandered from the mountainous breakfast assembling on Victor's plate. A green shrub poked above the back of the couch, so still and silent that it took Bushido another moment to recognize. "Is that Garfield sitting over there? Quietly? Without the television on?"

Bushido wandered over to investigate. He found Beast Boy seated on the couch, legs crossed and eyes closed, with hands poised on his knees. The shapeshifter's shoulders rose and fell in steady rhythm, the only movement he betrayed.

"Yeah. I've caught him doing that a couple times," Victor said, and glanced back at Beast Boy on the couch. "He says it's something Raven showed him. Some Zen thing that dampens sounds and smells. If you ask me, it doesn't work. Salad Head is still just as loud and smelly as ever."

Without turning around, Beast Boy said, "I do it so everyone else's noise and smells don't bug me so much, you carnivore. And clear some room on the stove for Raven's teapot. She'll be here in another minute or so. I can hear her coming down the hall."

"Well, that's not creepy at all," Victor quipped. He found a filled teapot waiting by the stove, and set it on one of the burners.

"Interesting," Bushido said, and rubbed his jaw in study of Beast Boy's meditative spell.

Beast Boy blinked his eyes open. His legs unfolded as he stood, his joints crackling as he stretched. "Not really. I could hear everybody's heartbeat from pretty much anywhere in the Compound once I figured out how to filter out all the other stuff, and they all sound different. Like Meathead back there," he said, and chucked his thumb at Victor. "His ticker sounds normal enough now, but that battery in his chest still buzzes like his old one did. And you always have a really slow heartbeat. It's like you're never excited."

"I get excited," Bushido said. "Just never surprised. With senses as sharp as yours, I imagine you can empathize."

"Ry-guy, it doesn't matter how far I see, smell, or hear," said Beast Boy, as he strolled toward the Commons door. "I don't think life is ever gonna stop surprising me."

Beast Boy leaned next to the doorframe with a ready smile as Raven trudged into the room. She wore her cloak over rumpled pajamas with its hood drawn over her head. A sour expression pierced the shadow over her face.

"Tea first," she grunted as Beast Boy drew breath to greet her. "Then cheer."

His jaw clicked shut. Following her into the kitchen area, he scratched his head, and said, "Water's on. And you look like hell."

"Your capacity for flattery underwhelms me," she said, casting a nasty look over her shoulder.

Her hands drifted to her bulbous stomach, a gesture that narrowed Beast Boy's eyes. With two great strides, he caught up to her, and studied her cloaked outline. "Are you okay? You know you're supposed to tell us when something new comes up. You promised the Doc," he said.

Her nasty look became one of annoyance. "I have stomach cramps. Happy? Now, can I sit down, or would you like to hear about my hangnail too?"

"Well, that explains the crankiness," he retorted, and pulled out a stool for her at the counter. "A little breakfast should settle the ol' tummy. And a little eyeliner might help with the other problem," he added impishly.

"You slay me, Garfield," Raven deadpanned, rolling her eyes. When she sat down on the stool, she stiffened. Hopping off her seat, she shot Beast Boy a spiteful look. "Oh, that's mature," she snapped.

He frowned, confused, as she wiped her hand across the stool's upholstery. "Uh, thank you? What did I do?"

Rubbing her dry fingers, she scowled at him, and said, "Did you spill something and forget to clean it up? Is this a prank? It soaked through my cloak."

Beast Boy glanced at the stool, and then at Victor and Bushido, who mirrored his confusion. "Raven, nobody spilled anyth—"

He stopped as Raven opened her cloak to examine her pajama bottoms. A dark, glistening stain swallowed the pants' inseams, running from her knees to her drawstrings. Even as Beast Boy watched in shock, the wetness crawled down her legs.

"I'm…guessing that's not an accident," Victor drawled, transfixed by the incomprehensible sight.

Raven's ashen pallor whitened as she stared through the gap in her cloak. "…no. My water broke," she uttered. Another pang rippled through her stomach, one she knew now to be no simple cramp. "It's happening."

Several flabbergasted seconds later, Victor shook his head free of its stupor. "Okay. Ryuko, get on the horn and get us the fastest colorblind cabbie in the city. I'll call Doctor Brown and let her know we're taking Raven to the nearest hospital—"

"No!" Raven exclaimed, breaking free of her own spell. "No, you can't. I don't know how much control I'm going to have during the…episode. And you've seen what I can do to light bulbs. I can't risk the same thing happening around ventilators and defibrillators."

Victor paused another second, and then nodded. "Right. Change of plans. Ryuko, get down to Supplies. Dig up some gas lamps, gas stoves…anything we might need that doesn't run on juice. I think there are some old camping supplies buried in the corner.

"I'm going to call the Doc," he said, and turned back to Raven. "I don't know what kind of timetable we're on…?" She answered his questioning look with a shake of her head. "We'll still need her to check out the kid…not that anything is going to go wrong. Sarah?" he said to the empty air.

"Yes, Cyborg?" the ceiling answered in Sarah's voice.

"Holo down to Sickbay and rig up a maternity suite," Victor instructed her. Then he looked to Beast Boy, and said, "Get her into a gown and into that bed. Anything she needs, you get or you do. Let's go!"

Raven teetered back against the island counter as Victor and Bushido strode out of the Commons. Another pang—a contraction—made her shiver. She felt the soft, constant babble of emotion inside of her begin to dwindle. She looked to Beast Boy, and her breath stuttered at the helpless, dumbfounded fear that twisted his face.

"Garfield?" she asked.

Her soft question shattered his silence into a dozen blurted thoughts. "I don't—! What do we—? How do I—? Oh, man, I'm gonna—!"

She staggered off the counter, and said gingerly, "Garfield…"

Wrenching his hair, Beast Boy screwed his eyes shut and moaned. "Why didn't I pay attention during those stupid classes? I don't even know what a Lamaze is! This is too soon, I can't—"

"Garfield." She spoke his name firmly as she took his hands, wresting them gently from his hair. "I need you. Please."

His eyes snapped open and fell upon her pointed gaze. A deep, shuddering sigh whistled through him. When it had passed, he grasped her by the shoulders and nodded. "Right. Freak out later." Steering her toward the door, he said, "Come on, we've got someone waiting for us. Let's go say hi."

The red Jolly Rancher spiraled above her, launched from Tek's pursed lips with a puff. She leaned back in her chair and caught it in her mouth again.

Her feet propped on the Ops console, she sighed around her candy, and laced her fingers behind her head. The console's screen displayed live footage of their doorstep, where city crews had already arrived to deal with the damage from last night. Most of the debris had been cleared already, and a monster of a machine rolled over the street's foundation, laying a fresh, glistening coat of asphalt behind it.

We should send those guys gift baskets, she thought, and spat and caught her candy again. With all the municipal havoc the Titans wreaked, Tek felt equal stabs of guilt and admiration for the city's cleanup crews. Every one of her plasma bolts that missed its mark meant another hour of work for them.

As she idly wondered what kind of bath gels best apologized for putting craters into streets, she saw Starfire entering Ops. Tek glanced at the clock, and then swung her feet off the console. "Six o'clock, finally," she said, and stretched. "Nergh. Nothing like a graveyard shift after eighteen solid hours of shenanigans."

"I apologize for being late," mumbled Starfire.

"S'okay. Not much to monitor, except the guys in orange outside. Hey, if you were a construction worker, would you want a loofah?" Tek asked. Then she paused, frowning at the black, wadded mass Starfire twisted between her hands. "Hey, what'cha got there?"

Starfire jolted, jerking her hands apart. The wadded material unfurled, becoming a curtain of glistening fabric with a scalloped edge. Drawing the fabric to her chest, Starfire stammered, "It is…"

"Huh. Is that like a blanket, or something? It looks kind of like…" She trailed off, scrutinizing the metallic fabric. Her eyes went wide with shock. She reeled back, gasping. The Jolly Rancher shot down her throat.

"Please," Starfire said, wringing the cape as Tek gagged on the candy. "It is not what you—"

Tek coughed the candy back into her mouth. "No. Way," she wheezed. Her pained expression became a grin as she looked up at Starfire. "No way! That's so great, Kory! Did you and Tim really…? Wow! That's—!"

Starfire's cringe stopped Tek in mid-gush. Tek dulled her smile as she watched her friend's eyes fall to the cape in her hands.

"Wow," Tek said mutedly, "So it's not great. It's not? What happened?"

Starfire started to speak, but then hiccupped as a heated voice behind Tek fumed, "Hello? Is anyone here? Why can't I leave?" Starfire whisked the cape behind her back and made her face into stone as Robin stormed into Ops from the other side of the balcony.

"Tek? What's—?" The capeless Teen Wonder stumbled at the sight of Starfire standing behind Tek.

Tek withered in the silent crossfire of their eyes. She could feel Starfire's stony look burning through the back of her head to reach Robin, whose cracked lenses smoldered like white-hot embers. "Wow. So…is anybody going to say anything? Maybe get a dialogue going? Yes? No? …okay, no."

Robin recovered, and zeroed his masked glower upon Tek, speaking as though they were the only two people present. "What the hell is going on? Your computer won't let me fuel my bike. It won't open the hatch. When I left the Bay, it locked me out. I can't even get to my bike anymore!"

"That'd be my fault," Victor called, surprising everyone as he jogged into Ops behind Starfire. "Thought you might try your disappearing act again, like yesterday."

"Well, would you please open the Bay?" Only Starfire noticed Robin's slight glance in her direction as he growled, "I need to leave. Now."

"Sorry, Wonder Boy. Nobody's leaving right now," Victor said, beaming. "Raven's down in Sickbay. It's time."

"Time? Time for what?" Tek asked. Then she gasped, and choked on her candy a second time. Doubling over, she spat out the malicious Jolly Rancher, and exclaimed, "It's time? Time-time? Already?"

"Beast Boy's getting her settled in right now. We can't take her to a hospital, so it's all going down in Sickbay. I want all hands on deck for moral support and baby-fielding."

Tek's squeal brushed the upper threshold of human hearing as she clapped her hands. "This is so amazing! I'm gonna go find a camera! Do we own a camera? Sarah, find me a camera!" she cried, and scampered out of Ops.

With no one left between her and Robin, Starfire soured. "I heartily congratulate Raven," she began, "but—"

"I have work to do," Robin insisted, speaking over Starfire. "There's—"

"Nuh-uh. Shut it, both of you," Victor snapped, cowing Robin and Starfire into silence. "I am going to see you both downstairs with big, big smiles and happy thoughts in the next five minutes. Because if I don't see that, the next thing I'll see is me finding all kinds of new ways to make both of your lives as miserable as I can."

"But—!" Robin and Starfire harmonized.

"Nah-ah-ah! I don't care about 'your' new solo act," he arched at Robin, and then turned to Starfire to add, "or 'your' lady issues! This is Raven's day. Box your issues up and get your asses down to Sickbay." As he stalked out of Ops, he added, "And seriously? Just kiss already. You're not fooling anybody."

The pair stood statuesque in the emptied Ops. Gradually, their reluctant gazes met. The silence didn't end at their lips. It crawled in their expressions. It spilled through their eyes.

The space between them became an echoing gulf. One word could have bridged the gulf. Two words could have made it vanish. A sentence, spoken by either of them, would end it.

Wordlessly, Robin walked out of Ops.

Starfire drew his cape out from behind her back. She kneaded its metallic weave, watching its utter blackness catch the early morning through the skylight. Then she cast the cape over the central console's chair and trailed after him.

Beast Boy checked the door panel with his hip and backed into Sickbay. He cradled a small plastic bucket full of feathery ice chips in the crook of his elbow, underneath a pile of blankets balanced against his chest.

"All we had were ice cubes," he said, and blindly set the blankets on the bed next to Raven's. "So I had to get a steak knife and go all Norman Bates on 'em. Is there anything I'm forgetting?"

When he looked up from the blanket pile, he stopped. The center biobed had been rigged with a set of metal stirrups and a bedpan, and lay swathed in sterile cotton sheets, all courtesy of the Sarah Sim standing courteously to one side. But the birthing bed lacked a critical element: "Raven?" he asked, turning in a circle.

Raven huddled in the corner of the room, sitting with her knees to her chest. Her face was buried in the stretched fabric of her white medical gown. Her shoulders trembled while she linked her arms around her legs.

Beast Boy's ears pricked with her rapid heartbeat and the soft, wet, erratic sound of her breathing. "Raven, are you okay?" he said, darting to her side. He knelt, and tried to lift her head. She resisted his hand, which grew wet against her cheek.

"Stop it," she grunted. "I'm fine."

Rubbing his wet fingertips, Beast Boy pulled back. "Are you…crying?" he asked.

"No," she snapped into her gown. "This is just my water breaking again."

He sat down next to her and leaned against the wall. "I don't actually know enough about biology to know if you're being sarcastic or not," he said.

"I'm fine," she said again, and lifted her head. Glistening trails stained her cheeks, framing her puffy scowl. "It's just hormones. It's nothing." Her chin dipped as a fresh wave of tears overwhelmed her eyelids. "It's stupid."

He reached for her arm, but hesitated when he saw her flinch. Dropping his hand, Beast Boy murmured, "It's not stupid. Raven, this is a big deal. It's okay to feel a little scared—"

"I'm not scared, Beast Boy," Raven snapped, turning her teary glower against him. "I'm never scared. I'm…" She sighed, and said, "I'm mad."

"…at me?"

"At myself," she said, exasperated. "After all this time, I'm still such an idiot. I must be the dumbest person alive to…"

As she trailed off, Beast Boy offered her a tepid smile. "First off, I'd beat you in a dumb-off, hands down," he told her. "No contest. Do you remember the time I tried cooking a tofu dog with some copper wire and an outlet 'cause the microwave was broken?"

An amazing noise emerged from Raven. It was choked and garbled, and masked behind her sniffling. But Beast Boy thought he might have heard the beginnings of a laugh somewhere deep in her throat before she bit her lip.

Beast Boy grinned, and bumped her shoulder with his. "See? So how could you be dumber than that? I dare you."

She deflated in a sigh. Her gaze fell back to her knees, unable to meet his eyes any longer. "I know it was all a lie. There wasn't anything real about what we had. But...I miss him. I don't want to, but I do. I wish he were here," she said.

"Oh," Beast Boy said, sobering. "Him."

She grit her teeth against the tears dribbling from her chin. Her voice grew husky as she said, "I told you it was stupid. Dominic didn't love me. But he was the closest I'm ever going to get. And he's gone because I…"

"Hey. Hey, look at me," Beast Boy said, nudging her shoulder with his again. "You know what I thought about that spindly goth freak. But total truth? I honestly believe that he loved you, Raven. I swear he did."

"Then you're right. You are dumber than I am," she muttered.

When she tried to turn away, he nudged her again. "I'm being serious. He was creepy, evil, and way too needy. But he loved you, Raven. And even if you don't believe that, you can't really sit there and tell me that he's going to be your only shot ever."

"It's true," she said.

"Oh, that's crap," Beast Boy scoffed. "Sure, you're a tough nut to crack. Really tough. And cold. Like, arctic. And mean, sometimes. But come on, just look at you! You're a hottie!"

She sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "Sure," she grunted.

"Damn Skippy! Even right now, with the puffiness, and the crazy hair, and the dress that lets your butt hang out…"

Raven sniffed again, and then jolted when she felt his hand on her cheek. Beast Boy lifted her chin from her chest, wiping her tears away with his thumb. A smile filled his mouth.

"Especially now," he said. "Look at that. Totally babealicious."

"Very funny."

"Wasn't a joke. You could tell because it didn't start with 'knock-knock.' Those pouting lips, those dark eyes…plus, this whole pregnancy thing has done wonders for your boobs," he said, beaming. "I think if you drop a little baby weight in the next hour or so, we could be looking at a new Ms. California."

Raven couldn't help but smile, try though she might to fight the impulse. "You're sweet, Garfield," she murmured. "…in a demented, childish sort of way."

"Hey, I'm being totally serious here. You're amazing, Raven," Beast Boy said, cupping her cheek. "You're smart, you're tough, and even kinda funny when you want to be. And you really are drop-dead gorgeous. Hell, any guy with half a brain would…"

He trailed off, staring into her bloodshot eyes. His thumb caressed the puffy wetness of her cheek. Her tangle of lavender hair fell over her face, tickling his wrist. As Beast Boy's gaze traveled across the somber, stoic, disheveled sorceress, he felt a light turn on in his chest.

"Oh, hell," he muttered.

Raven blinked. "Garfield? Is something wrong?"

Quickly, Beast Boy brushed her hair behind her ear. His smile widened, covering his surprise. "No!" he said. "I was just saying that…that any guy with half a brain would be nuts about you."

"It's a nice fantasy, Garfield, but I don't think—" Raven's smile fell apart. She grunted, and leaned over her stomach. "The contractions. They're getting worse."

Beast Boy helped her to her feet and braced her over to the birthing bed. "Okay. Showtime. Sarah, help Raven …do whatever it is she needs to do. I'm gonna…"

Surprise creased Raven's face as she rolled onto the bed, her pale skin flashing through the back of the gown. "You're leaving?"

"No! Well, yes, but just the room, just for a second," he stammered. "I would never…I mean, I'm never gonna…I just need to round up the rest of the posse so we can, uh, wrangle up the li'l varmint. Heh."

"Oh. Well…" Raven frowned. The corners of her mouth twinged as she said, "Just…hurry back, okay?"

"Quick like a bunny," he said, slapping Sickbay's door panel. He shrank into the shape of a rabbit and bounced out of the room.

As soon as he turned the corner, he reverted, and waited for the doors to close. Grasping the wall, he banged his forehead against the cold metal plating.

"You have got to be kidding me," he swore at himself. "Raven? Really? You stupid, stupid, stupid, gorgeous, stupid man. You really are the dumbest guy on the planet. A real glutton for punishment. And now? Seriously, now? Right now? Now is when you realize it. Unbelievable."

"Beast Boy?"

Robin's voice stopped Beast Boy in mid-thump. He glanced back, and saw Robin standing behind him with a puzzled look. Starfire strode toward them both, wearing a similar expression.

Beast Boy drew a breath to explain…and choked. He gaped at Robin, letting the former Titan's scent—and its sordid story—roil in his nose. As Starfire drew near, Beast Boy split his astonishment between the pair.

"Holy crap! You guys had se...yeah…" He trailed off, suddenly abashed. Coughing, he said, "Uh, sorry. But, um, good for you?"

Starfire's curious demeanor hardened until it became the stony façade Beast Boy had come to know from her. The color of Robin's face flared for half an instant before he blanched, and set his mouth in a grim line.

"Wow. Right," Beast Boy muttered, shrinking back to the wall. He nodded toward Sickbay's doors, and said, "Hey, speaking of anything besides unexpected hookups…"

White armor trimmed in blue struck the floor behind Robin and Starfire, making them quake with the force of its landing. Tek emerged from the ratcheting alloys, flashing briefly before the aperture on her back sealed itself. She caught the camera her armored form had been carrying. A smile halved her face. "Your friendly neighborhood superhero photographer, reporting for duty!" she said, and saluted rakishly.

Victor rounded the corner. He was followed soon after by a walking pile of non-electrical equipment, the legs of which curiously resembled Bushido's. Clapping his hands, Victor announced, "Everybody ready? Why's everybody out here?"

Beast Boy and Starfire shared a look, one Robin refused to join. Too quickly, the shapeshifter said, "Nothing! I mean, we're just…psyching up for Raven's big day."

After a brief headcount, Victor's smile became a frown. "You mean you left her alone in there?"

"…Sarah's with her," Beast Boy answered weakly.

Another second ticked by under Victor's disapproving look. Then he wrapped his arm around Beast Boy's shoulders and grinned again. Dragging Beast Boy toward the doors, Victor led the way into Sickbay, and said, "Well, let's fix that. C'mon, everybody! We've got a Tiny Titan on the way. We don't wanna keep him waiting!"

The din of municipal construction drowned out Ravager's thoughtful grunt. He stared across the cracked, broken street from the shelter of an alley abutting a closed delicatessen. The glistening sight of the Compound's glass lobby stared back through a throng of orange-vested workers and their equipment.

Gizmo's glassy eyes reflected the destruction as he leaned around the corner, tucked beneath Ravager. He whistled. "Somebody scrudded that place up already," the tiny terror muttered.

Ravager nodded in agreement as he pulled back into the alley. The questioning glares of the other Tyrants waited for him to say something. He rubbed the patchy stubble on his face, and wished desperately for another cup of coffee to quell the throb that swallowed everything between his ears.

"So what's the plan?" Jinx sneered. "Sneak in through the garbage chute? Or maybe you want us to pose as door-to-door vacuum salesmen and talk our way in?"

"I could make a vacuum that'd suck the skin right off their bones," Gizmo said, rubbing his hands together as he cackled.

Mammoth's snort rustled his own greasy hair. "Balls to sneakin'. Why don't we just walk in and start punching everything and everybody 'til it's nothing but a flat lot?"

A worried look came from Billy in triplicate. He looked amongst his selves, conferring through expressions. Then he nodded, and the middlemost of him said, "Chargin' in might not be too smart. Remember all those guns they got on the inside?"

Shimmer scoffed. "Mik can handle anything that tin-plated quarterback put together. Can't you, Mik?" she said, and drummed on Gizmo's bald scalp.

Chasing Shimmer's hands away, Gizmo buried his lenses in a scowl. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I can handle it. The only problem might be is, by the time I crack his network, or get to a hard-access port, there might not be enough of me left to handle anything."

Blackfire rolled her eyes. "Diving straight into their jaws is moronic. We should wait for them to leave, let some other crisis wear them down, and then destroy them when they come home weary and off their guard."

"…didn't we try that back when we were the Fearsome Five?" Mammoth asked Jinx, scratching his head.

Jinx groaned. "Who can even keep track anymore?"

"No. Mammoth's right," Ravager growled as he massaged his temples.

Once more, astonished stares flocked to Ravager from all around him. Mammoth's eyes were the widest as he said, "Everybody else heard that too, right?" He plunged his finger into his ear, twisting through months' worth of accumulated grime.

"No sneaking," Ravager said. "We're done sneaking. But you're not thinking grandly enough. Bigger. Louder. Badder."

He glanced back out of the alley. The tremendous yellow paver trundled in front of the Compound's lobby. Fresh black asphalt glistened behind it. The noxious smell of the new street wafted into the alley, making Ravager's eyes water.

"Gizmo," said Ravager, "how are you with heavy machinery?"

A smile filled Gizmo's face with terrible joy.

Sweat and tears poured down Raven's face, indistinguishable from one another as she bit down and swallowed another scream. Dark color flushed in her cheeks. Her hair swung in heavy lavender tangles as she tossed her head from side to side. Metal chewed against metal as her feet thrashed in the bed's stirrups. Sickbay blinked around them as the lights flickered and buzzed.

Tek watched at Raven's bedside with a camera clutched at the ready. She stood next between Bushido and Starfire, who tried to keep out of the way of Raven's grasping, wrenching hand. Too many emotions welled in Tek's eyes, pouring down her smiling cheeks. "You're doing great, Raven!" she gushed, and snapped a picture.

The camera flash made Raven snarl. A hiss escaped her teeth as she glared at Tek through bloodshot eyes. "I don't see why you're crying," Raven snarled at her.

"I can't help it," Tek said, hastily mopping her eyes with the back of her hand. She sniffled, and beamed, and pointed across Raven. "See? Even Gar can't help it."

On the opposite side of the bed, Beast Boy poised on a stool, hovering next to Raven. Her other hand intertwined with his, her knuckles bone-white and trembling with the force of her grip.

"You're doing…great…" Beast Boy squeaked to her as he felt the bones of his hand contract.

Situated at the bed's end, Victor peered into the tent formed by Raven's gown and legs. A look of supreme discomfort creased his features. He forced himself to look, but only in the slightest of glances, and only when absolutely necessary. "This is beyond awkward," he said. "Not to mention that I'm the last person I can think of qualified to do…this."

Robin leaned on the far wall, his arms crossed. He watched the proceedings through broken lenses, maintaining his air of disinterest with hunched shoulders. "I don't think anyone here can call themselves 'qualified' to deliver a baby, Victor."

With a wary glance, Bushido raised his hand. "Actually…"

"No!" Raven yowled, and then gritted her teeth. "No," she said more calmly, and pushed Bushido back a step with the force of her glower.

Beast Boy gasped as his hand collapsed in Raven's grasp. "Maybe I could switch spots with Vic…" he said.

Her grip on his hand tightened, doubling him over.

Victor rifled through a sheaf of papers, which he had hastily printed when Sickbay's computer monitors began to flicker as Raven's control slipped. He squinted at the printouts, trying to read in the flickering light. "Okay. If I'm right, it's pretty much a waiting game until you're…dilated…to ten centimeters." He risked another glance under the sheet.

"Need a ruler?" Robin grunted.

Whimpering, Beast Boy said, "Maybe we should do something about the pain before—"

The lights buzzed and dimmed as Raven moaned and threw back her head. "I can handle the pain. Just—"

Her voice erupted into a cry that threw everyone at her side back a step. The belabored lights buzzing above them died with a glassy burst, plunging Sickbay into dark. A rattling cough emerged from the overhead vents, ending the soft whisper of the air conditioner. The Sarah Sim's pink skirt suit glowed vibrant for a split instant before her physical form unraveled, becoming a fog of pixels, and then nothing.

Raven's ragged grunting overwhelmed the utter blackness. Then, seconds later, something metal rattled across the room. A yellow light blossomed, illuminating the room. Bushido carried the light in a small camping lantern to the foot of Raven's bed.

Shadows crawled across Victor's heavy face in the wandering light. He watched Raven twist as he took the lantern from Bushido. "Okay," he said. "We kind of expected this. It's okay."

Glass and steel screamed through the double doors of Sickbay. The sounds of demolition brought Victor to his feet in time to feel a tremor ripple through the floor. Seconds later, the Alert klaxon bleated once. Then the whole room went deaf at the clash of two tons of metal hammering down on the other side of the doors.

Clasping her ringing ears, Tek shouted, "What the hell was that?"

Victor set the lantern down and rushed to the doors. Bushido was fast behind him, and together, they shoved the doors apart. A thick metal security shutter blocked the door frame on the other side, having descended from the wall above to seal Sickbay from the rest of the Compound.

"Lockdown," Victor said, and snarled a curse at the heavy door. "Something triggered lockdown."

Beast Boy shuffled his attention between Raven and the heavy security shutter. "Did Raven do this?" he asked.

Raven cried, and then took several bracing breaths. "I don't…think so…" she wheezed, before her voice was lost in another wracking sob.

"Whatever caused it, we're good and stuck now," Victor said, and kicked the security shutter. It gonged at him in blatant defiance. Turning, he glanced around the room, and said, "Someone should check outside, just to make sure everything's okay. Can anyone…"

He trailed off as his gaze traveled to the far wall, where Robin had been. Only empty wall remained. Glancing up, Victor saw an air vent cover hanging crookedly from a single screw.

"Damn sneaky little…" muttered Victor.

A path of ruin cut through the lobby, paved with a winding, glistening patch of fresh asphalt over the cracked tile. The battered paver grinded to a halt before the security door to Sector Prime. Shards of glass, twisted beams, crushed seats, and a flattened, splintering desk lay behind the enormous construction vehicle.

Ravager hopped down from the fender of the paver and brushed the glass dust from his armor. "Gizmo, that was terrifically awful driving," he said, his voice reverberating through his helmet.

Control jacks withdrew from the innards of the paver, retracting back into Gizmo's backpack. He grinned, and followed. "Never had a lesson in my life," he gloated.

In ones and pairs, the rest of the Tyrants followed the paver's trail into the ruins of the lobby, leery of the broken walls around them. Jinx led, cradling handfuls of crackling pink hex.

"It can't be this easy," Jinx said.

Gizmo scampered to the security door and found its control panel. His data jack stabbed into the panel's interface as Ravager stood watch behind him. "Gimmie a minute," said Gizmo.

Ravager held his arms aloft as if to answer Jinx's skepticism with the wreckage around them. "Why don't you just admit that I was right, Nichole?"

"I thought I was right," Mammoth grumbled.

As Gizmo fought with the Compound's computer, Ravager paced before the security door with a cocky gait. His gauntlet rang against the door as he pounded, and bellowed, "Come on out! The storm clouds are gathered at your gate! Come out! The gods have come to slay the titans and take their rightful place on Olympus! Come out and face us! Send us your power! Send us your might! Come out and reap the destruction you've sown with your own arrogance!"

Gizmo grimaced, focusing his thoughts into dissecting Cyborg's security measures. "We're just here to kill them, dude. Don't make it weird," he muttered. Then he brightened and pulled back as the security door unsealed itself in a pneumatic groan. "Oh! I think I got it!" he cried.

Ravager trotted back as the massive door swung outward. He drew his sabers and crossed their blades, making them intersect at the widening gap behind the door. Debris crunched behind him as the rest of his Tyrants took position at his heels.

His heart hammered in his chest. He felt his hands tremble, and tightened them around the hilts of his swords. This would be his last remaining chance, but he didn't fear failure. He knew his mistakes lay in the past, hard-won lessons all.

There would be no more tricks. No more plans. He was a warrior, a brawler, a fighter to the core. There would be no more chances because he needed no more chances. He would live up to his name, and ravage his father's killers.

The door swung open.

Ravager's chest seized at the sight of an empty Sector Prime. The sprawling hallway beyond the door echoed with his shout. "What?"

Blackbolts snuffed in Blackfire's clenched fists. She cocked her hips against her hand, and said, "There's no way they didn't hear us coming."

"Maybe they're gone," Shimmer said, letting the air settle around her. "Did anybody think to check and see if they were home?"

They stared through the empty doorway, at a loss for what came next. The swords fell from Ravager's hands as he sunk to his knees, stricken numb at the sight. A choked noise emerged from his helmet, which bent toward the floor.

"So," Mammoth said. "You guys wanna wreck the place a little?"

A black disc rimmed with gold dropped from behind the top of the security doorframe. It clattered once and stopped in front of the Tyrants. Its stylized R monogram drew the eye before it exploded with light and sound.

The flash-bang left every eye and ear in the lobby ruins useless. Even with the limited protection of his mask, Ravager staggered, clutching the sides of his head. He could barely hear himself snarl. Yet he distinctly heard the clang of the security door sealing itself again.

Forcing his eyes to work, Ravager saw a blurry red and black shape working at the seam of the security door. Ravager gathered his swords and watched the shape solidify. His watering eyes narrowed into slits.

Robin planted the last in a series of red-rimmed discs along the seam of the door before he turned. The action wasn't nearly so dramatic without his cape, but he managed as best he could. "Ravager, right?" he said. "I know your sister. Nice girl. Don't feel too bad. She didn't inherit Slade's brains either."

The Tyrants behind Ravager found their senses again, and cried and swore in surprise at the Teen Wonder's entrance. Pink sparks and lilac energy glowed behind him as Ravager advanced on Robin with readied sabers.

"You." Ravager thrust the word at Robin, as if to reach out with his very voice and throttle the life from the dispassionate Teen Wonder. "Oh, I've been waiting for you."

Robin's cracked lenses reflected the line of Tyrants before him. His voice rose above the ringing in their ears. "I've had a bad week. Let's make this quick," he said, lifting his fist.

"How about we draw it out instead?" Jinx snarled. The hex she cradled blossomed into red flame. Pillars of fire stood in her hands as she sidled past Ravager. "Slow-roasting always locks in the flavor."

"We ain't actually gonna eat him, are we?" Mammoth asked, cringing. Shimmer swatted him on the elbow.

"You must be the world's biggest fool, Titan," Ravager said. He and his Tyrants closed upon Robin, spreading out to trap him against the door. "How did you plan on getting out of here?"

"Honestly?" Robin said, meeting Ravager's glare in kind. He raised the thumb on his fist, revealing a red detonator clutched in his black glove. "I wanted to ask you the same question."

His thumb mashed the detonator control. The red-rimmed discs behind him flared.

A dusty vent cover hung low on the wall of Sector Prime rattled and thumped with commotion coming from within the air duct.

"Why are these things so freaking small?" the vent cover asked in Tek's echoing voice.

"Be thankful they are large enough to fit anyone at all," the vent cover answered itself in Bushido's strained reverberations. "Now please move faster."

"Sure. Keep complaining while you're staring at my butt. That makes me feel better."

"You insisted on going first."

"I wanted to be the super-cool sneaky ninja girl for once instead of the clod-hopper robot girl. This looks so much cooler on TV." The vent gave a thump and a girlish grunt, and then snarled in frustration. In Tek's basso impression of Victor, the vent said, "Get going. You two are the only ones small enough to fit through."

"Technically true. Victor is too large, and Starfire is too...large."

"Oh, yeah. This is 'awesome.' "

"…your butt is very nice."

"Shut up."

The vent cover burst off the wall, and the air duct behind it vomited two teens onto the floor. Tek's head knocked against the floor as she landed on her spine. Bushido crouched next to her, landing on the balls of his feet.

Glaring, Tek accepted Bushido's helping hand and clambered to her feet. Dirt and dust clung to her skin suit. She took small comfort in the same grime marring Bushido's keikogi. "Okay. Ninja Girl is done," she groaned, and rubbed her back.

Bushido nodded sagely. "So much the better. You are far too bold a spirit for their ilk."

A little smile peered through Tek's grimace. "Shut up," she said, this time playfully. "Now, let's see what the big deal is…"

She dragged the last syllable into a hiss as she turned to the security door at the end of Sector Prime. The metal of the door glowed red around its edge. Paint peeled away from the frame, curling in a heat that Tek and Bushido could feel as they drew closer.

Tek couldn't resist the temptation. She reached through the warm air and tapped the door with her fingertips. Pulling back, she yelped, "Ow! You could cook an egg on this thing!"

Tapping the door's control panel, Bushido said, "Something has disabled the door. I suspect it was fused from the other side." The panel flickered, its digital keypad fuzzing with static. He struck the panel, and added, "I cannot access security functions. Raven's abilities may be interfering with the entire Compound's systems."

They both heard an explosion on the other side of the door. Their conversation stopped dead. Hardly breathing, they listened to the stillness that followed, until another blast resounded through the thick metal.

"That is not construction noise," Bushido said.

Puckering her face, Tek added, "No guesses for who's on the other side."

Another muffled explosion made the door rattle. Tek heard a scream in the lobby. She bolted from the door and ran back to the sealed Sickbay.

"Vic!" she cried, and pounded on the door with her palms. "Vic! Vic! Trouble!"

"Slow down, kid," she heard Victor reply through the thick security shutter. "What's going on out there?"

"I don't know!" Tek said, and shared a glance with Bushido as he caught up to her. "I don't know, I don't know, but it's in the lobby, and the lobby door won't open, and there are explosions, and I think Robin is in there! So we have to figure out a way to open the door and get you out so you can help us open the other door and—"

Tek jumped back with a shriek as the corner of the security shutter bent outward without warning. Fists of burnished gold pounded the edge of the shutter out of shape, making the metal squeal as it peeled out of its housing. Starfire appeared in the gap, pushing at its edges until she could sidle through. The look on her face chased Tek back a second step as she emerged from Sickbay.

Victor emerged next, his brow hanging low over his eyes. When he saw the security door, his scowl deepened. "That's gonna be a bitch to get through," he grumbled. "Let's go."

As he left the gap, he felt a tug on the back of his borrowed sweatshirt. Glancing back, he saw Beast Boy hanging in the gap.

Beast Boy's claws scraped against the bent armored shutter. His elfin jaw tightened. "Vic? I'm not leaving. I can't just—" Beast Boy began.

"Listen up, Gar," Victor snapped commandingly. "You stay in there, and you do whatever it takes to keep those two safe. You get me?"

Panic and gratitude mixed in Beast Boy's face. He glanced back into the room, and said, "Yeah. I will."

"We'll be back as soon as we can. Kory?" Vic said.

Starfire grasped the bent edge of the security shutter and, grunting, rolled it back into its housing. The shutter fit poorly with Starfire's knuckle-prints caved into its side, but she wedged it into place.

Concentration smoothed the furrows in Victor's expression. He grasped his arm, closing his eyes. His breathing slowed as the other Titans gathered behind him.

"Kory, Tek, get to work on the door," he said.

Victor's arm bulged, bursting from the sleeve of his sweatshirt. Its dark tones grayed into sleek, smooth alloy. Exhaust vents emerged from the top. His fingers swirled into his palm, which became a glowing blue aperture.

Tek summoned her armor with a blue-white flash. As it settled around her, she looked down at Victor, and said in a tinny voice, "Then what? We have no idea what we're up against. And by the time we get through, Robin could be…"

Her thought was broken by a loud clang. Looking up, Tek saw Starfire already at the door. The golden sylph swung with her whole body, driving the full measure of her strength behind her knuckles. The door scoffed and gonged at her first blows, but as she continued, its surface began to buckle.

Opening his eyes, Victor hefted the oversized sonic cannon his arm had become. It took more concentration than he expected to maintain the weapon. Gritting his teeth, he watched Starfire attack the door, and listened to her snarl at the metal in her native tongue.

"I know, kid. So let's go," he said.

Robin sprinted across the lobby floor, his boots pounding ahead of a rippling wave that tore apart the very ground beneath him. He hurtled the wave, feeling it brush his soles as it shot past him and slammed into the dormant construction paver.

This is it. This is the one, he thought.

He shook the thought away, and considered his options. Seven furious villains lay behind him, five of whom he had personally enraged at some point in his career. The surprise bought by his thermate incendiary discs was all but spent. He had mere seconds before the Tyrants got their act together and started coordinating. After that, he would be dead.

The paver was a tempting position. Leaping atop it would give him the high ground, but it would also make him a choice target for ranged fire. He could already hear the sizzle of Blackfire's bolts. Instead, he jumped and caught himself halfway up its side, and pushed off its yellow body into a soaring back flip.

Even upside-down, the battlefield looked no less grim. Jinx had shaken off the flare from his discs first, and pushed her magic through the earth to trip him. When she saw him take to the air, she summoned gouts of fire to her hands. "Watch it!" she snarled, and strafed to one side.

Blackfire's watering eyes caught sight of him, and flashed. Twin beams of violet energy lanced through the air behind Robin, and began tracking toward him at alarming speed.

As he reached into his belt, Robin saw a gaggle of red suits gathered at where he would land. He recognized Billy Numerous from the Titans' files. The duplicator split his selves again and again, forming a mob that grinned at the thought of catching whatever cinders remained of Robin after Jinx and Blackfire finished with him.

"High fly to the infield!" one Billy sang.

"Easy out!" another chimed.

Silver-edged discs flew from Robin's hands. The discs struck ground behind Billy's mob and ruptured into clouds of thick smoke, which ballooned to fill the back half of the lobby. Jinx snuffed her flames to grasp at her throat as the cloud's edge swallowed her. Blackfire's beams wobbled, losing Robin behind a curtain of smoke.

The Billys floundered en masse to in the choking haze. Two heavy boots descended from above and stomped into their midst, driving Billy's selves apart. A metallic snap permeated the cloud, followed by the dull sound of flesh and bone being sundered by something blunt. The last Billy standing saw a long, thin shadow sweep through the haze before it smashed through his visor and knocked him out.

Robin drew his collapsible quarterstaff to his side. He breathed carefully through the filters tucked into his nostrils, and probed the interior of his smokescreen.

The crunch of debris behind him turned him just in time. He brought his quarterstaff up, and then reeled as it snapped against Blackfire's punch. The force of her blow staggered him back.

The smoke made Blackfire a silhouette. Her luminous eyes hung in her shadow, glimmering at him. "Cough, cough," she sneered, and pushed through the haze. "Did you forget? I've flown through nebulae, cutie. Your little toy is useless."

Backpedaling, Robin dropped the shards of his quarterstaff and grasped at his belt, and filled his hand with red fletched darts. He flung the darts at Blackfire as he regained his footing. Blackfire laughed as most of the darts sailed overhead. One of the darts was lucky enough to find her midriff, where it bounced off her silver bodysuit.

Two quick strides brought her to Robin. She belted him with the back of her hand before he could duck. The blow flung him to the ground, where he rolled to minimize the impact. Reaching down, she plucked him up by the front of his tunic with one hand, and lifted him off his feet. A killing stroke glowed in her eyes. "You're adorable. I see what she sees in you. But I doubt your little prick could even get through my skin, let alone Tamaranian armor," she said.

Robin's head bobbed toward hers. He kissed her without warning, grasping her cheeks as his lips ensnared hers. As Blackfire's mouth opened in shock, she felt something slip sharply against her tongue.

Squealing, she threw him off of her, and dragged the back of her hand across her lips. "Ugh! What do yoo dink yoo dooig?" she cried. Then she stopped, shocked by the numbness spreading outward from her mouth at an alarming rate.

Lying on his back, Robin smiled at her. The tip of a red dart hung between his teeth. He spat the dart out and rolled onto his feet.

The world began to spin as the numbing sensation crawled up the roof of her mouth and spread throughout her. She sank to her knees, glaring bloody murder in Robin's general direction. "Muvva fugga," she swore thickly, and collapsed onto her face.

A sudden gust of wind buffeted Robin. He staggered as the smokescreen around him billowed out the broken front of the lobby. As soon as the smoke cleared, the wind stopped, reined by Jinx's crackling hands.

Steel flashed through the clear air in the corner of Robin's eye. He ducked beneath Ravager's sweeping blade and rolled aside. The blade chased after him, joined by its twin in Ravager's fervent charge.

"You must think yourself a real hero, Robin," snarled Ravager. The two-toned steadiness of his helmet made the hatred in his voice that much sharper. "Killing Slade must have been quite the feather in your cap."

It took every ounce of speed in Robin's possession to stay ahead of Ravager's sabers. He tried to remain aware of the other Tyrants circling them, and he tried to reach for his utility belt, but there wasn't time for all three. If he wanted an opening, he would need to make one.

"Keep whining, Wilson," said Robin. "The fact is, I've done a lot worse to people I liked a lot more."

Ravager lashed out with his boot, and then followed his foot in with both sabers. "You murdered my father!" he howled.

The attack left Ravager overextended. As he landed, Robin slid his foot behind Ravager's, and then swept back, pulling Ravager's leg out from under him. As the Tyrant fell, Robin drove his elbow into the side of Ravager's helmet, belting the Tyrant aside.

"There are worse things than dying," Robin said as he drew fresh weapons from his belt.

The birdarangs in his hands exploded into steam. Robin yelped at the heat as he saw Shimmer standing at his left, her hands extended and her face triumphant. He scrambled away from her and felt his back strike a wall of hard armor. Looking up, he found Mammoth's face hanging over him.

Mammoth's grasp nearly encompassed Robin. He lifted Robin off his feet, pinning Robin's arms. Robin struggled, until he saw a pair of ludicrously oversized energy cannons aimed in his face.

Gizmo hung from his spidery stalks, leveling his weaponry at the grasped Teen Wonder. "Don't even think of trying that kung fu junk," barked Gizmo. "I see one ninja-twitch, and I'll blast you good!"

Calmly, Robin said, "And what'll that blast do to Mammoth once it gets through my head?"

Mammoth chortled as he clutched Robin tight. Then his mind processed the thought, and his laughter ceased. "Hey, wait a minute…"

"Wait!" Ravager bellowed. He picked himself up from the paved floor. A large dent marred the side of his helmet, skewing the gaps for his eyes. "Don't kill him yet!"

A collective groan arose from the gathering Tyrants. "Here we go," muttered Jinx.

A Billy duplicate said, "Oh, come on, boss! You ain't gonna do this again, are you?"

"Of course he is," Shimmer sneered. "Here comes the gloating."

The weapons in Gizmo's hands mechamorphed back into his pack. "Let me guess," he said. "You want me to build some kind of big death trap, so the whole city can watch this 'foolish Titan fool perish,' blah, blah, blah."

With crooked steps, Ravager joined them. He ducked out of his broken helmet, revealing a tired, satisfied expression. "No," he said, and met Robin's fractured glare. "I just wanted to see it. Go ahead, Mammoth. Break him."

Stars burst behind Robin's eyes as Mammoth's grasp constricted. He couldn't gasp. He couldn't scream. Bone and muscle bent against Mammoth's strength, groaning at the brink of collapse.

As Robin blacked out, he felt a cool, peaceful sense of serenity blossom amidst his pain and panic. He felt himself about to die. A smile touched his face, too slight for anyone to notice as he let his head fall back.

Ravager watched the Teen Wonder's face flush red with pressure. Glee infected the Tyrant's lips. He grinned, and savored the agony pressed between Mammoth's palms. But his smile vanished when he saw a square shadow slither up from the floor and swallow Mammoth whole. Ravager glanced back. His eyes bugged. "Move!" he bellowed.

The lobby's vault-like security door tumbled through the air. The Tyrants scattered, screaming, as it fell into their midst. Mammoth tossed Robin aside and threw himself out of the way as the door struck the ground where he had stood. A deafening clap of metal resounded as the door plowed into the floor, unleashing an explosion of tile and debris that peppered the landscape.

Robin bounced across the floor, finally landing against a twisted row of lobby chairs. He rolled over, coughing, sucking until his lungs filled again. As his vision cleared, he saw four shapes filling the empty doorframe at the end of the lobby.

"Ravager and the Ravagettes," Victor said. "Why am I not surprised?" He leveled his awkward cannon at the scattered collection of Tyrants in the lobby ruins.

Picking himself up, Ravager said, "Tit for tat, Cyborg. You crash our home, and we trash yours." When he looked up and balked at the sight of Victor. "Wait a minute. What in hell happened to you? Is this some kind of trick?" he shot.

Victor's eyes hardened. "Yeah. Abracadabra," he said.

His cannon belched sonic devastation across the battlefield.

Grasping the edges of her biobed, Raven screamed. She had no feet, no legs, and no stomach left, just a tide of agony that swelled and barely ebbed before it crashed up her body again. The biobed's stirrups rattled, the straps around her feet creaking against the force of her spasms.

"I can't…I can't…" she sobbed, gasping each time she tried to finish the thought.

Beast Boy wobbled on the stool at the foot of her bed. His hand rested on Raven's leg as he grasped the hem of her medical gown. "Come on, Raven, you're doing great. Just keep breathing—"

She arched with a scream that rattled Sickbay. Cracks zigzagged through the dark LCD screens in the walls, while a fine mist of dust rained from the ceiling. Her lungs spent, Raven collapsed back on her bed, gasping and sobbing while she kicked against her stirrups.

"…that's good. Just like that," Beast Boy said, and patted her leg. He lifted the edge of her gown, and then made a face he hoped never to make again. "Oh, God. Nothing will ever let me un-see this moment," he murmured.

"I can't do this," Raven wheezed, finding breath at last to speak. "I can't do this. Make it stop, Garfield. Make it stop. Make it stop."

Beast Boy stood up to peer over her knees. He squeezed her ankle, and said, "You gotta hold on, Raven. We are, like, moments away from a baby sighting here. I know it. Just stay with me."

"Stop it…" moaned Raven.

"Raven, hey. Hey!" Beast Boy snapped, and squeezed Raven's knee. "Listen to me. Listen!" As her crying quelled, he forced his gaze into hers, and said, "You've put up with too much crap to quit now. This is that bright, shining light at the end of the tunnel. We've been waiting for this, Raven. We've all been waiting for a happy ending. This is it. This is where it finally gets good. So hold on, okay? Stay with me."

Panting, Raven searched Beast Boy's eyes. Through the curtain of sweat and tears, she watched his face for any signs of patronization, of false comforts and empty promises. Through the turmoil inside her, and of the dwindling screech of emotion trying to rend its way out her body, she peered inside of Beast Boy. All she saw, all she heard, and all she sensed from him was a profound belief.

Raven had walked between worlds. She had met all manner of beings, some of which even claimed to be gods. She was a priestess of Azar. In all her life, throughout all her travels, Raven had never felt such faith as she did now in Beast Boy. Like everything she felt in him, it was simple and pure, untainted by doubt. He believed what he said, without question or exaggeration.

A happy ending? Raven couldn't imagine such a thing. But she didn't have to anymore. Through eyes of ether, she saw it in Beast Boy, and for one brief moment, the borrowed thought stole all the pain out of her body. For half a heartbeat, Raven felt free.

And in that fleeting freedom, she heard a haunting, deep laugh.

A sharp breath cut Raven's throat. She arched as the laughter filled her, echoing in her bones. She knew the laugh. It had whispered to her from the moment of her birth. The monks of Azarath had taught her to muffle its influence. Raven had kept it out her whole life, pushing it down at the back of her thoughts.

Without a whisper of warning, the resonant laugh rattled her from the inside. It emanated from within her. And it was pushing its way out of her.

"No," Raven moaned, lashing her head in panic. The walls inside of her fell, unleashing the full wrath of her tumultuous mind. Whispers of her soul-self spread throughout the room, cracking the walls and blowing out monitors and detonating fixtures and shattering biobeds and twisting the metal stood under Beast Boy into a knot.

Beast Boy dropped onto his feet, crouching at the foot of Raven's bed. "It's okay, Raven," he said, and pushed back her gown. "I see something. I think… Oh, man, I think it's the baby's head!"

"No," Raven cried between wracked cries. "No, no, no! Stop it, Garfield!"

"Hang in there. Keep pushing!"

As the laughter reached her head, Raven felt the pain in her loins explode into sheer torture. With her last, ragged ounce of voice, she screamed, "Stop it! You have to stop it!"

From under Raven's gown, Beast Boy shouted, "Come on, Raven, you can do it!"

Raven had to warn him about the laughter pouring into her. Each breath she took became a sobbing scream, leaving her nothing left with which to speak. The contractions forced the child out of her in blinding waves of pain. Pressure mounted in her forehead, focusing into two new eyes that threatened to burst through her skin.

Desperate, she looked anywhere and everywhere for something within reach. She saw her cloak draped over the twisted wreck of the next bed over. Clawing at it, she hooked the blue fabric, and jerked it to her. The cloak's ruby clasp knocked against her chest.

She clutched the clasp in white knuckles and, murmuring a prayer, poured her fractured mind through her hands. The clasp quivered, and then fell, clattering onto the floor, heavy with her final thoughts.

Then, gathering the remaining shreds of her self, Raven focused her will into giving her friends a fighting chance to survive the nightmare to come.

Jets of tile kicked up from under Tek as she bounced across Sector Prime. Her armor gouged through the floor until she slowed and stopped in the middle of the sprawling floor. Groaning, she collapsed onto her back, letting her helmet gong against the crater of her own making.

"Chin? Not good for blocking," Tek said to the distant skylight. "Good life lesson. Moving on…"

She yelped at the sight of Starfire streaking overhead. The alien powerhouse cradled her own stomach, her beauty marred by pain. Starfire overshot Tek by half a sector before she bounced and tumbled to a halt.

Tek sat up and glanced back at Starfire. She sighed with relief as she caught sight of shallow, steady breath rolling in Starfire's chest. Then she turned back toward the entrance, and cried.

"Yeah!" Mammoth bellowed. His boots cratered the floor in an elephantine sprint aimed straight at Tek. He hurtled at Tek with his fist cocked back, his knuckles poised to drill through her in one blow.

Averting her visor, Tek curled her arms and legs above her. Her body tensed in anticipation.

Three feet above her, Mammoth's punch stopped hard against a wall of blue energy. His face crashed next to his fist against the angled force field, followed instantly by the rest of his body. His eyes rolled up into his skull as his face dragged along the blue field.

Tek winced at the sound. When she didn't feel the impact she expected along with it, she risked a glance up. The force field dissolved at her surprised gasp, allowing Mammoth to collapse onto her.

"Oh, for—! Why can't it do that when I want it to?" Tek snapped, and kicked the insensate Tyrant off of her. Her enormous feet launched Mammoth in an arc that ended ten feet off the ground against the far wall of the Compound.

She sat up, and yelped again when she saw Victor and Bushido coming straight at her. The latter stood braced against the former's back as they skated across the rocky floor on their shoes. Victor's arm had become a large, metallic shell, which he held against a stream of flickering green light erupting from Gizmo's pack cannons.

The green beam shoved them backwards into Tek. She caught them both against her armored chest, and skidded with them until her heels dug far enough into the tile to stop them. Tek brought her plasma repeaters to bear, and bracketed Victor's shell with covering fire. The deadly spray tore apart the far wall of the Compound, and sent Gizmo scrambling for cover.

Victor snarled in frustration while Bushido squeezed out from behind him with a gasp. The metal shell became a flesh and blood arm, snapping back into shape hard enough to stagger Victor. "Of all the days for these morons to show up…"

"Why isn't the security system making stroganoff outta these guys?" Tek asked. "You built guns into every inch of this place. You'd think at least one of 'em would—"

Scowling, Victor stared at his arm until a small black screen arose from its flesh. The screen blinked a string of messages at him. He cursed, and the screen faded back into him. "Something forced a system reboot! Everything in the building is down for the next nine minutes, including security."

A red shape bounced in front of Victor. It flipped once and landed hard on black boots, wearing a grimace and a masked, fractured scowl.

"Then we need to draw them deeper into the building," Robin said, as though Victor had been speaking to him. He straightened with a grunt. New birdarangs snapped into his hands. "If we split up, we can divide their forces. Keep them occupied until security comes back online. Then—"

"No." Victor glanced at Sickbay's door, which waited halfway between where he stood and where the Tyrants regrouped at the entrance. His fists clenched hard as the skin of his hands faded into gunmetal alloy. "They don't get in. Not one more inch."

Robin gritted his teeth. "That isn't tactically sound. We're outnumbered and outmaneuvered."

"It does not matter." Starfire's voice turned Robin's head, as well as those around him. She wove around the craters in the floor, hiding her limp behind a proud, regal air. Standing beside Victor, Starfire said, "He is our leader. This is our home."

Tense silence hung at the end of Starfire's words while Robin gathered his retort. But before he could speak, Tek stammered, "We're not letting them in here, Tim. Uh, Robin. Sir."

"Very stirring," Bushido said, and looked left. "Now I suggest we—"

"Move!" Robin snarled.

Pink energy flooded between the scattering Titans, slashing a long trench into the floor behind them. Pieces of tile peppered Victor as he jumped out of the way. He poured his focus into his arms, molding them into twin sonic cannons.

"Titans Together!" he shouted, and threw waves of blue compression down the cavernous hall.

A wild sonic blast clipped Ravager in the shoulder. He spun onto his knee, barking in pain and clutching his arm. "A little artillery would be nice," he shouted.

Jinx traded her hex for fire, and summoned a column of flame that sprayed from her cupped hands. She sneered back at him, "Your other artillery went down for the count when she got to first base with the bird!"

A roar from behind made Ravager shudder. Mammoth barreled past him and thrust his fists deep into the Compound floor. The giant peeled a wide slab of the floor up and pushed it forward into a barricade, which shook with sonic blasts and starbolts and plasma bolts. Mammoth braced the new wall with his shoulder and flashed a smug grin back at the rest of the Tyrants.

In the brief respite, Ravager looked back and bellowed, "Gizmo!"

Gizmo stood on his tiptoes, digging through the guts of the empty doorframe's controls. A string of almost-curses poured from his mouth before he answered, "There's nothing to hack! The whole stinking building is in some sort of shutdown, or reboot, or something."

"Aw, who cares?" Billy exclaimed. He split, and split again, and harmonized, "We got 'em outnumbered!"

"The math hick is right for once," Shimmer said, crouching next to Mammoth behind the quaking barricade. "We've got the advantage here."

Ravager's head tilted. He listened to the energy blasts hammering against the repurposed floor. Beneath the tumultuous fire, he heard heavy footfalls growing closer. The Titans were charging their position.

"Shimmer's right," Ravager said. "We do have the advantage. They should be falling back, forcing us to compromise our position. But they're coming straight for us."

Jinx shot him a look. "What are you babbling about?"

His eyes widened. "They're trying to force us back outside. They're…protecting something. Something inside…" Ravager stood and drew his sabers with a sharp gesture. "Throw the wall."

"What?" Jinx, Mammoth, and Shimmer cried.

"Do it! Hit them hard, now!" roared Ravager. "Tyrants Terrorize!"

With a groan of disgust, Jinx ran at Mammoth's barricade. She thrust her hands against the rough, torn surface, pushing a pulse of earth magic into the processed stone. The concrete and tile obeyed her command as the barricade broke out of the floor and shot forward, leaving Mammoth to lean against empty air.

The barricade skirted the ground, staying upright as it hurtled at the Titans. Robin and Bushido both jumped and cleared the top edge of the flying wall by inches. Starfire's leap carried her over the wall and high overhead. Victor dove, and felt the edge of the wall clip his bare toes.

Tek's battle cry ended in a squeak an instant before the flying barricade plowed into her. The wall broke in half against her crossed arms, knocking her back in a shower of tile.

Bushido landed on one knee, his sword held outright beside him. He looked up and saw a red offensive line bearing down on him. Three Billys tackled his arm, pinning his sword to the ground, while the rest of the Billys piled onto his chest.

As Mammoth and Shimmer broke to catch Starfire, Gizmo rode his mechanical stalks in a charge at Victor. Tentacles sprouted from Gizmo's pack, sparking at the ends with electricity. "I like the new look, meat bag. It'll be a lot easier to—"

Victor's hands rippled as he shoved himself back to his feet. His arms became jets of white-hot fire, which he focused into two blades. Sweeping the fires up, he sliced cleanly through the stalks to either side of Gizmo, severing the impish Tyrant's supports.

Screaming, Gizmo plummeted between the bracketing fires spraying from Victor's arms. He watched Victor's bare foot bulge as it swung up at him. By the time the foot connected with Gizmo, it had become a thick metal boot.

Reverting his arms, Victor shook the residual heat from his hands, and watched Gizmo tumble through the air. "Damn," he muttered. "Shanked it."

Agony shot through Victor's back, exploding out of his chest in a spray of blood. He staggered, and looked down. The ends of two sabers jutted from his sweatshirt, centered in a growing red stain. His knees struck the floor hard. Only the tension in the blades kept him upright.

Numbly, he reached up, trying to touch the blades, but his hands were too heavy. He gagged, and felt wet warmth spilling over his lips and running down his chin.

"You should have kept all that metal," Ravager whispered in his ear from behind. "It's not like you're any prettier this way."

Ravager kicked Victor off his sabers. The wet, heavy sound Victor's body made when it struck the floor made Ravager giddy. He almost hefted the Titan out of his pooling blood just to drop him and listen for that thump again.

Resting his boot on Victor's shoulder, Ravager leaned down and grinned. "Now, what were you trying to keep me away from, 'No-borg?' "

A living midnight swallowed the security shutter over Sickbay. Darker than any shade of black Ravager could imagine. An explosion, gravely silent, pulsed from within Sickbay, sending a sphere of the darkness out into the remainder of the Compound.

The wave passed through Ravager. He shivered at the touch of the darkness, which reached into him with fingers of ice. The bleeding body under his heel trembled, feeling it too. As the wave moved on, Ravager saw it touch the rest of the battlefield, stopping Titan and Tyrant alike with its chill. Behind the wave rode an anguished scream, which Ravager heard, not with his ears, but in the back of his mind.

Mammoth paused. His fist hung cocked to pound Starfire, pinned under his other hand and bleeding from the mouth. Looking back, he said, "What the hell was that?"

Ravager grinned and pushed off of Victor. "So. It's the sorceress, is it? Let's see what she's up to, shall we? Shimmer! Open that door!"

Robin looked up from Jinx, who gagged in his choke-hold. He threw the Tyrant witch aside and sprinted to intercept Ravager. The edge of his last explosive disc pressed through his glove as he took aim. "No!" he cried.

As Jinx fell, she pushed her pain and rage through her fingertips. The emotional furor sprayed from her in a storm of hex that overtook Robin's charge. His cry became a choked scream as the pink energy engulfed him. The weapon dropped from his hand as he fell, becoming a stiff, sliding plank of convulsing muscle.

The Teen Wonder came to rest in Ravager's path. He stomped on Robin's back, relishing the sensation of something breaking under his heel, and then continued toward the shutter over Sickbay. Shimmer followed, lurking in the corner of his vision. Behind him, Ravager heard Jinx's rasping gasps tailing him.

"How do you like that?" he said, glancing back at the wheezing, prostrate sack that had been Victor. "You Titans always fancied yourselves cleverer than me. And maybe you were. Or maybe you were just luckier. And now it appears luck has turned her fickle eyes elsewhere. And without fortune's favor, what are you left with? A broken base. A bleeding new body. And a treasure that will soon be mine."

He rapped on Sickbay's thick barrier. A faint scream answered him.

Smiling, he said, "Shimmer?"

The pale Tyrant made a show of patting down the pockets of her pants. One need only look at the skintight contour to know that there was nothing but her under that glossy PVC material. "Damn. Must have forgot my key. Guess I'll just do this instead."

As soon as her hand touched it, the metal of the door melted aside, becoming muddied waters that sloshed across the Tyrants' feet. Jinx cringed in disgust and kicked a spray off of each shoe. Ravager, heedless of the water, ducked under the expanding breach in the door, and sidled through with his sabers at the ready.

"Peekab…" His mocking tone drained at the sight greeting him in Sickbay. The sabers fell to his sides, and he lamely finished, "…oo?"

Raven's scream nearly smothered Ravager's entrance, but not enough to baffle Beast Boy. He turned from Raven's bed with a confused look that twisted into rage upon sight of the Tyrants at their door.

"Get out!" Beast Boy snarled. His face twisted further, harder, as his pupils expanded to make his eyes black. The purple and white of his uniform began to vanish, supplanted by the lean, tensed muscle of a predator. His bared teeth leapt out from his mouth, becoming a muzzle that split to bathe Ravager in an inhuman howl.

Fire and wind collided with Beast Boy's expanding chest. The blast of magic flung Beast Boy back against the wall, pounding him through the broken monitor of a biobed. He hung in the wall for a heartbeat before collapsing onto the floor, unconscious.

Ravager gave an appreciative nod to Jinx, who lowered her smoldering hand. He got naked disgust in reply. "Now, this? I wasn't expecting this," Ravager said of the wailing sorceress.

He took a step toward her bed, bracing himself for magical retaliation. Raven continued to pant and scream. She didn't seem aware of the Tyrants' presence, or of anything beyond the demands of her body.

"So what do we do now?" Shimmer asked, flat disgust dripping from the question.

Now Jinx's eyes shone in delight. She pushed past Ravager and stood at the foot of Raven's bed. Raising her voice above Raven's screams, she said, "I think we should take it. I think the little tyke is going to need a real teacher. Someone to show it what real magic is. Don't you think so, bitch?" she asked Raven.

Ravager sheathed his sabers. "Well, I suppose it's only fitting. After all, the poor thing's about to be an orphan," he said.

Jinx ignored him, and threw back Raven's gown. She thrust Raven's legs apart and reached down at the bulbous crown burgeoning from Raven. "Come on, Raven," sneered Jinx. "Give me a push. Give me one last, big push!"

The room drew quiet for a long second as Raven sucked at the air. Her eyes bulged in their sockets, and then disappeared. When they emerged again, all four of them glowed with the color of blood.

She screamed.

Jinx smiled as she watched the baby emerge. A glow spilled from the baby's glistening skin. It danced like fire, and tingled where it shone on Jinx's bare skin. She felt the light shine deeper, playing across the chaos that lived inside of Jinx. It touched her power, searching her with newborn curiosity.

"That's it. Mommy's here," Jinx cooed, her eyes crackling.

The glow intensified. Suddenly, it didn't tingle anymore. It pressed harder, pushing into her. Jinx's smile fell away as she felt the light begin to take from her the very essence it touched. The child's glow sipped at her, slowly at first, but with greater intensity at each passing instant. Its glow became a flare, an anima of light that stole her vision as it tore great pieces out from her essence.

She shuddered, and tried to pull away, but the light kept hold of her. It intensified, turning her whole world red. Her ears filled with laughter, deeper and richer than any she had ever heard.

From somewhere in the great distance, she heard a voice punch through to her, as though shouted through a pinhole in a thick wall. "Nichole!"

Something shoved her out of the path of the red light. She caught sight of a silhouette with close-cropped hair, dented armor, sheathed blades, and terrified eyes that met hers before the end.

The world turned red in a chorus of screams.

To Be Continued

I apologize profusely for the delay. Real life, work (which I separate from real life for very good reasons), and the length of the chapter all conspired against me. Hopefully its sheer magnitude and awe help make up for its tardiness.