"Claw at your walls, I'll come when you cry. Oh, no now, you're never gonna love me."
Just like last time, they found him on the roof.
However, unlike before, he wasn't attempting to escape.
A lone wire hung between the Wayne Enterprises tower and the adjacent skyscraper; Robin had set up his means of escape, but had no intention of using it.
His back was turned to the Titans as they descended cautiously from the black sky. The moon was a thumbnail, casting an emaciated glow. The city was unusually quiet below. Not even a car honked.
The faint wails of security alarms reverberated from beneath their feet as they landed, but the action inside had long since died. Normal men were ill equipped to handle Robin's savagery.
The Titans huddled together and practically tip-toed toward the boy wonder. His alien, uncloaked back was to them. When they were within hearing range, they noticed that he appeared to be arguing with himself, speaking furiously under his breath.
"…the…secured…complete…but—"
His words cut off suddenly. He seemed completely unaware of the team's presence. In frozen confusion, they waited patiently for him to notice. They still held onto the hope that he could be re-converted.
"There's no point!" he hissed—loud enough for them to hear.
Another weighty pause ensued. He sighed.
"Understood."
Even his voice was off. It had always been throaty, but it had also been soft, gentle—like a whirring purr. If a cat if could speak, it would sound like Robin.
Now, all kindness had been stripped from his speech. It was a hard rasp, a black-lunged growl. There was a desperate thirst inflecting each syllable. It made Raven think of candles being snuffed out or the hiss of a rusty radiator or a hoarse wolf's growl.
Suddenly, his shoulders slumped, as if a pile of bricks had fallen on him. Beast Boy's eyes actually darted upward, wondering if something had struck Robin from above.
"Yes, master," he choked out, his tone brittle and rough like sandpaper.
Raven sensed the change in his temperament just as he turned around to face them.
He was going to fight them. Of this, she was certain. Talking to him would be a waste of time.
As Robin pivoted, the sight of his sallow, hollow face was enough to make Starfire audibly whimper. His mask had been ripped down the middle. It hung by a thread across his scuffed brow. A cut accompanied the tear. Drips of blood dribbled down the bridge of his nose, cleaved his blackened mouth in two, and fell to the ground.
He licked his lips. The blood smeared.
A disturbing crown of bruises sat upon his forehead—hues of rancid green, withered yellow, and twilight purple. Another blot of black-blue stained the side of his neck, disappearing under his steel collar and creeping up into his jawline.
A frown pulled at Raven's lips. Some of these wounds were fresh, but the contusions on his forehead had to be old. She had no memory of them from when she had last seen him. A mutual feeling of revulsion spread amongst the Titans.
Wherever Robin went to at nights, wherever he stayed during the day—he was getting thrashed. Slade was beating the boy within an inch of his life.
What better way to mold clay?
Fully turned, he made no further movement. His inhuman stillness was so Slade-like that Raven had to look away. A thick strand of sweat-soaked, onyx hair hung over his mask like a withered vine. The stubble of his scalp was a strange shadow on the sides of his sharp skull.
He was more of an alien than Starfire.
"Robin…" Cyborg whispered, his deep voice breaking with hurt. "What's goin' on? Talk to us, man!"
Robin's lip curled in a sneer. He slowly crouched to the ground, shifting his weight onto his toes threateningly. His gloved fingers pressed into the corporate dirt.
"Guess there's nothin' to talk about…" Beast Boy mumbled and his pupils dilated; black talons peeked out of his nailbeds.
Cyborg gave the changeling a look.
"We don't want to fight," he corrected, holding up his hands submissively and speaking slowly. "We just want to talk."
Robin gave no response. He was as silent as a statue.
"See? He doesn't want to talk to us, dude," Beast Boy snapped, shaking his head.
"BB. Please shut up," Cyborg suggested in a mock-friendly tone.
Raven watched the fruitless exchange uneasily, her veiled, violet eyes darting between the boy wonder and Cyborg. She didn't have a good enough read on Robin yet to predict who his first target would be.
Starfire shifted closer to her as Beast Boy spoke, sensing the same tension beginning to build in the air. The warrior-princess knew when negotiations were drawing to an end. War brewed.
The Empath reached for Starfire's dangling hand, poking it. When the girl glanced curiously over, Raven gave her a weighted stare. She had a plan.
Starfire jerked her chin in understanding. The movement was barely perceivable; the Titan boys were utterly oblivious to the silent interchange going on behind them…
…but Robin noticed it.
Although his face was pointed toward Cyborg and Beast Boy, his masked eyes were locked upon the girls. When Starfire nodded, his head cocked like a hawk that had spotted its first kill of the day.
Raven had just turned back around, when she felt the shift in him.
"T-titans, go!" she yelped as Robin pounced.
Instantly, a thick, stifling fog of heady smoke exploded from the ground. The neon light emitted from the Wayne Enterprises sign dimmed in the haze. Choruses of coughs sounded all around.
He came straight for Raven.
She felt him closing in, charging like a crazed boar. She couldn't concentrate. Her eyes watered painfully, the tear gas doing its work. Every breath was greeted by stabbing pain in her chest. She was a wheezing, sitting duck.
"Az-az…rath…"
A black blur burst from the biting smoke. A bone-crushing force pounded into her chest. Raven flew through the polluted air and landed, hard, on her back, skidding to the edge of the roof. Her hair tangled in the high-rise wind.
The gas was dissipating, but her team was still lost in its suffocating depths. She was alone.
This wasn't the first time she had been on the receiving end of Robin's wrath, but it was the first time she felt genuinely afraid. A shadow in the night, he was upon her as soon as she tumbled to a halt.
She gasped and threw her arms up in self-defense as his fist came crashing down. A sheet of black magic filtered out weakly from her hands. It absorbed his punch, but the thin shield shattered at the sheer force of it.
Only thirty seconds in and she was already tapped. If she hadn't been fighting for her life, she would have been disgusted with herself.
He raised his fist again, going for the kill; he wanted her sidelined as quickly as possible.
Raven squeezed her eyes shut.
The blow did not come.
She heard him grunt in furious exacerbation. Her lids flew open to see Starfire standing over her. Her face was unreadable as she extended a hand toward Raven.
Raven took it and was pulled to her feet. She groaned. The flesh on her back was ripped, shredded.
"Are you damaged?" Starfire asked in soprano concern.
Robin was now busy in the background, dodging Beast Boy's bear claws and Cyborg's sonic cannon as they herded him to the other side of the rooftop. He leapt, spun, and pirouetted out of their grasp with lethal grace, unable to get past them but not giving them an inch either.
He held nothing back—unhinged—but his body position was forever pointed in her direction. The moment he had the opportunity to remove her from the fight, he was going to take it.
The others wouldn't last long. They were good, but Robin was better. He'd find the loophole sooner rather than later.
Raven only had a few minutes, maybe, before the corrupted Robin would be upon her once more.
She met Starfire's worried gaze.
"Keep him off me," she ordered, wincing.
The alien nodded resolutely. Her hands and eyes glowed with jade flames. She whirled around and glared as she stood defensively in front of Raven.
Assured for now, Raven focused her mind and slowed her breathing. Her feet floated off the ground. She sat cross-legged in the air. A shroud of shimmering shadow wrapped about her in a protective shawl.
"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos," she exhaled, magic dancing on her tongue.
She repeated her incantation several times. With each chant, her occult power built within, tearing her away from the material plane. Feathered, galactic wings sprouted from her spine. The ethereal caw of a raven pierced the night.
Realizing what was happening, Robin kicked out of Cyborg's grip. His steel-plated boot connected with the jaw, sending the robot careening. Pressing his advantage, Robin then side-stepped the pouncing, rending swipe of the emerald-tinted lion. Carried by his foolish momentum, the large feline overextended and crashed to the ground.
Robin darted toward the girls with a dangerous head-start on the other two Titans.
However, his efforts were too little, too late.
As he neared the alien and the Empath, a javelin of mystic obsidian shot from Raven's forehead and drilled straight into him. The sensation of Raven entering his mind made his feet falter. He slowed and collapsed to a knee. Disoriented, he couldn't dodge the green ram's horns as they bored into his side.
"Ah!"
He rolled across the pavement. His bones grumbled as they smacked repeatedly into the cement. As he tumbled, Raven spoke inside his head. Her dark sorcery was like a crisp breeze on a winter night; it felt like the awestruck chill that accompanies a star-studded sky.
It was familiar to him, but unwelcome.
He wanted her out—now. Even as his skin chaffed against the concrete, he set his mind against her presence, trying to drive her out.
"Robin, what are you doing? Why are you fighting us?"
"Robin let me see. Let me understand."
"Robin, what has Slade done to you?"
He thwacked into the billboard's pole and rolled no more. Not moving, he put all of his effort into expunging Raven. He clutched at his head madly, covered his ears. Although a battle now erupted inside his brain, the physical combat had halted—dead-in-the-water.
"Robin, stop! Let me in!"
"No."
"Robin, let me help you!"
"Get out," he thought at her.
"Robin…why…?"
Her incessant pleas were like whips across his back. He visibly flinched. He appeared to be having a seizure or some kind of psychotic break.
"Dude, is he ok?" Beast Boy squeaked, afraid to approach the downed boy wonder.
Despite his initial hostility, he didn't want to see Robin in pain.
Cyborg nudged him in the ribs and jerked his chin in the direction of Raven.
Beast Boy's mouth formed an 'o'. Their last hope now rested on Raven's slight shoulders.
Unfortunately, Robin's iron will was slowly eclipsing her foreign influence; his molten rage was driving out her black-ice witchcraft.
"Get out, Raven."
"Robin…please."
"Get out of my head, bitch!" he snarled aloud at the dirty ground.
Faster than any of them could react, Robin was back on his feet and sprinting. His face had the appearance of a crazed stallion: nostrils flared, jaw clenched, and hair whipping in the wind. Furious snorts and raving growls erupted from him. His rage drowned out Raven's cerebral voice.
Back in the fight, Cyborg unleashed his sonic cannon but it had the unfortunate effect of not only destroying the neon sign—which came crashing to the ground—but also of barring Beast Boy from his pursuit.
Starfire acted as last defense. She raised her burning hand and commanded:
"Stop!"
Robin ignored her.
He was well within range of her star-bolts, but she hesitated to unleash her power. What if he got hurt?
Robin was far less concerned for her safety. His rainstorm gaze was locked on Raven. A wolfish snarl was imprinted on his snout, his teeth were bared.
Raven held onto his mind for as long as possible, gleaning anything she could, but her shadowy grip on him was already slipping. Whenever she tried to gain a foothold, he set up an impenetrable wall. Still, he was not as adept as her in matters of the mind. Blurry, unfocused images and feelings leaked out of his head.
When her presence was just a whisper on his brainwaves, Robin unsheathed his bo-staff, sprung off the ground, and swung for Starfire's head.
Eyes going wide, she dodged it at last second, but he had clipped her shoulder. His staff broke in two and clattered to the ground.
Her tan skin was thicker than a rhinoceros's hide. The fact that he had struck her was more of a wound to her heart than her arm. Angry tears welled in her eyes. She did not want to fight him, but he left little choice.
Before Robin could pass her by, she had him by the collar.
She tossed him back with an infuriated cry. How dare he act this way! After all they had been through? It was inexcusable. This wasn't him. It couldn't be.
As he was flung backward, he extracted something from his silvery belt that looked an awful lot like a gun. Its black body sparkled.
Without warning, before his toes touched the ground, Robin aimed and fired.
"Robin..." Starfire whispered.
A teardrop sped out of the lip of her eye.
With a high-pitched whine, a brilliant red beam shot out from the barrel.
An evil burgundy hue lit up Starfire's pained face. Hitting his target, the alien collapsed. She was alive—he knew she would survive—but she was knocked unconscious. Her purple breastplate was torn at the sides. Smoking, singed slashes decorated her bronzed torso.
Her inert face was tight with sorrow. An unhappy wrinkle puckered between her scarlet eyebrows.
After a moment's pause, Robin finished the game. It didn't take much.
In her entranced state and with her injuries, Raven was a lamb ready for slaughter.
"Robin, wait! Please! Don't!" she screeched inside his mind.
He strode smoothly up to her and struck her in the neck.
She crumpled alongside Starfire with a mournful sigh.
Trapped under the rubble of the fluorescent billboard, Beast Boy morphed from animal to animal trying to escape its electrical clutches. Cyborg had taken a chunk of rock to the head. Robin could hear him grumbling as he staggered to his feet.
"I think that's enough fun for tonight," Slade buzzed in his ear. "Move out."
Emotionless, Robin peered at the defeated, unresponsive Titan girls. The fingers at his side twitched. There was a strand of rosy, crimson hair strung across Starfire's brow. It begged to be tucked behind her ear.
"Robin, I gave you an order."
A wave of pity sprinted through his chest, but he didn't dare disobey.
He turned away.