Greet's, Guys !

Alright, Ana having (finally…) updated this common story of ours, I guess I don't have any more excuses for further delaying this new chapter. I just wanted to finish my current CHECKMATED ! chappy before returning to INLAND EMPIRE. And now i'm ready to pick-up the thread where my partner (in storywriting, NOT in crime ! XD) left it hanging !

Before we begin, Folxxxx… here's a little « hats off » of mine ! I therefore take my hat off to the Smashing Pumpkins, whose double album MELLON COLLIE AND THE INFINITE SADNESS is suuuuuuuch a masterpiece ! I honestly dig that double LP, and even the hardest stuff (the more hard rock / heavy metal songs) I have begun to really like… even if said hardest stuff hasn't got my preference ! But yeah, that magnum opus is a real gem : what's especially remarkable about it – and that's certainly one of the main reasons of the fans' worship – is the alternation of energetic/violent tracks with softer, calmer tracks (ballads). The Pumpkins clearly have punk/hardrock/metal roots, but it was already clear in SIAMESE DREAM that they are able of composing mellower stuff, more melodic matter. And the mix of hard and soft on MCIS (as it is nicknamed by fans) makes me love that double album to no end ! And of all the double ones I've listened to – including the Beatles's WHITE ALBUM and Pink Floyd's THE WALL, which are such rock cornerstones ! -, MCIS is definitely my favourite ! Thanxxxx a bunch, Billy, James, d'Arcy and Jimmy !

Long live the Smashing Pumpkins' music !

And that was it for the intro.

(*crack knuckles*)

And here we go again, Buddies !

&joy !

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(ELEVEN) _THE HALF-DEMON AND THE DEMON_

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"Rae ! You're back !" screamed Jinx, a smile of triumph having replaced her threatening glare and grimace of anger.

The empath was hovering in the doorway, arms stretched towards the enemy, eyes glowing white, clenched teeth appearing on the left corner of her mouth.

"Raven ! Are you alright ?" asked Robin, which was naturally the first question to ask, given that the team hadn't seen their dark friend for hours and hours now, and were concerned about her condition, as well as wondering when she would come back among them all.

"I am. But I will be more than alright once this troublemaker is out of the picture !" she replied, her eyes remaining on their foe as she talked.

"Glad to see you back, and in top condition, Raven !" Sam told her new friend.

"Thank you !" answered the Dark Titan, who still didn't take her eyes off the bad guy. "Pleased to be back among you, and especially at the crucial moment ! And now, it's time to defeat that bastard !"

Chris, Cathy and Danny, who didn't know Raven that much, didn't react to the last word, but all Titans plus Sam (who had got to know the Azarathian in the last days) were surprised at Raven's use of such a word as 'bastard', since she barely ever used such language, even when angry. She would only do it if pushed to the extreme, i.e. under Rage's influence, or if she deemed the enemy particularly contemptible.

"Easier said than done, Titan witch ! I've got you once, I can…"

And suddenly their adversary swiftly threw his hand forward and dark sharp objects came out of his palm and rushed towards Raven, as he screamed the end of his sentence : "…GET YOU TWICE !"

But the empath had been really nimble in her reaction, immediately creating a large dark shield before her, against which the fast "missiles" crashed.

She briefly took a glimpse of the magical weapons that now lay on the floor, and instantaneously recognized the objects… since one of these had hit her on the roof and thus been the cause of all her recent health trouble !

"You took me by surprise the first time, but now I'm prepared and more alert than I was back then. You'll have a hard time "getting me twice", as you so nicely put it…" she ironically said.

The sarcasm in her voice hinted well enough that she indeed was back to her top condition, like Sam had said.

"We'll see, really ! I, Zeeron, have defeated enough powerful adversaries to be confident about beating you !" he retorted with a hideous grimace of hate on his features.

And with that, the evil being started jumping around and simultaneously casting more projectiles, hoping he could trick Raven's vigilance and manage to hit her.

But after her extended absence, and the complex process of recreating her body, the sorceress's powers and promptness in fight seemed to have been enhanced, and she thus protected herself without apparent effort, easily preventing all sharp objects from touching her as she moved her shield this way and that way, following the minion's movements.

The demon eventually stopped and stared at the half-demon who could block out all his attacks.

He glared hard at her, pure hate in his stare… but then he narrowed his eyes and a smirk found a way to his lips.

"Mmmmmmh… you're pretty good at protecting yourself…" he began, emphasizing on the last word, and this gave her a clue as to what he may have in mind, before he continued : "…but are you as good when it comes down to protecting… your friends ?!"

Exactly what I guessed, quickly thought Raven, before she saw him swiftly turn around to face both teams, rapidly raise his arms and throw his sharp missiles at Robin, at the extreme left !

But the empath, having guessed it right, had already taken action, and…

"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS !"

… a black wall materialized in front of Robin.

Zeeron frowned at the renewed readiness of his adversary, and how fast she could parry his blows, but he wasn't throwing in the towel yet. And, as he kept casting his dark projectiles, he moved his hand to the right in a circular manner, to try to hit any of the others standing there in line.

But Raven had once again forestalled his action and adopted the adequate strategy : the black wall extended to the right, covering all the distance in front of all superheroes and thus protecting them one after another, blocking in time all the projectiles, which the dark power outpaced.

The hellish being let out a long yell and lowered his arm, before turning back to the sorceress.

"Fucking demon scum !" he spat between gritted teeth, as his eyes sent daggers to her.

Behind him, the long dark wall vanished, as Raven deemed the threat was gone… at least for the time being.

"Glad I can't make your day !" she retorted, smirking.

That infuriated him even more, made him breath rapidly and heavily, and glare at her in an even deadlier manner if possible.

"I wish I could kill all your friends and then rape you time and time again !" he told her on an icy tone.

This time, she stopped smirking and narrowed her eyes at him, while her jaw contracted as she gritted her teeth hard out of wrath.

Zeeron raised his hand once again and some kind of energy bolt, resembling lightning, formed in it.

"DIE !" he screamed and started the movement to cast the bolt forward…

…when a powerful blast hit his hand and cancelled the attack !

The monster made an about face and his mad look stopped on a certain self-confident alien fighter, holding a weapon in his direction.

"And the Danny scores again !" proudly said the young green-eyed boy.

"You little…!"

Zeeron gathered energy in his palm and put his hand up to throw it…

… but another shoot prevented him from doing that !

"My time to score !" yelled Sam, partly with irony, her blaster aimed at their common enemy.

"You little bitch !" the latter yelled, quickly preparing another onslaught… but just when he was about to launch it at the MBC leader, a powerful blue ray got him !

"And booooOOOOyaaaaaaa !" shouted a triumphant and smiling Cyborg, his armed arm (XD) stretched towards the fuming monster.

"I'll destroy you all !" bellowed the dark minion as he raised his hand for the umpteenth time…

…and for the umpteenth time without result, since it was this time a green starbolt who prevented him from launching at least one attack !

"You shall not harm any of my friends !" said the Tamaranean, her eyes glowing green.

The ugly foe looked at her then at the rest of them, his feverish gaze going from one to another, expecting a new blow at any time from whoever of their groups.

He quickly made a last attempt by turning around as fast as lightning and casting an extremely swift missile…

… but, wrapped in a pink aura, the flying weapon missed Raven and crashed against the wall !

"Oh, such bad luck, what a pity…!" said a fake-sorry voice.

Zeeron met the pink defying stare of a smirking Jinx, hands on her hips, in her typical taunting attitude.

But then the foe caught something out of the corner of his eyes…

…something getting pretty fast at him…

… and the minion jumped aside, just in time to avoid Cathy's stretchable arms to wrap around him !

"Oh Jinkies !" let out the disappointed Rhapsodian.

The evil creature opened its mouth and dark grey spheres rushed towards the pink MBC member.

Raven hadn't expected this to happen and reacted a tad too late… but fortunately, like all Rhapsodians, Cathy had exceptional reflexes and she swiftly stretched her legs both up and apart at the same time, thus creating a hole through which the magical projectiles flew.

The black shield put up by Raven appeared in front of Cathy right when she was dodging the attack, the grey spheres going in the middle of her stretched legs.

Yet before Zeeron could try again, he received a first shot from Sam's Sonar Blaster and, almost immediately after, a second shot from Chris's Double X.

He fell hard but soon enough jumped back on his feet, his eyes casting deadlier-than-ever looks all around him. But he wasn't stupid and, although he usually was pretty self-confident, he could tell when odds weren't in his favour.

And in the current situation, they weren't in his favour.

He realized that it would be better to lure them outside of the Tower and, after giving them the slip, skillfully hide away from them and attack each of them, one by one, from the rear. That way, he had very good chances to kill several of them… if not ALL !

"Give it up ! We're outnumbering you, and probably outmatching you power-wise ! You can't win against all of us !" Robin warned their adversary.

But Zeeron's glare unexpectedly vanished to be replaced by an evil smirk, as he narrowed his eyes.

"As I said before : we'll see…" he slowly spoke up in a mocking voice.

And before anyone could react to that defiant utterance, the monster who stole dreams turned around and took off in direction of the nearest door.

"Oh no, you're not leaving !" screamed Jinx as she cast an hex at him.

Yet the hellish breed made a leap at the wall and… ended up stuck on it !

The pursuer's eyes widened as they stopped to better take in the incredible thing : the enemy stuck to the wall, like a fly !

But the short moment they were taken aback at the sight was enough for Zeeron to crouch and swiftly creep away on the wall, like a cockroach would have !

"Damn ! I can't believe it !" was all Beast Boy could utter.

"Nevermind believing it ! He's escaping !" yelled Sam as she hurried first after the dream stealer.

The whole gang followed, but Raven was the fastest of all, used as she was to rush through the air.

She arrived in the common room just in time to see the demon run to the picture window, swiftly raise his hand and throw an energy bolt at the large see-through surface.

An explosion of glass ensued, with tiny shards also flying into the room, forcing all chasers having entered the common room to stop and raise their arms in a protective reflex… and there it was, the big hole enabling the fugitive to leave the place where he was captured and defeated for the first time ever !

Raven had cast her arm forward, but the black tendrils issued from her hand couldn't grasp Zeeron : he had dived off the edge two seconds before they reached his spot !

"You should have done this quicker : you would have caught it !" complained Danny.

"Excuse me for paying attention to the glass shards blown away by the explosion and therefore protecting my face from them, like all those present certainly did…" commented the sorceress, half-sarcastically half-acrimoniously.

"You'll apologize for what you said, Danny. I swear you will. But later, since we must continue chasing that nuisance !" Sam exclaimed, and turning to the empath : "Raven, is there a way for you to teleport us all or make us fly with your powers ?"

"I've got even better than that." replied the Azarathian, and then, addressing everybody in the room : "Please quickly gather around me, and we'll hurry after that… bastard."

She had used the insult after remembering what he had told her earlier about raping her.

They all obeyed and stood as close as possible to Raven, in a compact group.

The female magician then opened up her cloak, which floated up and quickly grew bigger… and once the cloak came down, it covered all her friends… and made them vanish from sight !

"And now, let's find that scum !" she whispered to herself, and took off, flying through the hole opened by their antagonist.

Raven could make out a large-size flying creature some distance ahead, and sensing it was Zeeron, she sped up and gradually reduced the distance between the two of them.

Her eyes shone white and a stationed car, therefore empty, was encased in black and lifted off its spot, up in the sky, where it arrived right behind the flying scourge.

Raven made a quick downward nod and the car brutally knocked down Zeeron, who let out a horrible howl of pain mixed with surprise and anger.

While the car returned to its parking place, the Dark Titan made a swift dive towards the fast-falling foe, this time reducing the distance pretty quickly.

The winged monster managed to regain control over his falling body and, turning to his adversary, he opened his mouth to cast the same grey spheres he had sent at Cathy back at the Tower.

But Raven was both very observant and agile in battle, and could most of the time dodge the incoming projectiles… which she once again did.

Zeeron cast more spheres, but Raven moved so apace above him that she could avoid all the small spheres without too much effort.

"My turn now !" she whispered, and white rays left her eyes at lightspeed, leaving Zeeron almost no time to react.

He indeed got hit by them, and time for him to recover from the attack, his eyes widened at the large black ball rushing his way !

His body crashed hard into the concrete below, and after Raven had landed a short distance from the impact, she opened her cloak and a large black area appeared around her, out of which stepped all her teammates.

"Jinkies ! It was pretty cold in there !" exclaimed Cathy.

"You'll get used to it, you'll see…" Jinx told her.

"And where were we exactly ?"asked Chris.

"That, you'll have to ask Raven…" replied Cyborg.

"Time to focus : he's coming out !" warned Robin.

And indeed, Zeeron was slowly climbing out of the small crater created by his crash.

"You little pests ! I'll take care of you once and for all !" he spat out, wrapping them all in his hateful gaze.

Raven positioned herself for a spell, hands up in front of her face, but a voice by her side drew her attention.

"Leave it to me this time, Rae ! I wanna have fun too !"

She quickly eyed a smirking Jinx and nodded, taking her arms down yet still remaining ready to intervene, just in case things didn't take the turn imagined by Jinx.

Both of Zeeron's hands lit up, suddenly filled with energy, and he lifted them in a flash in the heroes' direction.

"YAAAAAAAAH !" shouted Jinx exactly at that moment as she released the energy she had just focused inside her hands.

A pink aura appeared around the energy bolts and their trajectory got slightly modified, which had the welcome result – though unwelcome for the minion… - to make them crash in buildings behind the two teams, thus failing to injure any of them.

"Nah nah nah, really not your lucky day, is it ?" mocked the Bad Luck Charm on her most sardonic tone, a large smirk stretching her lips.

"You little bitch ! I should also rape you as well, after that bloody hooded witch !" yelled Zeeron, feeling his anger return as he saw his onslaught cancelled for the umpteenth time that day.

The pink-haired Titan growled at the insulting comment, her jaw contracting out of anger.

"I'll show you, piece of crap !" she shouted as she quickly gathered a huge amount of energy and sent it in the shape of a large hex.

But her opponent had also launched an attack, and both attacks crossed close to the thin grey-skinned teen, as Zeeron's was faster than Jinx's.

"AAAAAAAAAAH !" cried the girl with the vertical pupils as she collapsed, hit right in the middle of her chest by two red rays she hadn't seen coming, because of their speed but also because they had been somehow masked by her big hex. Those rays originated from the monster's own eyes.

"Jinx !" exclaimed Sam as she ran to her fallen friend.

Meanwhile had the minion been taken down as well by the enemy onslaught and he lay on the concrete after the shock.

"I'll be okay. It just burns a bit, nothing serious. Go and knock that swine down for me, 'kay ?" the pink Titan told the black MBC member.

"You can count on me for that !" energetically replied the latter, before briskly standing back up, transforming her blaster into the alien flasher in the blink of an eye and shooting at the nefarious winged creature standing opposite.

Zeeron dodged the first three shots and threw his hand forward…

… Raven sensed danger and raised her arms in a flash…

… Sam started to move in direction of their enemy …

… loads of dark crystals left the foe's hand…

… black energy formed around the empath's hands…

… the MBC leader raised her weapon and pressed the trigger …

… the dangerous sharp "missiles" got closer and closer…

… Sam leapt to the side and forward, in order to avoid the fatal dark crystals…

… because Sam made that move, she found herself outside of the black energy shield which was rising in front of both teams…

… and she therefore ended up as the only team member left unprotected from Zeeron's attack !

Raven hadn't noticed that Sam had moved to the side at the last minute, busy as she was creating the shield rapidly, and thus didn't know that her dear friend wasn't within the safe boundary of the magical protection she had put up…

Once the shield was up, a black circle formed right under the violet-haired enchantress and the cloaked silhouette sank right into the ground, with the hole then shrinking and shrinking until it disappeared.

A cruel smile of triumph showed up on the thin cruel lips of the minion as he heard the scream of pain and saw he had finally managed to deal a serious blow.

He slowly put his arm up and another of those energy bolts started to grow in his hand… grow… grow… grow until it reached a large size.

His arm came backwards as he got ready to throw the bolt at his fallen victim, but right then, a faint noise behind him made him turn around…

…and the cruel smile vanished from his lips while his adrenaline level shot up, as a grey hand brutally grabbed his throat and immediately pressed it firmly !

And he even got more scared when he looked at the sorceress's face : where two normal eyes used to be, there now were four red openings, four "lava pits" boiling with wrath's blaze, and below were the bared teeth, gritted so strongly that it may have been almost hurtful.

And fear reached still another level when Raven spoke.

"You have just harmed my friend Jinx, harmed innocent citizens by stealing their dreams, insulted me when mentioning my rape, insulted my friend Jinx when calling her a bitch… that's enough ! I will make you pay for all this ! And the price of your punishment will be extremely high !"

That deep voice… resembling a huge monster's voice… or perhaps a demon's… how on Earth could she use it ?!

Behind the now imprisoned minion, the black shield came down, and soon the others started running towards Raven… and a scream soon torn the air : "SAAAAAAM !"

It was Cathy .

The four red eyes of Rage turned to the direction the shout had originated from… and widened as they saw the African-American sitting in an awkward position, holding her side and wincing in pain, her golden eyes set on Raven and her prisoner, more preoccupied by what her dark friend was doing than by her own actual condition.

"Sam ! Are you okay ?" asked the deep demonic voice, showing that Rage worried for Samantha's condition.

The eyes of the black-skinned female opened wide when she heard that low voice and saw the red eyes. It sure reminded her of that emoticlone in Nevermore, but how come Raven… ?

Astonished by that phenomenon – just like were Cathy, Chris and Danny, who all goggled at the cloaked girl -, Sam didn't answer to the question she had just been asked.

Although in a difficult situation, Zeeron judged that the sudden "distraction" was welcome, so he closed his eyes… and waited.

Raven-Rage turned back her attention to her prey.

"And now, you miserable creature…"

That's when her enemy opened up his eyes… and two red rays hit the half-demon right in the middle of her face, on the bridge of her nose !

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH !" yelled the deep frightening voice just as the grey hand let go of the foe's neck and held the burnt skin of the nose.

Immediately, Zeeron put his hand to said neck, drawing long breathes in, but he knew he couldn't take too much time to assess his condition, as the creepy being haunting Raven's body wouldn't be down for long. There was just enough time to escape, especially given the now approaching heroes, with only Cathy and Chris remaining behind to help Sam (Danny wanted so bad to kill the one who had done that to his friend that he had joined the Titans).

The minion therefore put his hands in front of him and focused.

An interdimensional gate opened and enlarged pretty rapidly, to become a man-sized circle showing fog beyond its limit.

The livid sorceress, whose wrath level had suddenly risen to terrible heights, spotted the magical passageway and her features got misshapen into a horrible grimace of fury, as she clenched her jaw hard.

Zeeron started to run for the gate, knowing he wouldn't have the upper hand for now and judging it would be better to return later and take his adversaries down one by one, probably during the night.

He was about to enter the gateway when black tendrils wrapped around his arms, legs and trunk and began pulling him back.

"Damn witch !" spat Zeeron, as he quickly gathered energy inside his eyes.

But Raven had this time forestalled the attack and a black shield appeared around her, and then she made quick and precise gestures that led to the tendrils' full immobilization of Zeeron's body, two dark spheres pressing against his dangerous eyes and eventually flattening over them to prevent any further attack.

Yet short before being immobilized, the dream thief had just enough time to make a brief gesture in direction of the passage still waiting for him.

Raven-Rage hadn't noticed it, but now that she was done with Zeeron and turned her red eyes on the gate, she saw the effect of that tiny gesture she hadn't seen.

The magical gateway was shrinking rapidly, about to vanish from view !

The Dark Titan sensed that the realm of the minion's evil Master was beyond that passage, and if the latter disappeared… would they still be able to find and destroy the main antagonist ?

Acting fast as lightening, the empath directed her hands at the quickly receding circle and recited her mantra : "AZARATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!"

The dark power flew from her hands and positioned itself right at the limits of the diminishing passageway, thus creating a black circle inside against it and preventing its further shrinkage.

The four red eyes glowed intensely and a demonic growl could be heard, as Rage threw all her energy into the effort.

The dark power slowly pushed back the side of the gate, forcing it to enlarge again, and the entryway to the hostile world regained its original size by constraint.

" Friend Raven !" screamed Starfire as she looked at her partner in levitation.

The four red eyes turned towards her, and noticed that all of them were now there, Chris carrying Sam in his arms, the poor leader keeping an hand over her injury, but presently more concerned by Raven than by herself, and Jinx holding her burned torso yet focusing her attention on the Azarathian as well rather than on her own condition.

"Rae, what's this ?" asked the Bad Luck Charm as she glanced at the gate forcefully kept open.

"The passage leading to Zeeron's world ! Hurry inside, quick !" replied Rage with Raven's voice.

"Hum… but…" started Danny.

"NOW !" shouted the cloaked female. "I can't maintain this open forever !"

And as a sudden confirmation of that, a mysterious power enhanced the energy level of the magical gate, which began taking over on the dark power and made the gate start to shrink back, slowly but surely.

"It's… getting smaller… we must… go… !" said Sam with difficulty, wincing in pain as she spoke.

"Sam is right !" exclaimed Robin. "Let's get in there fast !"

They all did so, as the gateway continued its gradual shrinkage, despite occasional black energy surges briefly reversing the movement to expansion before the diminution resumed.

Once they were all on the other side, in the mysterious enemy universe, Raven sent the imprisoned Zeeron inside as well, leaving only herself to follow them all.

The four red eyes morphed back into two purple ones again as she put her hands down.

The dark power suddenly disappeared from around the gate and the shrinkage continued at higher speed.

The body of the empath morphed into a large raven constituted of black energy, and the latter took off in direction of the now really small passageway.

Swirling extremely rapidly, the dark bird shape curled up to take up less room, and it dove through the tiny circle just in time.

The entry of the parallel world vanished from view, leaving both teams in a threatening universe where the minion's Master, now aware of their intrusion in his realm, was henceforth waiting for them…

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And cut !

Waow, that one did take me quiiiiiiite some time ! But, as it regularly happens, I couldn't write as often as I wanted to… but it's finally there, and I do hope you enjoyed it ! If not… then… (*rub forehead*) … ah, damn, whatever ! Even geniuses like me can miss one day, right ? (XDDD)

It wasn't so evident to find the right sequence of events in this one, but here it is at last. And now, our friends are in the hostile environment where their real enemy is. Time for the real thing, guys !

Ah, and any idea where that "mysterious power", which enhanced the energy level of the gate and forced it to shrink again, actually came from ? What could be the source of it ? Any suggestion ? ;)

And time to "hand over the mike" back to dear Skychild101 ! Break's over, Girl ! Time to move your… fingers on those computer's keys again !

A huge hug to all Damon Albarn's and Smashing Pumpkins' fans !

Take care & be happy, Folxxxx !

Peace, Love, Ecstasy !

(Dixxy)