Chapter 2 – Half Moon Waning
Mother…!
He opened his eyes only to be greeted by the painful reality of light. Why did it always have to be so strong?
He opened his lungs only to be greeted by the sting and stench of foul air. Why did humans always have to breathe it?
The normal questions one would have asked had they been in this unfortunate soul's position, for that was all he was, they would have asked countless questions, "Where am I, where am I going, how do I get there?" But these bore no weight within his mind. Rather, his first thoughts were that he had forgotten how heavy flesh was. He wasn't used to moving in it and walking was a skill he had to learn all over again.
A mother surrounded by two children looked confused as she saw a small teenaged boy spontaneously crumble to the ground amidst an overly baggy coat.
"Who is that man mommy," said a childish voice ringing with innocence.
"Just a nice man who didn't go to school." She hurried to rush them along as if the boy's failure would somehow transpose itself into the children's mind.
This was not the world he had seen before. Where was this?
The now labeled boy-failure struggled to rise to his feet. He looked around himself in the crowded atrium of an underground subway. Crowds, he hated crowds. They were so emotionless, so unmerciful. They were no more than a mirror to his own transfigured being. Strange that fate should choose such a place for his transubstantiation, a place for underground travel. But the one who had summoned him was unspecific. The door had merely been…opened.
But nonetheless, there he was, a weary traveler, valued to none, but needed by one. He walked through the unresponsive crowd, folding through them, merely a wisp of smoke or shadow, he and passed into the thick dusk. But it was not fresh to him. No, rather, it was quite stagnant.
Lit by the glare of a half moon, he walked through half shadows.
~~~
This foolish game
Oh, it's still the same
Notes go flying off in the air
Don't you believe it's true?
Music is all for you
It's really all we've got to share
Cause rocking and a-rolling
It's all just howling at the moon
~~~
"Nothing, I see nothing…" Cyborg said into his microphone. His voice was filled with dismay and boredom. They had been searching through the subways after the mysterious energy signal for almost an hour and had found nothing but thick crowds and the stench of the city's underbelly.
"Yeah, I'm getting nothing here either," said Robin
"Nor I," chimed Starfire. Though their outward focus was on the anomaly, inwardly they were all asking the same question--where was Raven? These mysterious disappearances of her were becoming too common. "I hope she is alright," Starfire muttered under her breath.
Right as Robin was about to round up his teammates to call it quits, Raven appeared in a burst of shadow. Robin looked into her deep-set eyes and detected traces of bewilderment.
"I am sorry," she said out of breath. Robin scratched his head.
"Where were…never mind," he said through a sigh. "You haven't missed much. We've been combing these tunnels without a clue. The energy deposit has disappeared altogether from Cyborg's scanners." At least Slade hadn't showed up yet, Robin thought.
Raven didn't have to hear this from Robin. She already knew it was true, deep inside her, she knew that thing had gone. But she wouldn't admit it, it reminded her too much of what had happened in her mind.
"Raven, it is good to see you! I had feared were hurt!" Starfire said attempting to give her comrade a hug, but she darted away to avoid the embrace.
"I am fine, Starfire," she said almost contemptuously. One by one the other Titans showed up pushing their way through the thickening crowd.
"Man do I hate the subway at this time of night," Cyborg said. He was covered in what looked like molding ketchup.
"I don't know, dude. It's kinda your color," Beastboy replied laughing.
"I'm just ready to get out of here." He looked at Robin expecting an order.
"You're right. It doesn't look like there's anything down here worth searching for any longer. And I haven't seen any of Slade's minions. Perhaps it was just a mistake."
"Hey! My instruments make no mistakes. There was definitely something down here," Cyborg defended himself.
"Maybe, but apparently whatever it was isn't here any longer. Titans, lets move out!" They followed awkwardly as their leader pushed through the crowd. Bit by bit, they made it up the stairs and into the bustling night. It had long grown dark, the last shades of the sun fading behind the oversized skyscrapers. They gathered close together in the light of the half-moon and began their trek to the parked car.
After another crowded sedan ride, the five made it home wearied by a fruitless search. Inside their hearts each of them knew Raven was hiding something, but were tired of looking for anything so they let her be hoping tomorrow would unveil knew truths.
Beastboy creaked open the door to the main living room seeing nothing but darkness and moonlight. The half-moon cast an eerie glare on the room making things seem much larger than they were. All together, the room was oppressive. As he held the door open for the other Titans, something flitted across the corner of his eye.
"What the…" he mumbled.
"What is it?" Robin asked slightly nervous. They scanned the room afraid of what lurked behind the half-shadows. Then, suddenly, the darkness moved again.
"Who's there?" Beastboy said moving cautiously forward. "Alright, Raven, if this is another one of your sick jokes…"
"I have done nothing," she replied, but her answer quivered with uncertainty. Cyborg flicked on the lights restoring the room to its normal feel. The light cloaked the room and uncovered its secrets which made the host of teammates gasp at what they saw.
Behind a chair stood a boy covered from head to toe in what looked like a tattered cloak of burlap. The coat formed a hood that hid a view of his face from the Titans. He held in his right hand a withered staff which he leaned heavily on as if his legs were unable to support his own weight. All of what he wore was heavily worn seemingly unwashed and uncared for. He was disheveled and ruined by fate's ill-conceived hand. It had shown this poor boy no mercy.
He walked forward limping and leaning against the creaking staff. It seemed fit to break, but nonetheless held under his awkward gait. As he strode forward, the light from the room lit what was once wreathed in shadow. To their surprise, on the boys face was an elaborately carved wooden mask with orange eyes that seemed to possess a life of their own. It was in such a high contrast with the rest of what the boy wore.
"Raven…" came an almost inhuman voice from behind the mask. Raven took two steps backward and clutched her heart as if the strange apparition desired to steal it from her chest. The boy continued to walk forward slowly through the light, each straggling step revealing more wear on his poor frame.
"Take it easy there, buddy," Cyborg said stepping forward to block the boy's passage. "Why don't you just tell us your name and we can figure this whole thing out."
"Yeah!" screamed Beastboy, "Don't you know breaking and entering is illegal!?" The boy made no response but continued his zombie-like walk.
"I don't want to have to hurt you kid," Cyborg uttered forcefully. "Just hold up a second."
"Raven…" again came the eerie voice. He would not stop. The closer he came the tighter Raven clutched her chest. A cloud suddenly moved away from the half-moon causing light to erupt on the boy's back. His deathly figure cast a shadow that fell across all five Titans.
"That's far enough!" Robin said putting forth his hand to meet the shoulder of the oncoming boy. But his hand hit nothing, for the form slipped through his fingers as smoke would slip through a sieve. Robin starred at his hand in amazement and swung the other to again try and halt the anomaly's progression, but again to no avail for the boy was as bodiless as the wind.
"What are you?" said the leader petrified. Cyborg transformed his hand into the familiar energy pulsating cannon and leveled it at the boy's head.
"Hold it right their kid, I don't want to do this." The cannon began to whirl with the input of energy, but he continued to slowly move forward. Just as his mask was several inches from the weapon, the boy stopped his march. Tension began to build up as the only sounds heard were those of Cyborg's cannon continuing to build up momentum. Time froze as confrontation became evident. In attempt to subdue the boy without too much trouble, Robin swung his brandished pole wildly at the boy's head.
The sound of wood against metal broke the tension as battle erupted. The boy leapt backward and countered Robin's attack with a grace that was quite unnatural to ones assumption of the boy's character. Cyborg let fire with his sonic cannon which had no effect on the apparition. It merely glided through his nebulous form.
The sounds of melee filled the room as the Titans attempted to take down the menace, but his speed was astounding. The ability to defy the laws of matter seemed to make the boy weightless as he darted around their every attack. Beastboy transformed into a ram and charged toward the boy's back but popped out the other side bewildered. It was as if he had passed through only a blanket of air.
"How can we defeat something that we can't even hit?" said Beastboy in dismay. Robin was furiously making attacks at the boy's staff trying to gain an open moment.
"He hasn't attacked us directly. Keep trying," said their fearless leader.
Raven stood against the door still clutching her heart. The appearance of this boy had caused a thousand questions to erupt in her mind. He was unnaturally familiar yet he fit none of the pieces. She slightly had hoped it would have been her mother standing their beneath the shadows, but this sort of appearance made no sense.
Slowly, anger began to creep into the corners of her thoughts. After countless clanks of the two staffs and hundreds of futile star bolts, she had had enough. Her knuckles tightened as she strode forward from her hiding place.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" The three words erupted in the air. Suddenly, the boy's staff turned against him changing into black with the mark of telekinesis. Raven raised her hands high and the weathered staff hurtled the boy against the wall pining him helplessly against it. He struggled to release himself, but to no avail. Seeing the battle lost, he hung his head in dismay.
The sight touched all the Titans. Before them they had a boy covered with dirt and grime who had been rendered useless. Broken, he hung their now held to the mercy of the Titans. This only made it more apparent to them that no man was this boy's friend.
"It is alright," Starfire said floating over to him. She held out her arms in attempt to grasp the mask that stuck to his face. Seeing her intentions, the boy writhed in disapproval. "I do not wish to hurt you. Please, hold still." The boy stopped moving against his will and let Starfire grab hold to the edges of the mask. Slowly, she pulled it off of the child and revealed his face to the light.
It was just as pitiful as the rest of him, the grime streaked across it. His eyes, however, were the most astounding. They were hideously pale and did not hold the light that was characteristic to any human. They clung to his face like lifeless orbs, and looking deep into them, Starfire felt empty.
Raven edged closer, the sight of the boy's real face only adding to her rage. Her eyes shot forth their white energy as his staff pressed hard against his neck threatening death. He began to choke under its crushing weight
"Please," came a pitiful, raspy voice. Outside of the mask, his voice was no longer inhuman but rather helpless.
"Raven, let him go," Robin said lowering his guard. But she wouldn't stop. A faint red glow began to creep into the corners of her eyes, a look that the Titans remembered with regret. The white pigment of the boy's face began to change as his air was brutally cut off. "Raven!" Robin yelled firmly planting his hand on her shoulder. She suddenly snapped from her trance and the boy plummeted to the ground, cloak, staff, and all. Confused, Raven stared at her hands awkwardly unsure of her past actions.
The boy slowly rose from the ground rubbing his neck. He clutched his staff painfully and leaned on it with the same dependence as before. Whatever violent spirit that had seeped forth from him earlier was now instantly gone. He stared intently at Raven as if waiting for an order, but she refused to take her gaze off of her hands.
"Who…what…are you?" Beastboy managed to say. As if the question had broken his concentration, the boy's pale eyes began to dart wildly back and forth between the Titans.
"Let's just start with your name," Robin said. The boy's eyes fixed on the leader as the words slipped from his mouth. Robin took a step back having been exposed to the stare.
"She called me…" he mumbled. It seemed to cause him pain to drag words out from within his mind. The sound of his voice catapulted Raven out of her trance and their eyes locked for the first time. No emotions dared cross through the air between them.
"Kamen…she called me Kamen." The name gave the Titans little comfort.
"And why the heck did you break into our tower?" Beastboy yelled. His emotion caused Kamen to grimace.
"Take it easy, Beastboy, one thing at a time," Robin said raising his hand to check the changeling's anger. The five eagerly waited for the boy to answer.
"I was summoned," Kamen said after a pause. "She called me here."
"Who the heck is this 'she'?" asked Cyborg in frustration. Kamen raised his formless finger to fix itself on Raven. The others looked at her questioningly.
"I did no such thing," she countered. Deep inside, she knew it was true, but refused to accept it.
"She…you opened the door," Kamen said letting his arm return to hang lifelessly by his side. Raven heard it, but his words were unable to crack through the barrier of confusion that festered on the surface of her mind. So many things made so little sense. "I must escape" was all she could think. Repeating the phrase over and over again, she began to retreat away from the boy who plagued her mind. That was all she had ever done when she didn't understand her thoughts or emotions—she had run.
~~~
From the Annuls of Circe
The Year of the Three Moons
This is most unfortunate. My adopted son who I have continued to ignore is beginning to suspect my actions with my new project. How I hate him! He disregards my instructions and prefers to embellish himself in worldly pleasures. I do not know why I chose him to fill the emotional gap of maternity, but the fates have put me in this predicament and I must accept it.
Truthfully, I am drawing closer to pull forth the true form of the Ultimate One, but my cursed son is nearing the discovery of my purpose for harboring the child. The consequences of this misfortune would prove fatal, for despite my son's lust for pleasure, he is unnaturally powerful. I must have more time if I am to succeed. There must be some other way!
~~~
"Beep! Beep! Beep!"
Robin's alarm clock erupted through the air jolting the Titan from a restless sleep. He awoke to sunlight that streamed though his window coating the room with a blinding glare. Struggling to shed the layers of blankets, Robin found his footing awkwardly on the carpet amongst various discarded items of clothing. He always promised himself that he would clean them up in the morning, but this sunrise was never the right sunrise.
What was today? Thursday maybe? Robin began to cycle through his to-do list as he carelessly followed the morning routine that every teenager was bound to fall into. Stumbling out into the brilliant light, he walked into the kitchen hoping to find some sort of breakfast awaiting him. But to his dismay, he seemed to be the first one awake. He looked at the stove and guessed it would be a good hour or so before Cyborg was awake and another three before Beastboy dared show his face. He opened the fridge knowing there wouldn't be anything worth cooking in there.
"When was the last time someone went to the grocery store?" he said to himself fumbling through empty cartons of soymilk.
"We were supposed to go yesterday," came an unexpected voice behind him. He turned to see Raven sitting on the couch reading a book lit by the sunrise. But what was unusual about the scene is that Kamen stood directly in front of her staring intently into her eyes. He looked as if he were waiting for any sort of response from Raven, but had received none.
"I won't ask," Robin said opening up a cupboard, which he also found to be empty. Finally discovering a package of outdated cheese, he sat down beside Raven and began his feast.
"I wouldn't eat that if I were you," she said without taking an eye off of her book.
"Cheese is mold anyway. What can it hurt?" He bit into what he thought was going to taste like cheese, but found it instead to disintegrate into some sort of power. He threw it to the ground in disgust where it again turned into a pile of yellow dust. Silence began to settle as Kamen continued his staring game with Raven. After a minute, Robin couldn't handle it anymore.
"OK, this is ridiculous. Aren't you even going to acknowledge him?" Raven still would not lift her gaze.
"He does not need to be acknowledged." The emotionless words dripped from her mouth and seemed to cause Kamen to flinch slightly. But he also held his eyes fixed on their target.
"I'm sorry Kamen. She isn't normally like this. She's just…" Robin decided not to finish his sentence knowing the results could be disastrous.
"It is alright," came his timid voice. "I am merely awaiting her order, for I am bound to this pact since she has made me manifest." Robin scratched his head missing the meaning of Kamen's words.
"Then here are my orders," Raven said finally looking up from her book and returning Kamen's stare. "Leave - me - alone." She enunciated the three words clearly and perfectly driving each syllable into Kamen's ears. Disheartened, the boy was compelled to obey and left the room drifting through the air like the wind. As he rounded the corner, Kamen planted his mask firmly on his disheveled face hiding whatever emotion it ventured to convey.
"If only you could see the mask you also hide behind, Raven," Robin mumbled to himself as he watched the boy painfully limp away leaning hard against his creaking staff.
~~~
"She knows."
The voice echoed through the emptiness. The one they addressed could not hear these words, but he could feel them. In his deepest mind, they pulsated through his existence.
"Be careful, she knows. She will not admit it, but she knows." How could she know? She always denied everything they tried to send to her. But they were not the ones that had told her…someone else was talking.
~~~
"You talk to him!" Beastboy whispered.
"Why don't you?" Cyborg replied. They sat crouched behind two chairs with their heads peaking over them. They had originally planned to play a couple of rounds of whatever videogame Beastboy clutched tightly to his chest, but had found an unwelcome visitor sitting on their couch. Kamen's presence seemed to radiate, seeping across the floor around him and stopping right at the feet of the two Titans. They dared go no further.
"Look, if you say you can really defeat the Level of Darkness, then walking over to that kid will be a breeze," Cyborg mocked. Beastboy ignored his point and looked fearfully into Kamen's back.
"Dude, how about you do it, Mr. Muscle for Brains," Beastboy said. "Why does stuff like this always happen whenever I want to play a stinkin' video game?" They assumed Kamen didn't hear a word they said, for he never moved. He didn't even seem to blink. His pale, lifeless eyes just stared at a blank TV screen. Though he appeared to be sitting, it was as though he did not even touch the couch. He just was…separate from it all.
Starfire wandered around the corner to see two of her friends crouched silently on the ground gaping at the mysterious boy in front of them. "Is there something interesting with the backs of chairs?" she said rather loudly blowing their cover. Beastboy and Cyborg frantically motioned for her to remain silent, but she wouldn't stop. "I do not want to miss something!" Starfire sprinted from the doorway and also began crouching behind a chair acting interested. Somehow she had found away to make as much noise humanly possible while running toward them.
Unable to ignore the outburst, Kamen looked backward to see the two spies turned out of their hiding places. They stood awkwardly while Starfire remained intently engaged with the back of a chair.
"She's hopeless," Beastboy sighed.
"No kidding," Cyborg added.
"Hello Kamen!" Starfire chimed, her mind unable to focus on something for more than a minute. Now it was his turn to act bewildered. She floated over and sat next to him, something that Beastboy and Cyborg had been gathering courage to do for the last half-hour. "How are you? Did you sleep okay on the couch?" The other two Titans followed her and slowly sat avoiding Kamen's eyes.
"I don't sleep," he mumbled returning his blank stare to the TV screen.
"Did you have any interesting dreams?" Starfire asked again.
"How can he have dreams if he doesn't sleep?" Beastboy said muttering a "hopeless" under his breath. Starfire ignored him.
"So where are you from, Kamen? Surely you are not an earth-being like my friends?" He brought his mask out from beneath his cloak and looked sadly into the orange eyes. They reflected a life that the ones of his own could not possess.
"It is hard to say." He paused long enough to notice that Beastboy and Cyborg had already engaged in a video game death match and now existed in a world of their own. He fought back a smile. "I am nothing here in this physical realm. I am merely a shadow. My mask and my staff…they are the only links that exist between our two worlds."
Starfire looked at him blankly as if not a word from his lips had crossed through her ears. "I do not understand."
Kamen let out a deep sigh. This was the part he had always hated. "Whatever form of afterlife that you have imagined or heard of would be the best description of where I am from."
"Hold up," Cyborg said. The last statement had catapulted him from his virtual world. "You're saying your some kind of ghost…or demon?" Kamen smiled at that last word. He had heard it countless times. That was what his other master had always called him.
"Yes…you could call me a demon."
"See! I told you he was harder to face than the Level of Darkness," Beastboy said.
"But you do not possess the same evil as demons. You cannot for I do not feel it in you," Starfire said innocently. Kamen's smile faded from his lips and his face began to harden.
"What do you feel in me?" The words hovered between the two as neither one daring to take a breath. Starfire knew the answer to his question but feared speaking it. "I am sorry. I should not have said that."
"Do not apologize, Kamen. It's just…"
"No, I understand. You don't have to explain," he said rising from the couch. Even here among such abundant love and joy he was cut off. It was as though he had nothing in common with these physical beings, not even emotions.
Drawing the mask from his burlap coat, he again planted it on his face. It was a wall, a place that he could hide behind. The smell and feel of his mask and staff reminded him of a place where one might say he belonged. Starfire watched him walk into the shadows of the doorway that the light of morning had cast. There was no way she could reach him, no way she could help him. The boy was truly alone.
~~~
"I love that moon. It always makes me feel like there's something more to life. Something beautiful." The comment seemed to make her companion uneasy.
"I hope for nothing when looking at the moon."
"Why's that?" He paused looking for an answer in the shadows.
"It's just so…empty.
~~~
It was raining again.
It gathered all the grime and filth that had collected over the days and forced it into the undergrounds of the city. It brought from between the cracks of the concrete all that had been hidden and pushed beneath the surface. It took every empty space of air and every corner that dared to flee from its grasp.
And it made Starfire's hair a useless mass of uncontrollable chaos.
"This is most horrible, Raven. Please make it stop!" said the almost carefree alien. She pulled and tugged at her clump of red locks that was continuing to become more and more unkempt.
"I'm afraid that they haven't figured out how to do that yet on this planet," said Raven hidden beneath the shelter of her cloak. Though she wouldn't admit it, she really enjoyed the rain. It seemed to lighten the air as it dragged the pollution caught up in the breezes to the ground. It was both quite refreshing and quite annoying to have pure water continually splash on her face. With it came a serene feeling much like that of meditation without requiring near the effort. All one had to do was listen to the rhythmic pounding of raindrops. It had been so long since Raven had dared to meditate, not after that night…
She glanced over to her companion who continued to fight a loosing battle with her hair. No wonder she needed a huge hair dryer.
"I hope the boys get here soon," Starfire said almost squeaking in a frenzy. They had been in the grocery store for almost an hour now. The girls had left them in a heated debate over whether to get hamburger-helper or some vegetarian microwavable meal. Raven dragged Starfire off the scene when Beastboy transformed himself into a Siberian tiger. Sonic explosions were now ringing in the background.
Raven cared little about their food selection. She wouldn't eat it anyway. She did, however, wish that they would hurry.
"Boys…" she muttered under her breath. There was one other "boy" she had left behind in the store, but she fought hard not to think about him. By her order, Kamen remained behind to watch unseeing as the other three Titans finished off the grocery store. He was what she blamed all her confusion on, that damnable child. Raven knew deep down that the answers all lay with him, but refused to admit it.
Silently and formlessly Kamen limped through the automatic doors of the grocery store. How she hated him, that boy, her plague.
"I thought I ordered you to remain with Robin," Raven hissed. Her words dripped pure venom. Kamen continued to state that it was his duty to protect her, but she did not need his aide. She needed no one's help.
"I could find no use inside this building," said Kamen. His voice was toneless as if ignorant of Raven's contempt. She was tempted to reply that he could find no use anywhere, but held her tongue. There was something different about the boy, something hidden. Though he leaned helplessly on his staff, she could feel a presence within him. Whenever she closed her eyes, this presence seemed to scream at the top of its lungs. Therefore her reason for holding her answer was an unexplainable inner fear, one that only seemed justified by this hidden thing within Kamen.
But this didn't make sense. Little made sense.
After a few more peaceful minutes of raindrops, the rest of the Titans walked wearily through the automatic doors.
"Man! It's still raining," Beastboy complained. Starfire looked behind him through the doors to see several toppled isles and disgruntled grocery store personnel, but thought little of it as her primary goal was taming her hair. "Nice hair, Star."
"Don't tempt her to use her hairdryer!" Cyborg said, but he knew deep down that as soon as they got home he would have to again fix the generator. The five began their trek to their parked car amidst a barrage of raindrops.
"Got enough junk there?" Robin said looking at Cyborg. He was holding two bags piled high with various candies and high-cholesterol items. At that moment, he had his head buried in a bag of potato chips.
"Seriously, dude! How can you work out so hard and at the same time fill yourself with all that crap?" Beastboy said disgusted.
"If it's filling," Cyborg countered.
"How about you, Kamen? Did you get any food that you enjoy?" Starfire asked.
"I don't eat," he said tonelessly.
After searching through three floors of the parking garage, the Titans finally found their car. They crammed themselves into the doors surrounded by hundreds of groceries. Ah! The teenage life! It is nothing more than a crowded Honda Accord.
Cyborg crunched the gears, cringed, and sped off towards the tower. Raven sat in the backseat surrounded by the smells of half-cooked tofu and secretly longed for their return. The nagging within her seemed to all together silence itself with the arrival of the ghost boy leaving her at a stalemate. Now, rather, the mysterious presence beckoned from the boy himself, which was all together unnatural. As the days grew longer, her patience grew thinner. She clung to the thoughts of her mother, but in vain. The feeling had altogether vanished and with them her concentration.
"What you thinking about?" said Beastboy. Raven hated that question, but he was only trying to be nice. Just for that instant, though, her thoughts collided. What was she thinking about?
"If I wasn't thinking it, I would tell you," she said as if programmed. It was the only thing she could say. She was afraid to look into her mind. Instead she stared hopelessly forward trying to resurface memories of her mother as the car sped towards the horizon helpless to stop the coming of the night.
~~~
"Little Raven? Why will you not come with me?" said her mother standing just outside the door of their house waiting in the chill of the night. But the child had her feet planted defiantly on the wooden floor, a scowl plastered on her tiny face.
"What makes you not want to come out into this beautiful night?" she pleaded. After a few seconds the child slowly extended her arm, index finger raised pointing out into the night. The mother followed her outstretched arm to aim directly at the glowing moon.
~~~
That moon, how it glared down on them. Kamen felt so small every time he looked at the satellite. It hung lit halfway by the distant sun casting its half-light across the room. It made him feel so small confirming the helpless emotions within him. What good was he? Nothing it seemed, for no one could ever find him a place to fit into. But that moon. He was becoming drunk with its light knowing nothing around him.
From behind, the five unpacked groceries talking and joking ignorant of the moon before them. After a thirty minute argument of how Beastboy wouldn't dare put bacon in his refrigerator, peace slowly settled and the Titans began to make plans for the night. But Kamen heard none of them. The moon wouldn't let him go.
"What are we going to do about dinner?" Robin asked. He plopped exhausted onto the couch beside Kamen.
"I could make something!" Starfire said without hesitation.
"…or we could order some take-out," Cyborg muttered finishing her sentence.
"No kidding. My stomach is still howling at me from last night's 'Mustard Surprise,'" Beastboy said. The other four cringed at the mention of those words. "Uh…not that it wasn't good or anything, Starfire…"
"Your stomach can howl?" she said confused.
"What about you, Raven?" Robin asked quickly changing the subject.
"I'll be in my room," she replied blankly. Turning, she walked out of the open kitchen, the shadows devouring her. The moonlight did not dare follow her.
"Nothing ever changes," Robin sighed. "Take-out it is." The words trailed off into the empty air as the Titans passed their separate ways. But Kamen sat the same watching the moon afraid that it would slip from his sight if he so much as blinked. There were mentions of a movie, but he heard nothing, not even when Beastboy asked him if he wanted to watch Kung-fu-Japanese-Man Extravaganza. He did follow them into the TV room, but his eyes couldn't part with the satellite for one second even when a wall cut off his gaze. The moon hung halfway between darkness and light. One wrong move, he felt, would send it plunging into shadow.
The moonlight intermingled with the light from the television as some movie danced across the screen. Except for Beastboy, no one was really paying attention; it was just something to do. Here was a chance for them to turn their minds off for a while. Slowly, they let go of their consciousness and became shells letting something else be subject to the wrath of time.
But one of them was missing, one Titan refused to loose control. Instead Kamen sat in her place filling the gap in the couch, but he too wouldn't let go. That moon wouldn't let him go. It called him to a distant memory, but he couldn't take hold of it. Every time he looked into himself, all he could hear was a child's wild screams for her mother. It hurt that the child wouldn't let him understand her.
"Dude! This is the best part!" Beastboy said temporarily jolting Kamen from his thoughts. He looked up in time to see a huge explosion followed by the victory yell from some horribly dubbed Japanese actor. But as he stared into the glowing screen something called out to him from the pit of his existence. The whole purpose he was walking and breathing didn't make sense, but this feeling did. It was a sensation that something was horribly and dangerously wrong.
He returned his worried gaze to the moon hoping it would consol him but found no reassurance. Rather, it mocked him with its half-light showing only half-truths. He began to shift uncomfortably in his seat drawing the attention of Starfire who mirrored his concerned expression.
"Is everything all right, Kamen?" she whispered. He did not answer but only stared at the moon in horror. What he saw did not make sense. At first, he thought it was merely his imagination, some trick of his eyes, but time began to reveal the awful truth. The dark side seemed to be growing inch by inch pushing the remaining light into a shrinking crescent. As he watched, he felt something well up inside of him, an unnatural mixture of fear and power. The force of it made him quiver.
"Kamen?" Starfire said trying to place a hand on his arm, but only felt the cold of the couch as she passed through his bodiless form.
"Everything is wrong," he said turning his eyes to meet hers. She was again struck with the lifelessness in them. They suddenly shut tight as Kamen again felt the emotion burst within him. Raven, he thought struggling to rise from the couch. Starfire sat motionless as she refused to follow him. Instead she stared at the moon also noticing with horror that it was beginning to grow deathly dark.
"Everything…" he muttered as he limped down the hall. He had to get to Raven. He had to stop her. But what was this feeling? It felt like power, like absolute control, but when it hit, every bone in his body quaked in fear. Again and again the voices rang in his head, "She knows!"
Kamen stumbled several times struggling to regain his footing, but purpose drove him to her door. He clutched the knob unable to feel its metallic grip, but again the presence exploded within him causing his insides to twist in pain. The voices told him to stop her, but he feared he couldn't. So many things cried that he was too late.
In a burst of frenzy, Kamen ripped open Raven's door exposing her darkness to the moon's fading light. The stinging pain of hopelessness fought to hold him down, for neither one was in control, neither one understood what was happening. They were puppets in the hands of the Furies.
Raven sat on her bed soaked in her own tears with her mirror held tight in her hands. That cursed object! Kamen did not understand its meaning, but he understood its danger. However, Raven did not look into the mirror, rather she clung to Kamen's lifeless eyes. In a sudden burst of power, the mirror shattered sending its shards flying across the bed.
It is over, Kamen thought, all I have ever tried to do is over. Meaning faded from him with consciousness as the light left his closing eyes. There was nothing left, for darkness had begun to win a loosing battle. It fought to draw both of the helpless forms into its chilling grasp forcing them to leave all hope behind. They fell to the earth, all breath torn from their chests.
But moon did not seem to care. It had turned its back on earth.
To be continued…