DISCLAIMER: Not mine. No-how, no-way.
A/N: This chapter is more action driven than emotion but writing it was some of the best fun I got from this story, Mod's hilarious to write, plus I got to do lots of little homages to my home, the United Kingdom. I hope you enjoy reading him as much as I enjoyed writing him.
Technically, this is the last chapter, but there is an epilogue, and I thank all of you good people who have reviewed from the bottom of my heart.
ENJOY!
CHAPTER 3: MAD MODRobin drew a birdarang and held it to his shoulder, coiled like a snake about to strike. Beside him, Beastboy, Starfire and Cyborg took up fighting stances, ready to jump into action.
"Well hello my duckies."
Mad Mod pranced in front of them, amazingly sprightly for a man of his age – or maybe it was just another hologram. Grinning like a buffoon, the Caranaby suited cockney tapped his cane against the ground and leered at them.
"I must say, its bloody corkin' of you to turn up on time. I was kinda hopin' you'd be here so I could show off."
'Here' was the vault of the Jump City First National Bank, for the past hour Mad Mod's inner sanctum until the Titans had overwhelmed a small army of robots – ex Slade units toffed up with Union Jacks and RAF roundels -- and fought their way to the centre of the building.
The four Titans watched and waited. Mad Mod had frozen stock still on the dais he was standing on – actually the vault door torn loose and turned on its side. Millions of dollars worth of spoils littered the ground around him, not just the expected notes but also coinage and jewellery, all loaded into brown sacks labelled 'SWAG.' The robots that were going to carry them lay dismembered on the floor, occasionally sparking.
Mod didn't move or blink, just stood there with a crazed expression his lifeless face.
Cautiously Robin approached and waved his hand in front of Mod's eyes while the other Titans held back. Mod didn't even blink. Robin sneered.
"Hologram."
He turned and swept his eyes round the room, looking for a hidden camera.
"Alright Mod. You can't fool us with the same tricks twice so come out now and you won't get hurt."
Out of the corner of his eye, Robin saw a tiny movement – oh shit.
"Actually--"
Robin received a resounding blow from the cane across the jaw that sent him flying across the room.
"—you're the only ones who'll be getting hurt duckies!"
Stumbling back Robin rubbed his jaw and stared at the now animate Mod, skipping merrily across the vault.
"Amazing what the latest rejuvenation surgery will do for you."
Frowning and whipping out his bo-staff, Robin took up a martial-arts stance.
"Titans--go!"
Mod just smiled madly as the four meta-teens advanced on him.
The duckies were in for the shocks of their lives.
---------------------------
Raven sat with Greg on one side of the table. On the other side was Terra, pale and almost completely faded out of existence. Rather than appearing concerned, Raven sternly fixed Terra with a glare.
"Again."
"Just, give me five minutes Raven. My head's—splitting."
Raven's expression softened.
"Sorry, I didn't realise how tough you're finding this."
Raven had elected to help Terra regain her lost strength so that she could take care of Greg while she fought with the Titans. It was hard going. In return for losing her body and original powers, Terra seemed to have developed a limited telekinesis and telepathy. Currently they were trying to focus on the first, though any great effort quickly drained her limited reserves of strength.
Terra took some deep breaths and focused, her body gaining more substance.
"Right...Let's go."
"Okay. Focus on the book."
Sitting between them was a large telephone directory, the kind that Terra would have had difficult lifting even when she had a physical form.
"Gather your energy, and direct it."
Terra nodded, focused and extended a hand. The book shook, quivered, but didn't shift in any direction. She let go with a small gasp and rubbed her temple. Raven however pushed on, not letting up.
"Again."
This time the book lifted about three inches before falling back to the tabletop with a thud. Terra, furious slammed her fists on the table.
"Damn it I can't do it Raven."
"You can and you will. Now, again."
"Fine!"
This time Terra gave it everything she had, so hard that a vein popped out in her temple and her heart thudded like a jackhammer in her chest. All the while the splitting pain in her skull was building. The book lifted three feet into the air and hovered.
"Excellent. Now hold it Terra. Keep it there."
Beads of sweat were breaking out on Terra's forehead as her lip quivered.
"I can't hold it—too heavy," she whimpered.
"HOLD IT!"
That last yell pushed Terra's temper over the edge. Screaming she sent a mental wave of energy swarming from her head, down her arm and out of her fingers.
Suddenly blazing with a familiar golden light, the telephone directory shot off the table and punched a sizeable hole in the ceiling above. Shards of plaster rained down on the two – well, mostly Raven as they went straight through Terra, who stared in amazement at her hands.
"I – I did it. And it feels just like..."
Terra reached out again and her ethereal hand glowed faintly. Instantly the table itself rose off the ground. Raven watched with some amusement and interest.
"Congratulations Terra. You've regained your powers."
'And more,' a voice echoed in her head. Raven and Terra, both stunned, stared at each other.
---------------------------
"Britain's schools are where tomorrow adults or chil-der-en are harvested," Mad Mod crowed, "and I'm educating you kids back to the stone age!"
With an incredible athleticism he punched Robin in the gut before he could bring the bo staff swinging down on the crazed Englishman. Hand springing back he neatly dodged a pair of star-bolts and an enraged alligator. He tutted as if disappointed.
"Now really kids, where's the commitment."
Goading them on he neatly dodged every attack and responded in force, continually grinning madly.
"Let me welcome you to -- Penny Lane."
Confused the four Titans each cocked an eyebrow, until concealed panels in the walls above them open up, dousing them in thousands of silver, gold and copper coins.
"Let's check the stock exchange - oh, the pound is stronger than the dollar."
As he continued to giggle maniacally Robin and the other three rose out of the British currency that littered the floor up to their knees.
"Guess what Mod - the economy's about to crash."
Beastboy was examining a small bronze coin he held in his hand.
"Hey guys, I found a euro!"
Snarling slightly Mod snatched the offending piece of currency out of the green imp's hand and tossed it skywards, aiming his cane at it. With a loud ZAP! a bolt of indigo energy lanced out and reduced the euro to nothing.
Mod twirled the laser-cane like a baton and posed like Bruce Lee.
"Bring it on kiddies."
---------------------------
Terra and Raven were on a roll. Not only had Terra regained her full strength as a geokinetic, but she now had a limited power over other objects as well. Her telepathic ability seemed to be equal to Raven's, though using any of them still drained her quickly.
"How did all of this happen?"
"Well, I'd hazard that either your powers have mutated -- which is unlikely, or these new abilities are to do with your permanent out-of-body experience. I doubt you'd have ever possessed them otherwise."
They were on the tower's roof, Terra absentmindedly twirling several small rocks around above them.
"I'd almost forgotten how good this felt."
"What?"
"This powers might be the reason I've lost everything, but when I was on my own it was comforting to feel the Earth around me. Breathing, living, enfolding like a blanket."
Terra grimaced slightly and rubbed furiously at her temple; above the small fragments fell and splashed into the sea.
Greg, sitting between the two of them, was fiddling with Raven's communicator, which suddenly let out a high-pitched beeping. Raven instantly disentangled it from his pudgey fingers.
"What have you done now Greg?" she flipped the lid up, "oh. Robin."
She might have been some distance away but Terra could still clearly hear the sounds of yells and explosions, and hear Robin's near-to-panicking voice.
"Raven, we need you down here. STAT!"
The transmission abruptly cut out as Terra looked at Raven, who had visibly tensed.
"I'll take care of Greg. Go, now!"
With the briefest of nods Raven lifted her hood over her face, shrouding it, and took off into the midday glare. Terra looked at the baby by her feet and reached down to him.
"Right you. Let's go find some food."
Lifting him into her arms was not as difficult as Terra had expected, but she still felt his weight. As she quickly started down the staircase towards the rec room, she could also feel a niggling sense of unease in the back of her mind, as if her new physcic sense was trying to tell her something.
---------------------------
It was down to just Robin and Mod now. Beastboy had gone down to one of the 60s-suited freak's hypno-screens, while Starfire and Cyborg had been overwhelmed by a final wave of robots. All were unconscious, and in Beastboy's case, drooling on the floor.
Robin and Mod were duelling like martial-arts contestants with their unique variety of gadgets, Robin his staff, explosive disks and birdarangs, and Mod his cane, which could control his small air force of flying-drones, as well as shoot lasers.
Currently all of his force was being directed on the boy-wonder, who had to dodge the small-calibre fire of the drones and Mod's lunges and swings with the wood and metal cane. Eventually, Robin went down with his friends, concussed over the head with one sharp final blow.
"Oh say can you see, the damn Yanks are down!"
As Mod happily hummed his own rendition of the National Anthem, he failed to notice the dark figure approaching from behind him until an aura of black telekinesis wrapped itself around the staff and whipped it out of his hand. Somehow managing to remain calm he whipped round, a sadistic smile on his face.
"Well it's her royal highness herself. I humbly grovel before you, Mam'."
Hand on his heart Mod bowed to Raven in a manner that should be impossible for a human, his rat-like nose scraping the floor. Following him with her eyes Raven was caught off-guard by the drone that had been hidden behind his back, the drone which fired off a rocket as soon as Mod dropped out of it's sight.
KA-BOOM!
The blast threw Raven back against the concrete and titanium wall of the vault, momentarily winding her. Recovering his cane he stood in front of Raven as she lifted her head off the floor, just in time to lock eyes with him and be stunned by the look of utter hate on his usually manic features.
"God save the Queen," he growled before whipping the tip of the cane down across the back of Raven's head, slamming her face into the floor with bone-breaking force.
Ouch.
Cheerfully whistling a lively tune of 'Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves,' Mod strolled back to his dismembered army of robots and began screwing the limbs back on with a small screwdriver.
"Recycling - it's a wonderful thing."
---------------------------
Terra was -- troubled. There was no reason for her to be so nervous - but she just felt it. She was keeping one eye on Greg and at the same time reaching out with her mind - trying to find the Titans, but she just felt emptiness.
'C'mon, they're in a bank vault - it's not like you'll be able to pierce that with your mind - is it?'
Trying to allay her fears, she dug around the couch cushions for the remote and flipped on the huge wall-screen TV, running through the different channels looking for something mindless - cartoons, Fox, the Bush administration, but instead backtracked to one of the news channels and instantly paled.
On screen was the bank, innumerable robots marching out of the building, all carrying large sacks of loot.
"Damn it! They're in trouble! But what can I do -- Raven!"
Scooping up Greg in her arms as she went Terra ran for Raven's room.
---------------------------
The street was empty, even the news-crew had fled from the hauntingly familiar sight of soulless robots patrolling the streets. Mod stood like a triumphant monarch before the Doric columns of the bank's facade, while a remote convoy of Union-Jacked Mini Coopers drew up and were instantly loaded by the robots with his ill-gotten gains.
"Oh it's a self-preservation society."
Almost tap-dancing with glee Mod beamed as the last six robots emerged with the Titan's flung over their shoulders - two sharing Cyborg's weight, and tied one to the roof of each of the Minis. Pulling out a long, thick cigar he lit it and began rolling it around his mouth while adopting a mock Churchillian accent.
"Never has one man, owed so much, to himself."
---------------------------
Inside her mind all of Raven's emotions lay dormant. Pain, Sorrow, Brave, Happy, Smart, Angry, Gross and all the rest were all lying about, because since Raven was unconscious and not even dreaming - none of them were awake either.
Terra walked into the open amphitheatre where the emotions met and counselled, cursing to herself. She was counting on at least one of them to be awake. She didn't even know how she had got here, only that she had gone through the mirror and somehow knew that this was where she needed to be.
Terra didn't both to try and wake the emotions, but instead strode straight into the centre of the small amphitheatre and looked around, as if searching for a sign. Finding none, she sighed and extended her arms, fingers splayed out like spiders and closed her eyes, burrowing deep within herself.
The ground around her began to quiver, the tremors growing to a thundering climax that shook the structure and rocked the whole of Nevermore. Tendons which were made of stone, yet which bent and flowed like they were alive, burst from the ground and wrapped themselves around Terra's arms and legs, tightening and dragging her to her knees.
Feeling along this stone, which was tied into the fabric of Raven's mind, Terra suddenly was connected and knew everything. Everything Raven knew, everything she ever was and did flashed briefly through Terra's mind. Fighting against the flood of information, Terra pushed it back, and began to feed pieces of herself along with it.
---------------------------
Raven's prostrate form stirred slightly, then came to, arms straining against the ropes that bound it.
---------------------------
Mod was behind the steering wheel (right-hand drive) of the leading Mini, the others peeling through the deserted streets of Jump City in his wake.
"Seriously, who do these Yanks think they're kidding? They go and build all these roads, and then don't bother to use them. Tsk. Tsk."
Yanking the wheel over to the left he screeched his car round a corner, canting the vehicle over onto its right-hand wheels. No sooner had he made the turn however, that a black shape had arched down from the sky into his bonnet, instantly caving it in and punching the engine through into the road surface. Mod's air-bag inflated in his face as the car ground to a halt; behind, the other four also lost control without him to guide them and rolled into walls, lamp-posts, each other.
Spewing colourful cockney epithets Mod fought his way clear of the air bag and stumbled out of the car door, to be confronted by a small figure flaming with a pitch-black aura.
"You wrecked my cars you little minx!"
BA-DOOM!
The five cars' petrol-tanks ignited, turning the chirpy little machines instantaneously into flaming wrecks. Mod turned, looked, turned back, teeth set in a snarl and his face lit by the burning fuel.
"And you cost me my loot!"
Silently the Titan raised a finger and pointed down the street. Mod checked, and sure enough all of the SWAG bags were neatly piled on the street corner, the four comatose Titans lying on top.
"You lose, and you give Britain a bad name too."
Mod cocked an eyebrow. This girly voice was not the usual tones of the brooding, silent Raven.
"Ducky, it's not over till I say so."
Levelling his cane at her like a rapier, Mod took up an offensive stance. Expression unseen, the Goth girl undid the clasp on her cloak and let it fall the ground, leaving her in just her leotard, but a with a great deal more body freedom. Mod blinked. That was unusual, and the fact that Raven was grinning toothily unnerved him slightly.
She reached out, and Robin's spare bo staff detached from his belt and flew straight and true to her palm, fingering it she extended it to its full length and took up a similar pose to Mod.
"Bring it on."
Mod smirked before launching himself towards her, bringing the cane whipping down in the same manoeuvre that had incapacitated Raven beforehand.
This time, she just turned her staff horizontal to his, stopping his attack, before turning and ramming the tip of her own weapon into his gullet, and then bringing it up through ninety degrees to mash the tip into his chin, slamming his head back.
Stunned, Mod stumbled away, seemingly down for the count, before suddenly turning and charging, hoping to catch Raven off her guard. This time he succeeded and so began a vicious exchange of blows, lunges, parries, uppercuts and blocks between two equally matched opponents.
Mod was larger, and had the heavier build, but 'Raven' was seemingly the more proficient, and was able to call upon her telekinetic strength to add weight to her moves, and to levitate/jump over Mod's own offences.
At one point, the crazed man dropped low and swung his cane in a massive arc, to which she responded by leaping straight over his head in a tight somersault and landing on her knees behind him, following up with a rearward thrust which sent Mod flying. Still they got up and went at it again.
---------------------------
Gradually, the other Titans were coming round, conscious, but too weak to fight. Soon however their attention was grabbed by the loud grunts, yells and clashes of the battle being waged not fifty feet away. Amazed they stared as Raven and Mod traded blows.
"Robin," hazarded Starfire, "since when has friend Raven been so proficient with the marital arts?"
Too confused to even correct her, Robin gaped as Raven executed a backflip with a grace and skill not usual to a girl whose usual combat style was as subtle as a brick through a window. However, it was only when she suddenly leapt forward and struck Mod in the chest with a vicious kick that he began to realise where he'd seen this combat style before.
"Slade," he breathed, mainly to himself but loud enough that the others could hear, "he's the only one I know who fights like this."
Starfire and Cyborg exchanged confused and concerned looks, but Beastboy had guessed what was going on as soon as Robin mentioned the name of their former arch-nemesis.
"Terra."
---------------------------
'Raven' had forced Mod onto the ground, his staff smashed to splinters, her own in a position from where she could strike to kill. Despite his predicament, Mod still managed a weak grin.
"You can't win girlie..."
As if from nowhere he produced a detonator.
"Don't even move a muscle. You see those bags that your little friends are unable to move from. They're rigged with explosives. One false move and they're smoke. And if they do survive, my robots will be here soon.
"Don't -- count -- on it," She breathed heavily. "I took those walking tin cans out of commission before I even touched you."
Mod was very worried now.
"How."
She smiled grimly, "I know the command codes."
"That maybe, but there's still the matter of those bombs. Now, step back."
Slowly, she complied, and Mod stood up, dusted off his jacket, licked back his hair and straightened his tie.
"Now drop the staff. There we are--good girl."
Mod slowly began to orbit her from ten feet, thumb held over the detonator. Raven slowly turned to follow him.
"One question. I've been fighting you Titans for years, and I know for a fact that Raven can't do half the stuff you've done in the last ten minutes."
"So?"
"So spill the beans or your pals get blown to kingdom come!"
She smiled back.
"Simple -- I'm not Raven."
Confused, Mod began to slowly backwards down the street, keeping the trigger extended in front of him. As he walked, she began to slowly stalk after him, dark and relentless. Over her shoulder, Mod could see the figure of Beastboy scramble to his knees on the pile of rigged sacks.
"Go Terra! Kick his teeth in!"
Having heard the comment as well, Terra smirked, her eyes burning into a bright yellow fury as she did so.
Mod paled, and began to walk way faster, trying to get as far away from this -- ghost as possible.
---------------------------
"Go Terra!"
Robin and Cyborg stared at their impish friend for a long, hard second, convinced he'd gone off the deep end.
"Beastboy, Terra's dead."
Ignoring them, Beastboy continued to cheer 'Terra' on, while Starfire, eyes still fixed on the two combatants lifted a trembling, disbelieving arm.
"Friends," she quavered.
Robin and Cyborg looked, and gaped.
---------------------------
Mod's arms and legs were pinned by collars of stone that had erupted from the skyscrapers and street and bound him. Unable to move, he trembled in fear as 'Terra' stepped up to him, and removed the detonator from his hand, before crushing it to dust with a single telekinetic blow.
"You put up a nice fight," she blew him a kiss, "see you around, ducky."
She turned, and began walking towards her friends. But with each step she took, she became more and more hesitant, her motions weaker. On the verge of blacking out, she raised a single arm towards them, reaching out to touch them, and slumped forward onto the ground, out like a light.
---------------------------
Inside the amphitheatre, the nerves of rock gradually unwound from Terra's body, gently pulling her into a lying position as they drew back into the ground from whence they came, leaving her prostrate and alone, but not for long.
Hooded figures descended on her, gathered around, before one reached out. Her cape was a soft blue, and her eyes welled with pity.
"She saved us," Compassion wept, "she saved us, and our friends, again."
Smart glided forward, appearing as cool and detached as she could behind spectacles that made them look ridiculously big, before feeling Terra's brow,
"She's alive."
As the emotions drew nearer Terra let out a racking cough, her pale, shivering body convulsing harshly. Most of the emotions instantly dissolved like dust on the wind as they fled back to their sanctums, but three remained behind. Compassion, sniffling slightly, Happy, grinning wildly that her friend was alive and a third, her cloak a deep red, almost like blood in its depth and richness, just smiled softly.
Leaning forward, they all helped lift the weakened Terra to her feet as she came to, her brow covered with sweat, her voice dry.
"Did we win?"
"We won," Happy nodded, happily.
Terra looked at three versions of a face she knew well, settling on the last.
"Who are you?"
The emotion just smiled softly and leaned forward to hug Terra.
"I'm Love."
---------------------------
Raven was coming to at the same time as Terra, though she was in more...natural surroundings. They were still sitting on the pile of loot, too weak to go much further. Her head was in Beastboy's lap while Robin took her pulse and Starfire and Cyborg just watched, concerned.
With a start, Raven's eyes flew open, and she instantly wished she hadn't woken up. Scowling, she pressed her hand to her forehead.
"Ugh. I feel like I've been slammed in the face by a boulder. What happened?"
The others looked at each other, then her.
"You don't remember anything?"
Confused, Raven thought back, and realisation dawned on her face like a sunrise.
"Terra."
Beastboy smiled warmly down at her.
"Yeah, I know."
Robin looked at both of them sternly.
"You two have a lot of explaining to do."
Raven and Beastboy smiled back, then giggled, before soaring straight through chuckling to outright laughter, their voices echoing in the silent street.
---------------------------
Love, Happy and Compassion were still helping a limping Terra along the many pathways of Nevermore. Too weary to speak Terra just hung between them and let them guide her to wherever they were going.
---------------------------
Sometimes it was handy having a cybernetic organism as a friend. Cyborg, the first Titan to recover because of his mechanical nature had been able to drive the T-Car from the tower to them by remote control. He would have also called the police to say that Jump City was now open again for business but Raven had pleaded him to hold it off so that they could do one thing. Even Beastboy was confused as she directed the car along the empty, pedestrian friendly streets.
An idea was germinating in her head.
---------------------------
Raven's emotions were all aware of what she had planned, and had all vanished to make preparations, gathering the strength they needed to help Raven recover as quickly as possible. Eventually, they all swooped down to where Terra and her escort of three were gathered, at the portal out of Raven's mind.
Terra had been here once before, but this time could sense that something was different. The portal, normally a peaceful swirling vortex of doom, was now a very unstable swirling vortex of doom, electricity crackling from it, winds howling down the shaft at gale-force speeds.
It was just a guess, but Terra suspected that this gateway no longer led straight back to the mirror in Raven's bedroom.
---------------------------
"Why are we here?"
The T-Car had come to a halt inside a dark tunnel beneath the city that looked both natural and artificial. Though the way the rocks had come together to form the shaft looked perfectly natural, there was something too precise about the perfect arch of the tunnel, or it's dead straight orientation.
Cyborg, Starfire and Raven now seemed back to full strength, thanks to the miracles of modern technology, alien physiology and sheer supernatural weirdness. Even Robin and Beastboy, both limping slightly, seemed to be well on the mend, though Robin swore that the lump in the back of his head was the size of a billiard ball and rapidly graduating to a baseball.
With Raven leading the way and Cyborg's halogen shoulder lights lighting the familiar tunnel, they walked until they emerged into a wide, open cavern. It was deep, a perfect soup-bowl depression, but several elevated walkways of cooled, hardened magma made convenient paths to the island in the centre. Briefly looking up, the five teens could just make out the high peak of the extinct volcano's cone, where it opened into the middle of Jump City's central park, allowing a ray of light to fall down directly on the frozen figure standing on the highest point of the island, petrified with her arms spread, the traditional stance of a protector making the ultimate sacrifice for those he or she loved. Beneath her feet, an identical plaque to the one in her room still proclaimed her as 'a Teen Titan' and 'a True Friend.'
Raven stopped and turned while Beastboy stood beside her, facing the other three. She took a deep breath and started.
"You might have noticed some odd--occurrences around Titans Tower of late, seen or heard something which didn't seem quite--right. I won't hide the truth anymore," she rested a hand on the frozen form's calf, "Terra's not dead, and her - ghost, her soul, her essence has been haunting us for the last month."
It should have been a bombshell to the other Titans, but it all made sense. Robin's expression was grave, but Cyborg was smiling slightly and Starfire looked ready to go cook 'pudding of happiness'. Raven continued.
"Terra was initially lost, confused, and lonely, and she's been that way for most of her recent life. I've been talking with her and I can tell you why she became a traitor.
For the three years before we met her, Terra was an outcast; homeless and without any family thanks to her gifts. During that time, she'd tried to help people but only succeeded in hurting them further and becoming the focus point for many people's hatred and grief. That's partly why she reacted as she did when Robin spoke about her lack of control, but the other reason is that Slade got to her in the diamond mine, and exploited her own fears. Terra went with him because she thought he could help her control the abilities that had cost her everything that had ever mattered to her in life. Home, security, love. For that, I forgive her."
Beastboy had tuned to stare at her now, and even Robin looked pained at the truth that had been denied them so long. Raven continued apace.
"Given her own insecurities and the massive changes at the tower since she gave herself for us, you might forgive Terra for running away again, but she didn't. She stayed to try and help us as much as she could given her condition. For that, I respect her.
Not only that, but she took a particular interest in Greg, and saved his life by warning Beastboy and me when he nearly choked to death. For that, I am indebted to her.
And today, when we had all failed in taking Mad Mod down, and looked set for another, possibly permanent and fatal trip to his 'school', Terra stepped in using my body and saved us all for the second time in her life, and again, at great risk to herself. For that, I love her.
And I have to thank her in some way. Terra is still inside my mind, but I am convinced after her show of strength today that if she can be forced into her own body again, she can bring herself back to life. To live and breathe again, and if that's possible, I wholly intend to welcome her back with open arms. Does anyone here object?"
Starfire was openly weeping now, while the male Titans were all obviously moved by Raven's words and Terra's plight. Raven looked around, and was replied with a series of nods. Smiling gamely back she stepped up beside Terra's frozen form and pressed her palm firmly against the petrified girl's chest.
---------------------------
Inside Raven's mind Terra had been fully aware of Raven's words and was both stunned and moved. Either side of her Happy and Compassion let go, and she stood by herself, sharing one last hug with Love before stepping up to the portal, turning for one last look. Behind her, the many Ravens all smiled in their own ways before their eyes began glowing black, and their energies crackled around Nevermore with a chanting, resounding stanza.
"Azreath Metrion Zinthos, Azreath Metrion Zinthos..."
Waving one last time, Terra took the headlong plunge and threw herself through the portal.
---------------------------
Raven was chanting softly to herself, black lightening crackling up and down her arm and across Terra's stone form. Her face was screwed up with immense concentration, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, so she could not see what suddenly caused Starfire to scream loudly.
---------------------------
Raven's fist had turned to stone, the same grey granite as Terra. Gradually the effect spread up her arm, bringing a chilling numbness as it went. It reached her shoulder, and then began to creep down over her chest, making it difficult for her to breathe.
---------------------------
Raven quickly guessed what was happening to her but still didn't open her eyes, concentrating all her energies to shooting Terra out of her and back into her own body.
Feeling Terra's own life, energy, strength welling up inside her, Raven willed together every last once of power she had left and LET-IT-RIP!
---------------------------
The cavern shook to a final chanted cry of "AZREATH METRION ZINTHOS!" and Raven's body seemed to ignite with black and yellow energies which overlay each other.
---------------------------
Raven could feel the essence that was Terra blazing through her arm like shot from a cannon and instantly felt the 'stoning' effects weaken and let go of their grip on her. Sensing Terra had made the passage she ripped her arm loose with a scream.
---------------------------
Raven was blasted back from the statue with immense force and fell into Cyborg's arms as limp as a rag-doll. Forcing herself to watch however, she held her eyes open against the storm of exhaustion and watched as the point on Terra where her hand had made contact burned bright as a sun. Gradually cracks began to spread out from it, seams of golden light. At the same time, Terra's eyes and hands began to shine as well, the stone layering chipping and falling to the ground.
Gradually the maze of lines interlinked and burned with a beautiful and almost divine luminescence. As the sound of rock rumbling and cracking roared and echoed about the immense cave, a new sound began to overwhelm and dominate.
The sound of screaming.
---------------------------
Terra's lungs and vocal chords, frozen mid breath two years ago, continued the scream of triumph, pain and desperation that had been her last physical sound as all around her had burned with both her own power and the primal energy of magma. She could feel the pain again, the pain that had threatened to tear her apart and rend her limb from limb.
Except this time, the pain was easing. There was no sudden numbness, no feeling of the tears on her face turning to stone. Now they flowed thick and free as the pain flowed away like water off a rock and she open her eyes again to see five familiar faces staring at her with hopefulness, expectation and love.
Then she fell forward, and there was darkness, and peace...
---------------------------
As Terra slumped forward out of the pose she had held for two years Beastboy caught her and held her, a turbulent mix of emotions raging through his system, a confusing mess which was only forced back when he flicked his eyes at Raven and found her unconscious in Cy's arms. Terra too, was out for the count, her breathing shallow, her body sagging in his arms.
Robin snapped out of the stunned silence that the light and sound show had reduced him too.
"Come on guys, let's go home."
Turning to leave, the six Teen Titans either staggered or were carried back into the light, and into a very uncertain future. One thing was decided however, no matter what fate or the universe threw at them, they would face it as a team, together.
TO BE CONCLUDED...
Well? Did you like? Did Mod's jargon confuse you? Review if you enjoyed, and review if you didn't. That's what this button is for. Cheers!
II
II
II
II
V