Red skies, so dark they were crimson, the color of blood. All around the landscape was rocky and sinister, empty of plant-life or water. Thunder boomed overheard, but no lightning illuminated the barren wasteland below. Nor its single inhabitant, a small teenaged girl in a great blue cloak.
Raven peered around cautiously, still walking forward towards her unknown destination. She didn't know how she'd gotten here, she didn't even know where -here- was. All she knew was that she had to keep walking forward. She was... looking... for something.
A harsh bird's cry came from the space behind Raven, and she whirled around, her cloak snapping in the air as she sought the source of the sound. None were visible.
Okay, she wasn't looking for something. She was -running- from something. Raven turned back away from the sound and picked up the pace. A light jog. She wanted to save her energy in case... whatever... was behind her closed in.
Another harsh bird's cry... a crow's... split the air again. And again. Both times Raven glanced over her should but saw nothing. The air was dark, the landscape was barren. But something was there. Something malevolent was after her. Raven's running slowed slightly as the ground became more rocky, great boulders and crevices opening up around her, and she was forced to climb up and over or around such obstacles.
"We can't escape you know..."
Raven skidded to a stop. That voice. Had she imagined it? Cautiously she peered around, finally spotting the speaker hiding behind one of the nearby boulders, hidden in the shadows. It was a girl Raven's age. Wearing her exact same clothes, bearing he exact same features, as if she'd been staring into a mirror. Albeit a mirror disported by depression and altered by sadness. This other Raven was clad in a gray cloak, and from it the original instantly recognized her.
Timid.
"What're you doing here?" asked Raven quietly, kneeling down to try and sooth her emotional manifestation. This explained instantly where she was... she in her mental landscape. Not a dream then. But that was peculiar in and of itself. She didn't recall meditating before going to bed.
"Hiding," replied Timid, her voice barely above a whisper, her gaze focused on the ground.
"Why? What's coming? What's got you so scared...?" asked Raven, then stopped abruptly as she realized the nature of her own question. Knowing Timid, everything scared her. Heck, half the time Raven herself scared Timid. Gave new meaning to the term giving yourself a good scare.
"Him," she whispered, her voice deathly soft.
Then suddenly he was upon them.
A dark cloud spread throughout the sky, blocking out the minimal of blood-red lightning and make all seem as black as pitch, so dark Raven could barely make out Timid standing beside her. Well, cowering behind her cloak, more like. She stared resolutely ahead. She watched as the darkness took on shape and form. But even before it had fully coalesced she recognized the image before her.
Like Timid, it was an emotional manifestation. But this manifestation stared ahead with confidence and malice in its expression. It's teeth were pointed and sharp like a vampire's, and not two but four malevolent red eyes peered out from under an equally crimson red cloak. This was Anger.
"I thought I sealed you away," said Raven, her confidence restored a bit since she now knew who her foe was. An unknown foe was more threatening than one she could see in front of her. Especially since she knew the exact nature of Anger. And how to deal with him.
"I've had a little assistance in breaking loose... hope you don't mind," hissed Anger back at her.
"Azerath... Metrion..." Raven started to chant, raising up her hands.
But to her astonishment, before she could speak her third word and activate her true power Anger's eyes glowed a bright gold and a blast of raw energy lanced out of them, slamming full into Raven and sending her tumbling across the ground. She rolled a dozen feet before stopping. Timid ducked under a nearby rock, clutching her head and fearfully whispering for someone to come save them.
But no one was going to.
"You lose, sis," said Anger with a grin. "Daddy's back. And he's made me stronger than ever. With his power I can destroy... well... pretty much anything!" And then she laughed. Raven's voice, laughing. Only it was dark laughter. It was evil laughter. It mocked her, mocked everything she'd fought for, everything she loved, everything she cared about. It mocked it all and scattered it to the winds.
"Not damn likely!" came a new voice... or rather, the same one. But one brimming with confidence.
Brave, clad in her forest-green cloak, launched a flying kick right at Anger's ugly face, and Raven could not help but smile as she saw her other emotions had gathered around nearby. Already Smart, her yellow cloak fluttering around her, had moved in to assist Timid. Knowledge tended to remove fear, after all. Gross and Happy had taken up flanking positions on either side of the true Raven, assisting her to her feet. She felt more confident now. Her father's power and evil surely couldn't defeat them all...
Raven's hopes died at birth, as Anger lashed out with her hand in a casual backhand, sending a wave of crackling red energy throughout the landscape. Each and every emotional manifestation went flying and the landscape itself broke and all but shattered beneath them. It only took a few seconds, but in that time each and every single emotion, every part of Raven that made her who she was... was defeated. Only Anger remained.
"I win," she hissed, her voice deepening, growing more masculine. So did her form. Her body swelled, ripping free of her cloak as her skin turned a bright crimson. Her body altered, changing from that of a five foot, fourteen year old girl to that of a five story, fourteen century old demon with golden eyes and white hair. Her father. "And now I shall take my revenge upon those who would stand in my way."
Trigon.
The great red demon gave a mighty roar. He was free. And Raven had failed. She watched in horror as Trigon stretched out his mighty limbs. Limbs that had been used to shatter his own home dimension. Hands that had destroyed his home world when he'd been only six years old. And his power had only grown the past millennia. He was... unstoppable... now.
And now thanks to Raven's failure, he was loose on the world she loved more than her own life.
Lightning split the skies, illuminating the room. It was dark. But he'd always preferred to work in the dark. The living room. Robin stepped inside quietly, not wanting to alter his opponent he was there yet. He moved slowly, with deliberate quiet, his black cape obscuring the bright colors of his costume beneath it.
There...!
A shadow suddenly moved, and Robin took off after it, trailing it. It moved with lithe grace, faster than he could follow. Always he would turn a corner, so close to catching it, but it moved faster than he, and would be at the other end of the hallway by the time he neared it. It was heading towards the basement. Robin knocked open the door, spotting the shadow down on the floor. He leapt down off of the stairs, landing in a crouch and sprang forward, but by then the shadow was already gone. He glanced back and forth but no sign of it.
Ominous thunder thrummed in the background, as Robin took a cautious step towards where the shadowy figure had been hiding. Near one of the evidence boxes. Robin brought it out, knocking off the lid, though he knew instantly which one this was. He knew it by heart.
Slade's.
The criminal mastermind was long gone, and supposedly so was his illusion. Perhaps the dust still hadn't been purified from his body. Just to be safe, Robin reached behind his back and drew out his bo staff, extending it to full length and using it to knock the light switch. Instantly the area was illuminated. Which meant unless the -real- Slade was here, he was safe.
But had it been a shadow he saw? Or someone else? Was Slade really gone?
Questions like these preyed on his mind, forcing him into wakefulness, when he'd heard a sound down the hallway in the living room. And so he'd dressed and armed himself in a speed the Flash would've envied. He kept close watch over any threats to his friends. But it appeared there were none. But he was still uneasy.
Gently he reached into the box, picking up the mask of Slade. It had been cleaned off by Cyborg after the Titan's last encounter with the shadow Slade. No more dust, no more danger. But the mask itself was still very dangerous. It was a symbol of the evil of which Slade had been capable. Of the madness and the hatred. And more importantly, it was a symbol to Robin of everything he had strived -not- to be... yet had come dangerously close to becoming.
"Who are you?" asked Robin, holding the mask in his outstretched hand, regarding it.
"Don't you know, Robin?" came a sinister voice he knew all too well.
Robin immediately swung his bo staff over his head, glancing around, this way and that. No sign of the voice's source. It seemed to come from everywhere. It echoed off the basement walls.
"I told you who I am Robin. You really don't know who I am?"
Robin growled angrily, unable to find his foe. In his frustration, he turned back to the mask in his hand, addressing it as if it was Slade.
"Who are you?!" he shouted at it.
"I'm you!" replied the mask itself.
Robin gasped. Before he could react the mask leapt out of his hands and sprang towards him, flipping over the opposite direction and slapped firmly into place over his face. Gasping in shock Robin grabbed at the mask, trying to pry it from him, but his fingers could gain no purchase against the mask. He clawed ineffectively at it, struggling to free himself of the hated mask which was cutting off his air supply and his vision. Now he could see only out through the left eye-socket, and he could scarcely draw breath. The mask pressed closely against his nose and forced him to breath through his mouth.
"Get off of me... get off of me!" he cried ineffectively, trying to worm his fingers between his skin and the mask. They might have been seamlessly joined together, for all the effort he'd made.
"Robin?!" cried out a voice from above, and Robin glanced upwards, peering out through the eye-socket. He saw Starfire there, peering around high above. But then her gaze settled on him, and he felt relief wash over him. Surely she could remove the mask. His relief vanished, however, replaced by disbelief, as she saw her power up her starbolts, filling her hands with emerald fire.
"Starfire, what're you...?!"
"Slade!!" she shouted, launching her starbolts at Robin. Totally unprepared for the attack, he was caught full in the chest and sent flying into the evidence boxes, scattering items left and right as he landed hard on his back.
"Star, no! I'm not Slade!" he shouted, holding up his hands to ward off a further attack. But then he gave another sharp gasp at what he saw. Instead of his usual green gloves a pair of cold gray gauntlets covered his hands.
Starfire launched another starbolt at Robin, who dodged aside, still calling out to her. She didn't even seem to hear his words, she just kept attacking. So did the other Titans as they arrived, forcing Robin to roll and dodge aside their blasts and punches, on the receiving end of all the hatred the Titans had for their arch-enemy. Through it all he called out their names until his voice grew hoarse and he could scarcely breath behind the hated mask, still trying to tear it off. But he couldn't.
It was his face now.
He -was- Slade.
"Hello...?"
An echo was the only reply, the long towers were cold and quiet. The only sound were her own footsteps as she made her way from one room to another. First she would tentatively knock, waiting for a reply from within. Then again, but again no reply. Always no reply. Then she would search inside for signs of her missing friends. But they were not there. None of them were.
Beastboy's mess of clothes and spare costumes lay on the floor of his room, but Starfire did not find him under it (as she had one time, after he'd fallen asleep and it'd fallen on him during the night). Cyborg's recharger was unused. Robin's bed was empty. And though she had promised never to enter Raven's room without permission she would have gladly welcomed the mean yelling of her close 'friend-who-is-a-girl' (Raven did not enjoy being called 'girlfriend' by anyone) if it meant she could be talking to someone. But her strange and somewhat creepy room was empty as well.
They all were. The living room, the kitchen, the training hall, the T-Ship port, the basement. There was food in the fridge, there were clothes on the floor, there was Raven's old book lying on the table, the remote on the sofa. But of her friends there were no sign.
"Hellloooo?" called out Starfire mournfully, dutifully continuing to search up and down the length of Titan's Tower. Hoping for a glimpse of black spiky hair or a blue cowl. She would've settled for a patch of green skin or a cybernetic appendage, but she saw none of these things. She saw only the endless hallways and empty rooms of Titan's Tower. And all she heard was her own echoes, her own footsteps on the ground.
"Perhaps... perhaps my friends have gone to the park today," she said to herself, though her own explanation sounded lame, even to herself. Robin wouldn't have left her all alone. He would've at least told her where he was going if he had to leave. He always told everyone where he was going in case there was trouble. And they couldn't have all left but... they had.
Starfire floated up along the stairway, heading towards the roof. She'd fly up high into the sky, she could surely spot her friends from high up in the air. She'd find them.
The Tamaranian Princess pushed open the door to the roof and stepped out, preparing to launch into the air and up into the sky...
... except the sky was no longer there.
Starfire paused, hovering a few feeet above the rooftop, and gazed out beyond the Tower. Beyond the Tower was... nothing. Literally nothing. It was just a great white... nothingness, that stretched in every direction she could see. No sun, no stars, no ground, no water. Nothing in all directions, only the Tower remained.
The Tower... and Starfire.
She shivered then, feeling a cold chill run down her spine. All alone, she was. Devoid of any friends, and family, any one at all to speak to. She drifted down to the ground and curled up in a ball, shivering, closing her eyes tightly. From her eyelids streaked emerald tears down her cheeks as she cried, lamenting her fate.
Author's Notes:
Raven's nightmare sequence of course makes reference to 'Nevermore' with her emotional manifestations, particularly Happy, Timid and Brave. The others I had to name on the spot, considering how briefly they were seen in the episode. Robin's nightmare makes references to the events of 'Haunted' concerning the mask and dust. And now, just to add a little spice for anyone actually reading this (not going to be my proudest work, I suspect) I will inform you all that -one- of these nightmares sequences (including the gang in the next chapter) is "real." Next chapter: Cyborg, Beastboy, and Terra suffer their own horrible nightmares. Yes, you heard me right. Terra.
Ray1: Glad you're enjoying it.
Anakah: Well it's always nice to get new fans. Hope you like the rest.
Todd fan: I just love aliens, they're oh so much fun. 'specially the hot alien chicks like Kara and Koriand'r.
Snow Werewolf: Beyond the level of genius is… uh… super-genius? Kewl, many thanks.
Spazzfire: Try Raven, you get a nice thick blue cloak to keep you warm… though your legs might freeze.
Drowninginthoughs: Wow, I'd better toss you a lifeline, otherwise you might sink.
YojimbosBlade: Not really, no, but most people think teens are too old to trick or treat.
Poochie14: Don't worry more to come seeya.
Tigress419: Yup, plenty of possibilities involving lovable Raven, and indeed all the Titans.
Elrohirthewriter: You forgot Dr. D from the 'Faith and Valor' story. I've done this plot to death, I'll understand if you don't continue reading.
Crystal Renee: Always good thing to have more fans, and I see you also like IY and RK. Hope to keep you interested for a few future stories.
ViciousAssassin: Your theory is partially correct. Not the one about the book-sorcerer-dragon, of course, the other one. Honestly I don't know if Raven has any demonic relatives beside her father, but if she did it'd make for an interesting family reunion (I must jot that down as a future fic idea). No guarantees one way or the other with Terra, though I too would like to see her back. In the comics there's kinda a Terra II wandering around but I don't know the full story about her. Actually I think all the Titans are too old for it, but Beastboy's a real kid at heart and Starfire's probably very curious about any and all earth customs.