Robin sighed heavily. Just like that, he was all alone.
Great, he thought, I felt bad enough thinking it was all in my head, or at least that it could be cured. But now there's more of a chance that I'll be stuck looking like this forever!
He looked down at the floor, but as he did, the tusks that were where his ears should be turned into large, ram-like horns, which only stressed him out even more.
Hekata crawled under the door as a spider and changed back when she was safely in his room. Robin didn't notice, however, until she rubbed the back of his neck with a drop of acid. It didn't burn Robin, but he still felt Hekata's hand.
"Aah! Kat??? How'd you get in here??"
"What's the matter?" Hekata said in a slow, seductive voice. "Is somebody scared of little old me?"
She very slowly pushed Robin down to the floor, making Robin even more nervous.
"Kat? What's going on?"
Hekata laughed.
"Nothing your mortal mind can perceive..."
She touched Robin's left horn, slowly lowering her finger down the side of his neck.
"...But something you will bear witness to very soon."
Robin tried to get up, but Hekata again lowered him down. He struggled against her.
"This isn't funny Kat! Let me go!"
"Now why would I want to do a silly thing like that?"Hekata swished her finger gently up to Robin's chin. "After all, this would have happened to you sooner or later."
Before she could start her ritual, however, Raven opened the door and entered.
"Robin, what's all that racket?? Honestly, the noise is-!"
She paused when she saw Hekata there.
"Kat?? What's going on?"
Hekata quickly closed and locked the door, then focused over to Raven.
"Something you picked a bad time to interfere with!"
With that, strips of darkness slowly engulfed Raven as Hekata muttered her incantation.
"Stretch her pupils, turn her eyes green.
Her normal form will no longer be seen.
Point her ears and bend her back.
Give her fur of midnight black.
Shrink her nose and sharpen her nails.
Her grace from tall heights never fails.
Feline change I seal with fang and hiss.
Lastly, grow her a tail, just... like... thisssssssssssss..."
As Hekata hissed, the strips of darkness engulfed Raven completely. When she stopped, Raven emerged from the darkness as a powerless black cat.
"Raven!" Now Robin was struggling against Hekata more than ever, but that ended quickly when a tentacle lowered from the ceiling and wrapped around him, part of it wrapping around his mouth.
Hekata laughed at Robin's hopeless struggle, but then turned her focus to Raven. She cornered Raven just before scooping her up and setting her down on the bed, where an orb of darkness surrounded her.
"Sorry kitty but you're just going to have to wait your turn."
Raven yowled and scratched at the orb more desperately by the second as Hekata lifted up the Stone of Night.
"Now, master!" She said as she threw the stone in the air. "The time has come to claim that which you desire!"
At that very moment, the sun was completely eclipsed and all the lights in Titans Tower and the rest of Jump City went out.
The only light in the entire room was a wooden torch Hekata held, which was lit as if by the fires of hell as the stone landed in Hekata's hand. Robin didn't like the sound of this.
From the wall, a dark door opened, and the Horned One emerged. Robin really didn't like the sound of this.
But who was to argue now? As much as Robin didn't like this, he couldn't change it now, mainly because of the tentacle.
The Horned One smiled as he poked Robin, then looked to the witch who made it all possible.
"You have done well, Hekata. Not once did you disobey my orders, and your results came faster than I'd hoped."
Hekata bowed.
"Thank you, master. But before you go, I ask that you shed away this disgustingly beautiful form."
"But of course." He touched her with one of his sharp nails and, almost instantly, she was changed back to her normal form.
If Robin wasn't scared before, he was now. He instantly recognized Hekata from when she tried to take over his mind.
No sooner had the Horned One plucked the tentacle, and Robin with it, off of the ceiling than he noticed Raven still struggling with the shield.
"Ugh! However, could you at least try not to be so sloppy?? Honestly, that cat is going to expose you one of these days!"
"That is not a cat by nature, master." Hekata poked the orb as if to mock Raven. "The little wench was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Turning her into a cat was my only possible means of silencing her."
"Well..." The Horned One laughed at Raven's fruitless efforts to break free. "At least it silenced the little snoop for good, so I will forgive that slight disobedience on your part. But enough about that. With two titans out of the way we must arrange for the others."
The orb surrounding Raven finally disappeared, but not before Hekata and the Horned One took Robin into the portal as it closed behind them and disappeared as well.
Raven noticed, however, that the door to Robin's room was still locked. She didn't have her powers in this form, however, leaving her with no choice but to scratch the door and meow for help. She had to warn the others, but how?