The 12 Labors of Cyborg

Disclaimer: You know all of the previous chapters' disclaimers? All the ones that went before? They still hold.

A/N: Oooh, I'm all a-tingle with anticipation!

Redemption

Cyborg stared, wide eyed, up at the dog… or rather he stared, wide-eyed, up into the dog's slavering fangs. "You… you… you talked?" he yelped.

"The man is a genius. Yes, I talk," replied the middle head, calmly enough. The half-robot spluttered, and Cerberus seemed to… sigh. "I can talk- you apparently can't," Cerberus taunted.

Cyborg was getting angry. First this monster came out of nowhere and attacked him, and now it was making fun of him? He scowled.

"I know what you're thinking," Cerberus said after a minute. "And I wouldn't have reacted so harshly if you hadn't stomped on my foot," the dog had affected an air of injured pride, and that made Cyborg want to hurt it… hurt it badly.

"You're kidding me. Magical red lightning burns a hole in the concrete, and I'm suppose to expect the giant three-headed dog coming out of it is friendly?" Cyborg demanded.

Cerberus laughed, each of the three heads rumbling. "Friendly? I never said that."

"So what did you want?" Cyborg demanded.

"You challenged Fate, Cyborg, and Fate doesn't appreciate that kind of cheek," Cerberus' breath was making Cyborg gag… he wasn't sure how much longer he could handle it.

"I was being facetious!" Cyborg shouted.

Yellow fangs glinted in the light from Cyborg's shoulder lamp. "Exactly."

Cyborg scowled, and began to prepare for a massive surge to free himself from Cerberus' paws. "So what're you going to do now… eat me?"

"I was thinking about it," Cerberus answered. "You look like you'd be tough on the stomach though. Maybe I'll just rip you apart and use your armor to pick my t-" the dog's triumphant speech was interrupted as Cyborg's boot cannon fired, point black, into the dog's throat. Cerberus stumbled backwards, coughing and yelping… Cyborg rushed forward, and delivered as powerful a punch as he could directly into Cerberus' fangs.

The fangs shattered, and Cyborg felt his fist plunge up to the elbow in Cerberus' mouth. He pulled his hand out- the teeth had cut some of the human flesh on his fingers, and he was bleeding… but he'd get over it.

Cerberus, though, was still reeling from the blow… apparently, it couldn't shake off being defanged quite as easily as it could shake off the fall. Cyborg fired his sonic cannon again, aiming now for the coiling snakes on its back. A mass of black snakes were sheared from Cerberus' back- the dog bellowed again, and then bounded forward, bloody froth now boiling in all three of its hideous jaws. Its red eyes were absolutely wild- made all the crazier in the unnatural light of Cyborg's shoulder cannon.

Cyborg couldn't stop its charge this time- Cerberus sent him flying. He hit the far wall hard, could feel the impact in every part of his body… he slid to the ground, but forced himself back up again. No. If Fate wanted to make him its punching bag, he'd be punching back. This ended, here and now.

A forest of eyeless serpents exploded from Cerberus' burned back, snapping fangs aiming for Cyborg's flesh. He dove into their roiling masses, punching left and right, grabbing and squeezing anything that got in his way into a pulp. Cerberus' left head suddenly appeared in his vision- he drove his fist forward, straight into the enormous red eye. Cerberus bellowed in pain, lashing its head from side to side, howling.

Cerberus was hurt, but it wasn't going down… not yet. No, it needed more… Cyborg pounded his fist repeatedly into the left head, beating it into the dirt. The middle head snapped at him, but its remaining teeth didn't break through his armor. And then a dozen snakes grabbed him, and once again beat him against the wall. Cyborg shouted in pain- and then in dismay as his shoulder light was broken off. It continued to glow, sustained by some lasting internal energy- but disappeared among the roiling snakes.

But that was alright… he didn't need his human eye to defeat this dog. If anything, it made it that much less intimidating to be facing this monster straight out of Grecian nightmares.

He fired his sonic cannon repeatedly into the roiling mass of eyeless serpents. The light shattered everything it touched… Cerberus faltered, and then the snakes fell to the ground, receding back to the dog's back. Cerberus was gasping through its remaining active head, panting like a mutt left out too long in the sun. Cyborg stormed up to Cerberus, grabbed both of its dragon-like tails in his arms.

"Fate should learn not to play with me," Cyborg said, and spun the dog around by its tails, throwing it against the wall.

Cerberus hit the wall, slamming into the cave-paintings Cyborg had walked before. The rock crumbled under the impact of the massive furry body… Cerberus slumped to the ground, snakes coiling hysterically before going still. The cave-paintings were gone… annihilated… and as Cyborg watched, Cerberus disappeared as well, melting into a bubbling tar.

"Because I play rough."

Cyborg sat down for a moment, letting his body catch up with the machinery. He picked up his fading shoulder lamp from the ground.

It was done.

It was over.

He started the long climb back to the surface.

"Can you please get your elbow out of my face?"

"A little more to the left!"

"Raven- SMILE!"

It was, more or less, a pleasant day for a picnic. The park was full of bird song and kids playing hide and seek; there was the scent of grilling hotdogs and hamburgers on the air, and the breeze was pleasant and cool. Only a few wispy clouds floated across the cerulean blue sky, and none of them blocked the warm face of the beaming sun.

Cyborg was setting up the camera on the tripod, as his teammates tried to get into some sort of formation in front of it. Raven was slinking off towards one edge of the group, as always- probably trying to see if she could get out of the picture entirely. Beast Boy and Robin were both smiling dutifully, obviously more interested in either the hotdogs, or the football that lay right next to them. Starfire was positively beaming.

"Oh, how I love picture day!" She exclaimed.

Cyborg continued grumbling to himself. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he muttered under his breath.

"Come on, Clarice, this is photography, not brain surgery!" Beast Boy shouted at Cyborg. After the 'Cannibal Hickey' had faded, Cyborg's teammates had come up with a new 'creative' and 'hilarious' nickname, courtesy of Robin, and wouldn't shut up about it. In fact, Cyborg expected that particular epitaph would stick around for quite some time.

Cyborg stormed over to stand behind the rest of his teammates… giving Beast Boy a nice bop on the head. "Okay, everybody… say cheese!" He said, with forced cheerfulness.

The Teen Titans smiled as one. And nothing happened. For a few minutes, they stood there, forced cheerfulness painted across their faces. "Huh… that's weird," Cyborg began. He slipped from behind the group and started towards the camera.

It flashed as soon as Cyborg left the frame… Cyborg scowled. "Stupid thing," he grumbled, and kicked it.

Of course, the slim tripod didn't fare well against the half-human's colossal strength- one leg snapped, and the camera went plummeting to the ground. Cyborg's heart caught in his throat… he bent down over the remains of the tripod, and the broken camera. A nervous chuckle escaped his lips, and he glanced over towards his teammates. Raven looked unconcerned, but Beast Boy and Robin were practically fuming.

"Cyborg! That was my camera! That cost me like fifty bucks!" Beast Boy shouted.

"You know how long it took me to get that tripod to be perfectly level?" Robin demanded. "Now you'll have to go and get a new one!"

The look of panic on Cyborg's face was classic. Even his red eye seemed to widen. Cyborg picked up the lens of the camera. In its clear glass, he could have sworn he saw six glaring, red eyes…

They heard his hysterical shriek two cities away.

fin