Hello to the Night Chapter Nine THE END, a teen titans fanfic

Hello to the Night

Chapter Nine

November 1, 12:07 AM

Robin moved in for the kill, but soon found himself flying straight towards the singing.

Oh god, he thought. I'm going to die…

He collided with something large, hard, and pointy. It hurt like hell, and he knew he'd have a bruise.

But the Masqueraders simply continued with their song, which had inexplicably changed from Kung Fu Fighting to something he didn't recognize.

Somehow, he managed to stand, keeping his eyes closed. He gritted his teeth against the pain and noticed that the singing had increased in volume, and seemed to come from all around him.

I must have fallen against a monument in the center of them. This is crazy… why aren't they trying to kill me" I must have knocked into one or two of them!

The Boy Wonder concentrated. He needed to find Slade… but the Masquerade sang far, far too loud for him to make out his enemy's footsteps. Even if Slade had shouted at the top of his lungs, "I'M OVER HERE, ROBIN! COME AND GET ME PLEASE," Robin wouldn't have heard a thing.

So he crouched and pulled out the staff.

A standoff. Neither could find the other.

12:08 AM

Starfire whimpered at the sudden sounds of breaking glass. A tiny part of her felt amazed that she could hear the glass breaking, when that had to be on the ground floor, while she and her friends crouched at the top of Titans Tower.

The singing grew louder, closer. Lewder.

They could hear the fevered march of people towards them.

"Are we going to have to disband"" She whispered to Raven.

Raven seemed just as terrified as Starfire felt. But somehow, Raven managed to reign in her fear and use her reasoning. "It can't be all of them… it's been ten or eleven days… they have to have at least ninety people…"

Tim knelt with his face to the wall and prayed. Beast Boy had become a bat, while Cyborg tried to activate the Tower's security.

Of course, it failed.

Suddenly, the singing grew even louder.

"We come! We come! With roll of drum!" The Masquerade sang, sounding like a blue-grass/praise choir. "We come! We come! With tramp of doom and stamp of gloom, we come! We come! With roll of drum!"

Tim perked up. "Holy crap! They're trying to sing the Ents' song in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers!"

"Glad to see they're all a bunch of geeks," Raven commented. The wording and tone sounded just like her normal sarcastic humor, but something seemed different. Hollow. Like she only said it to go through the motions.

12:10 AM

The Masquerade quieted for no apparent reason. Now they crooned something soft and haunting. "An elven maid there was of old/ A shining star by day/ Her mantle white was hemmed with gold/ Her shoes of silver gray…"

"Slade!" He stood and shouted into the darkness. "Tell me one thing!"

He heard something behind him and crouched. A whoosh of air passed over his head, and he waited, then grabbed Slade's legs and brought him down.

His fingers found their way to Slade's throat. He shook the villain, squeezed his fragile flesh.

"How did you know about the haunted house idea"" Robin snarled. He shifted his weight, enough to plant a knee in Slade's stomach. He put his knee on the ground and shook Slade's torso like a rag-doll. "Answer!"

"Didn't!" Came the choked-sounding response. "Was…going…to— keep— up —all— night— anyway…"

"I see." Robin growled with his teeth grit and his jaw set in a perfect imitation of Batman's.

12:15 AM

From the noise of the singing, Raven guessed that the Masquerade had found their way to the second floor down.

By now, the Masquerade had come so near that the words of their songs sounded indistinct. Of course, their vagueness did nothing to diminish the horrible chill that ran through her at every sound.

"Oh God, they're in the Tower," Tim prayed. "Make them go away, God. Make them go away!"

Cyborg stared up at the ceiling, having given up on the security. "Man, I just hope Robin's okay…"

Starfire held a tiny green kitten in her lap. The kitten shivered and mewed, and she idly stroked its head.

Raven watched the two and wondered just how Beast Boy physically interpreted that. Did it just feel good, or was there something else to it"

Either way, he purred loudly and Raven hoped that it wasn't a laugh.

12:16 AM

Robin began systematically squeezing Slade's throat, cutting off his oxygen until he had passed out. He rolled the masked man over and handcuffed him, then made sure Slade could get oxygen. He put his thumb in between Slade's right wrist and the metal ring.

The handcuffs were tight.

"Come with me," Robin grunted, slapping him awake.

Robin then rose to his feet, yanking Slade upward by the wrists. He knew it could cause nerve damage, but Slade with damaged wrists didn't sound like such a bad deal. A Slade-with-damaged-wrists probably couldn't pose half as much danger as an unharmed-Slade.

He slung the villain over the R-Cycle, made sure he couldn't move, and sped off into the endless night.

12:20 AM

Beast Boy sat on the floor, pointy ears twitching.

"Why did you scratch me"" Starfire hissed, casting fearful glances towards the elevator shaft.

"You were squeezing me! It hurt!" He cast fearful glances in that direction as well.

"Guys!" Cyborg's voice broke into their arguing. "I think we're going to have company pretty soon!"

12:26 AM

The R-Cycle slowed and skidded to a stop at the wharf.

He had no way to the island. The barricade on this end of the tunnel stood strong, and there would be an even stronger barricade at the other side, provided he could get through the first.

He looked at his cargo, assessing how long they could maintain this position. The masked man began to stir, and he bit back a curse.

Then, thinking quickly, he pulled out his T-Communicator and flipped it open, paging Raven.

"Hello"" Her voice sounded small, but otherwise, she seemed calm.

"Raven… I'm standing on the wharf, but I have no means of getting to the Tower."

She nodded. "Yeah, I see you. I'll see what I can do. And if I can't, then I hope you can swim."

"I'll only need to worry about hypothermia," he told her.

The pacific is not like the southern Atlantic, or the Gulf of Mexico— it is not a 'friendly' body of water.

It is very, very cold. Especially at night. Especially now.

12:27 AM

"I just heard from Robin," Raven said quietly. "He's on the wharf. I'm going to use my powers to transport him here."

"Or you could just take a portal!" Cyborg added. "It's faster and easier, and you can see him from here!"

12:28 AM

A black spot on a brick wall appeared, and suddenly Raven jumped out. "Come with me. Bring Slade."

"But what about the R-Cycle""

"I doubt anyone living is out tonight."

Robin nodded and grabbed the unconscious mastermind. The man was heavy; Robin could barely lift him, but he managed.

12:29 AM

They returned to the Tower, and Robin noticed the positions of the others— Tim facing the inside of a corner, Starfire and Beast Boy warily staring at the elevator doors, and Cyborg trying to activate Tower security. Raven stood calmly beside him.

"What's going on"" Robin demanded.

"They've gone quiet…" Starfire whispered. "It always starts up louder when they go quiet… And then they get closer…"

Beast Boy trembled. "I don't want to die!"

Something caught his eye, and it took him a moment to realize what it was. He looked closely at the figure rocking himself back and forth, hugging his knees to his chest.

Robin quietly moved over to stand behind Tim. "What's wrong""

The boy shook his head but did not stop rocking. "I don't know…"

"How do I break the curse"" Robin asked.

"Can you do it"" Tim asked. "Do we have the gypsy" Because I never noticed anybody new." There was something in that tone, both biting and timid, that made Robin want to pity the boy.

"I am the gypsy… The gypsy Slade used to resurrect the curse was the leader of our kumpanya."

Tim nodded. "Just before dawn, you have to face the rising sun, with the same number of people who did the curse's magic performing the counter-curse, drawing on your blood."

"What's the counter-curse"" Robin looked the younger teen in the eyes.

He stopped rocking, then furtively handed him a slip of paper. "It's on that."

"Thank you."

12:31 AM

Starfire's words rang true: within moments, the Masquerade grew louder. They began to bang on the elevator doors, and soon the doors collapsed.

Grotesqueries streamed into the room. Pale-limbed, decomposing, sunken-eyed, the Masqueraders danced on stubs of legs, or crawled on hands and knees. Rotted lips and dried tongues spewed horrible, croaking songs. Instead of saliva, portions of their gums, chippings of their teeth, or bits of flesh from their tongues flew from their mouths. Their movements were both stiff-jointed, discombobulated. Where a dancer may have lightly turned her ankle, a Masquerader turned its ankle to the point of dislocating it.

Terrified, Robin turned away. He didn't know how the others would cope, but he could guess: Starfire would face the wall and cover her eyes with her hands; Cyborg would shut down his cybernetic eye and face a corner. Raven would pull her hood over her face and cover her head the way they taught you to do at school during tornadoes; Beast Boy would change his head into something eyeless.

Tim would remain as he had been for some time.

And then Robin realized that Slade had been unconscious when they brought him to the Tower.

He had inadvertently caused the death of his enemy. His oversight had killed a man.

Cold, cold fingers reached out to touch his face, and he backed away. Suddenly Beast Boy's voice filled the room.

"There's only one way out of this!" The changeling cried, and then Robin heard static coming from a corner of the room.

The static soon became the voices of Evanescence, singing, Before the Dawn.

"We play along!"

"And then we beat a hasty retreat!" Robin stood, with his hands over his eyes. "Is that the computer Cyborg converted into a jukebox""

"Yeah," Beast Boy shouted. "At last check, we had something like eight hours of music in it!"

"Perfect!" Robin cried. "Near dawn, we have to get out of here!"

Listening to music with a bunch of dancing zombies wasn't exactly the most fun thing he'd ever done. They smelled terrible, they looked terrible, and they didn't dance very well.

So Robin sat with his eyes closed, listening to the various tunes. But instead of the lyrics, he heard the words, "Slade is dead because of you," repeated to the beat of each song.

The music pulsed in his ears and his head began to throb. The reek of the corpses filled his nose, and it made it hard to breathe. He doubted that anybody else was having a better time.

With a new, completely different song to listen to every few minutes, the Masqueraders quickly forgot about the living inhabitants of the room.

A song by Eminem began to play. The Masquerade loved it, apparently— their stomps and shouts grew in volume.

Robin opened his eyes a tiny bit, to look at Slade's body. His eyes widened a fraction when he realized that the body had begun to twitch.

Raven noticed it too; he could see those lavender eyes trained on the twitching corpse.

Robin shut his eyes lightly and turned to face the window. He would watch for the approach of dawn by measuring the amount of light he could get through his eyelids. And, of course, through the occasional surreptitious glance at the clock display on his T-Communicator.

He knelt, then turned back to glance at the only stationary corpse. It had stopped twitching, so he assumed that it must have been the dead nerve endings firing off. He'd heard they did that.

The night passed in silence, despite the shouts and music. He supposed it was something like feeling all alone in a crowded room; despite the horrendous noise, he felt as though something had drained away all the sound in the universe.

All Saints Day, just before dawn

He gathered the others on the roof and began the preparations.

"Okay, Titans. It's time to break this curse," he said with more bravado than he felt. "All we have to do is this: face the sunrise, draw upon my blood for power, and repeat the counter-curse."

"What is it"" Beast Boy asked.

"I'll get to that in a second. This may not work because we might not have enough people. But we might not get another chance, so we have to give it a shot now and hope for the best."

He looked at his friends, really looking at them for the first time he could remember. Starfire, with her boundless energy and love of life… Raven, with her cool, chilling precision and yet wild, near feral power… Cyborg, with his strength and his fragility, his dark flesh and shining metal… Beast Boy, with his jokes and his green skin, his smile and his tired eyes. The lover, the dame knight, the father, the younger brother.

They were his.

"The chant is this…" He took a deep breath, "Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. El final de siempre viene seguramente. El sol le levanta. El Masquerade muere. El Extremo se case del cielo. Las Muertes permanecen muertos."

He made sure they could all say it, and then used two bird-a-rangs to cut his arms, digging deeply, and offered them to his friends.

"Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. El final de siempre viene seguramente. El sol le levanta. El Masquerade muere. El Extremo se case del cielo. Las Muertes permanecen muertos," the other Titans said as one. Two breezes rose out of nowhere at the first word, bringing in cold air from the north and dry air from the east. The wind picked up with each successive word, until it seemed almost strong enough to knock them off the Tower.

He looked at the other Titans, his blood running freely from his arms, and then stared into the sky.

The gale from the north whipped the foam on the waves, and the gale from the east only roiled the sea more.

And the sea appeared to roil all on its own, the waters frothing and swirling viciously. Waves grew taller with each word.

Streaks of color appeared in the sky, and he stared at them.

The roiling of the sea grew worse, and he noticed that a waterspout formed near the mouth of the harbor, even though the sky had no clouds whatsoever.

"Energía por energía. Sangre por sangre. El final de siempre viene seguramente. El sol le levanta. El Masquerade muere. El Extremo se case del cielo. Las Muertes permanecen muertos."

At the last word, the waterspout grew even taller, the winds blew harder, and it seemed as if nature itself had become more intense… only to fade away, leaving a serene, beautiful sunrise.

They watched it, the Titans and Tim. They watched as the streaks deepened, as a disc of gold appeared.

One by one, the other Titans returned within the Tower. First Beast Boy, then Cyborg, then Starfire, then Raven.

Until Tim and Robin stood alone.

"Slade is dead," Robin said quietly.

"I figured," the younger boy told him. "Did you mean to""

"No," Robin said. "I didn't mean to."

The boy shrugged. "You gave him nothing more than what he deserved."

"I gave him nothing," Robin snapped. "I didn't intend him to die!"

"He's no less a corpse."

They remained silent for a while, at that.

"Does this mean I can go back to my Mom and Dad now"" Tim asked.

"Yeah," Robin said, quietly.

Tim remained a little longer, and then returned within the Tower.

Dick Grayson watched the sun's light creep over the city, and when the sun had truly risen, he smiled.

It was going to be a beautiful day, and he needed not fear the night. He would never need to fear the night again.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

—ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, In Memoriam 106