Sick
Chapter Eight - Awakening
The full moon rose high above the vampire bat, the lunar eclipse merely an hour away, and Robin had no control of his body. He could see himself flying, he knew where he was going, but he was helpless to stop it, like his consciousness was padded by cotton. After all that had happened in the Batcave, he had come to accept the fact that he wouldn't live through the night, but began to panic when his bat body veered off course and headed for Titan tower. He had forgotten that according to the prophesy, he had to take the magics surrounding him into himself, then spill his blood. That meant he was going to fetch the Titans. He knew by now that struggling against his body was useless, so he put all his effort into reaching out with his mind, he had to warn them he was coming.
Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire had all gathered in the main room sedately, it was dinner time. No one spoke a single word or took their eyes from their chores, going about the task of making food automatically, silently and efficiently. Each knew they were still in shock, everything had happened so quickly. It was only three days before then that Robin had caught that cold, and now, the team had lost a young, vibrant leader who had given his all for them. Sometimes, loved ones were comforted by the fact the one they lost had died too quickly to know what was happening, or had died painlessly in their sleep, but this was not the case with Robin.
Not only did he have to die by his own hand, but he'd had no choice. No burglar broke in and killed him during the theft, Robin had not died while saving an innocent, he had literally burned to death, just a small taste of his searing pain passed to each of them as their last memory of him. Some of the Titans were angry, it wasn't fair that someone so good should be forced to kill himself in such a terrible way, another had lost hope that good could ever prevail over evil. And still another knew that she would probably never speak again, she was filled with such grief, hatred, loss and longing that if she opened her mouth, her uncontrolled power would destroy them all.
When the meal had been prepared, it was laid out on the table. They had purposefully avoided waffles, Robin had liked them too much. A simple meal of burgers and a bowl of Starfire's pudding of sadness sat on the table, untouched. Not a single bite was eaten, because none of them could stomach the horrible memory of Robin burning to death, let alone food. They sat in silence, eyes on their plates, blanketed by sorrow. Then, as one, their heads snapped up, eyes wide. Robin had reached them. Standing up fast enough for chairs to go clattering across the floor, Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire and Cyborg turned toward the living room doors just in time for Robin to walk through in a clean uniform.
There was a stunned silence for a moment as they stared at the boy they had seen die in flames and he said with a smirk, "You guys are gonna catch flies if you don't…"
His words were cut off as they rushed him, crushing him in a group hug. "Robin! You're alive!" "You are unharmed!" "Dude, you're back!" The Titans were all talking at once, tears of relief and laughter radiating off them.
He climbed out from pile of his friends and faced them, his mood turning serious. "I have to go…I-I can't seem to control what I'm doing, so I wanted to see you guys one more time before I go." Inside, Robin was screaming that this wasn't true, he knew they had to accompany him to their deaths. The master was being very clever indeed, making him seem like himself when he really wasn't in control at all.
"Where do you have to go, friend Robin?" Starfire asked in the most innocent and piteous voice possible.
Robin could feel the master vampire practically salivate at the thought of taking her. The master made Robin's voice speak, attempting to seem normal, "It's not important. I'll be seeing you all again, I promise." With that, his body was compelled to leave the room, senses reaching out to make sure they followed. Both Robin and the master vampire knew that they would wait until he was gone, then go after him, exactly as they were supposed to. Robin wanted to give them some sign, anything that would alert them to the danger. He pushed as hard as he could against the mind control and actually caused his body to stumble.
From then on, the master kept him tightly under wraps, there were to be no more interruptions to the Awakening ceremony. The other Titans watched him walk out of the tower, turn into a bat, leaving his clothes behind again and take flight toward the south end of the city. Beast Boy and Raven exchanged looks, he could smell the fear Robin was exuding and she felt the push from his true mind. Not wanting to give the game away, they didn't tell the other Titans. If the master could read thoughts, then he would surely know what they were up to.
Robin battled the will of the master vampire, feeling a little give as he got closer to where the sacred chalice was kept. When he landed and morphed back into a humanoid, he was naked again, the runes on his body glowing painfully blue. Before him was a decrepit old building, no lights in the windows and no sign of life. He took one step forward and a vampire in a black cloak approached carrying a white silken ceremonial robe. She placed it on his shoulders and slunk back into the shadows; he was now wearing the same garment Krimjehf's ashes had been buried in over two thousand years ago. He could feel dark power emanating from it.
High in the night sky, the full moon was nearly three-quarters darkened by the shadow of the earth, and already it was beginning to carry a red tint. Looking at the moon caused Robin's blood to surge, vampires were particularly vulnerable to bloodlust during eclipses. The robe around him seemed to flare slightly brighter white for a moment, the ancient garment carrying the spirit of Krimjehf and anticipating his rebirth. Pulling his eyes from the mesmerizing sight, Robin felt himself being pulled toward the condemned structure.
Before he could stop himself, his body passed through the doorway, into the building and down a flight of stairs. At the bottom was a group of at least fifty vampires, all in black robes and carrying sleeping infants. Through his sudden nausea, Robin realized the children were to be offered to Krimjehf as his fist meal in two millennia. They began to hiss for him the same way they had hissed for the master during his initiation, bowing to their Chosen One and parting so he could pass, leading him right up to the same master vampire in red.
Fighting himself the whole way, Robin calmly walked up to him and dropped to one knee, exposing the mark on the back of his neck. The master again bit his own finger and smeared the blood across the mark. Instead of the pain he was expecting, Robin was filled with pleasure. He gasped in his kneeling position, surprised at the arousal surging through him. That was the final summoning, according to what Batman had told him. If the Chosen One felt pleasure when touched by the master, he had fulfilled his duties, done all he should and had come to sacrifice himself for Krimjehf. The master smiled as Robin stood, turning toward a great bowl carved into a black pillar. It was made of obsidian, big enough for him to lay in, with the same runes that were carved in Robin's skin carved on the inside of the bowl. As he approached it, he knew it to be the sacred chalice, the place of his death.
He was grateful he had been able to let his friends know not to follow, he could only hope Beast Boy and Raven had been able to convince the others to stay behind. The master stood directly behind him and spoke for the first time, "Fortunately, your little friends followed anyway." Robin's hopes were crushed as the master read his mind and commanded the vampires on the other side of the chalice to part. They revealed all four of the Teen Titans with their hands tied behind their backs and blank looks on their faces, completely under his control. All hope fled from Robin's heart.
"Yessss," hissed the master, leaning down to smell Robin's fear, "the Chosen One must be in despair for Lord Krimjehf to awaken strong." Indeed, Robin knew there was no way to change the prophesy now, so he succumbed to the dark depths of hopelessness, the despair freezing his heart and emotions. After trying everything he could think of, including destroying himself, he had still ended up right where they'd wanted him. No cage could keep him and apparently he was supposed to fail at suicide as well. He had be come the exact automaton the final summoning had foreseen. "Now go and feed, Chosen One, the blood moon has risen." Through a window, he could see the dark, red moon, fully eclipsed.
With only a little prompting, Robin stepped forward, reaching for the closest Titan. Raven compliantly tilted her head back, not resisting in the slightest. As soon as Robin's teeth broke her skin, her trap sprung. Dark magic raced though him briefly, too quickly for anyone to notice, and purged the master's control from his body. Robin's eyes glowed black for a moment as Raven's magic filled him with their plan. They were not under the master's control after all! Her magic was masking their free wills and guiding each of them in how to act so as not to give the game away.
She herself was part demon, so understood the sheer evil of the vampires, and could easily hide her castings among them. In fact, she was probably more dangerous than all of them combined, but she kept a tight reign on her emotions for a reason. She could easily revert to what her father had become, controlling everything with her fearsome spells, inflicting pain and suffering, and enjoying it the whole way. She had often asked herself if she was really evil, if she had a heart of darkness under all her self-control. While she'd never found an answer, the darkness inside her served her well, especially at that moment.
The plan was for Robin to drink enough from each of them to strengthen himself, but gently enough to allow Raven's power to fake their deaths. When Robin was finished with them, it was to be up to him from there on out, Raven and the others would be in a deep trance to conceal their life energy. He would have to find the weakness of the master and exploit it, using his own power to bring him down. Robin was a little nervous, but hopeful. He had not been able to even crack the mind control of the master yet, and he had a strange, sinking feeling that he would have to duke it out with him, physically fighting a creature over ten centuries old. Taking a deep breath, Robin moved forward with his mission.
The vampires all hissed in approval when he pulled his fangs from the dark witch, enjoying his sorrow at the death of his friend. The surrounding vampires forced the half man half robot to his knees so the Chosen One could drink more easily, and hissed again when the cybernetic half went dark with death. It was obvious the Chosen One was still fighting the master's control, especially when he knelt to drink from the alien girl's side, tears were streaming down his face even though he continued to feed. By the time he had finished with the green changeling, his will had broken, and he compliantly knelt before the sacred chalice, face wet with tears.
The master approached, carrying an ornate dagger in the shape of a fang. "The time has come, my fellow children, to awaken our Lord Krimjehf!" The vampires shouted in support, the babies in their arms remaining asleep because of the sedation spells placed on them. "The Chosen One has become as was foreseen, and through him, we will make the world ours!" Again, cheers broke out, some vampires held the children up in offering. The master knelt next to Robin, lighting the symbols on his body with magic and consequently, pain.
The Chosen One was required to spill his own blood, so the master handed the dagger to Robin, planting a firm compliance spell in his mind. So firm, in fact, that Robin was having a hard time resisting. His body had been his ever since Raven had cleared him, but now, it seemed as if he was locked in a cage while his body moved without on its own. The symbols carved into his skin controlled him, trapping him. He watched in terror as his hands raised the dagger before his chest, tilting his head back and chanting in a language he didn't know. As hard as he has ever fought for anything, Robin battled the master's mind control.
As he pulled the knife toward his chest, Robin managed to break the spell enough to deviate the path of the dagger, firmly embedding it in the master's chest beside him. The vampire shrieked like a banshee as the magic blade burned him, causing the symbols on Robin's skin to burn brightly. The boy wonder doubled over in pain, both from his skin and from the attack on his mind. The master yanked out the dagger and turned on the teenager. Robin was in too involved in his internal battle to do anything other than hold his head, so he didn't respond to the master looming over him. "HOW DARE YOU?!" he raged as he brought the dagger down.
Just before the metal could contact trembling teen, it was stopped by a bubble of black magic that held his hand motionless. His head whipped toward the source and he was shocked to see the Titans alive and well, surrounded by the bodies of ten or twelve slain vampires. Floating to the ceiling, Starfire rained star bolts into the crowd, careful to strike only the undead, not the entranced children. Cyborg fired his sonic canon at the master from point blank range, pushing him back a few feet. A scream was pulled from Robin as the master took the hit, they were bound, so Cyborg held off.
Robin caught his breath and looked up at the master. He had a sanctimonious smirk that meant he knew that hurting him was hurting Robin. "Cyborg, Raven…kill him!" Robin shouted at the top of his lungs, "Don't worry about me!"
Before any of them could react, Beast Boy crashed into the master from behind in the form of an elk, spearing the vampire on his horns. The green cervidae lifted him bodily and tossed him into the black bowl, following to trample him as a Clydesdale, sharp, heavy hooves tearing him apart. The symbols rimming the bowl lit up with magic at contact with blood, and Beast Boy jumped out barely in time to avoid being enveloped in an unearthly blue fire.
Robin screamed again, his own symbols bright as well, and collapsed to his hands and knees, in too much pain to stay upright. Inside the sacred chalice, the master shrieked and began to bubble, boiling with the force of Krimjehf's coming. A black hole opened in the bottom of the bowl, bringing forth a dark creature of smoke with terrifying red eyes. The vampire god opened it's grotesque maw and consumed the trampled master without hesitation. As soon as it had taken him in, something went wrong. It roared and thrashed; ingesting another than the Chosen One had hurt it; and the smoke began to swirl.
Any remaining vampires in the room, including Robin, faced the god and dropped to their knees, crying out in pain as their god died before them. Letting out a final ear-splitting roar, Krimjehf was pulled back into the hole it had come from, the last wisps of smoke dispersing. There was a momentary pause before the Titans burst into a cheer and all the babies started crying, suddenly released from the sedation spells. The vampires were lying on the floor, panting as their lives drained slowly away. Now that their god had perished, they were soon to follow. The Titans surrounded Robin when they noticed that he too, was dying.
"No! Not now!" Cyborg clenched his fists in anger, "Not after all we just did!"
The boy wonder laid flat on the smooth stone, his spiked black hair in sharp contrast to the blood-stained white robe he wore. He was breathing evenly now, completely pain free for the first time since he had been turned. He looked at his friends with red eyes, the vampire part of his body trying to stay alive. The blood moon was about to end, and he knew when the eclipse was over, the vampires' lives would cease too. None of them knew it, but vampires all over the city had collapsed, some in the street, some in their homes, but all dying. Robin smiled faintly when Starfire picked up his hand.
"You did it…n-nice work, T-Titans," the young crime fighter managed.
"Oh, no! You cannot go, friend Robin!" Beast Boy placed a hand on the alien's back as she continued, "You must try my bread of victory! A true Tammaranian treat…" Her words trailed off as she accepted reality. After everything he'd endured, Robin was going to leave them after all.
He looked at each of them with his red eyes, and smiled weakly. The children all stopped crying at once, Robin had used his new found master's power to fill them with comforting thoughts. "It's been a r-real honor…," Beast Boy was already shaking his head in denial, "…and p-pleasure to…have known y-you guys." Raven looked out the window, as the blood moon darkened before moving out of the earth's shadow, so did Robin's eyes. On impulse, she reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder, pouring her feelings into the touch. The others followed suit, at a loss for any other way to ease his passage. Robin smiled again, and closed his eyes.
A harsh, male voice shouted, "Move aside!" Before they could even turn to look for the source, a pale object landed in their midst. They scattered involuntarily as a bright white light completely covered Robin, momentarily blinding them. When they could see again, the Titans were a little more than surprised to find Batman kneeling beside their friend.
Raven peered over the Dark Knight's shoulder at the pale object. "Is that what I think it is?" she asked, not daring to let hope enter her voice.
"A Daystone," was his only reply.
"What does that mean?" Beast Boy asked, in awe of the legendary crime fighter.
Raven answered for him, "It will absorb the vampireness from Robin…if it got here in time. I didn't think any more existed." Legend had it that a vampire could be reverted to a human by a Daystone, but only if done in the light of the waning blood moon. Batman had placed the opalescent white stone over Robin's heart and pinned him to the floor. When Zatana had given it to him, she had warned him about the violent reaction.
As the eclipsed moon reached the last moments before sun shone on it again, it flared red, activating the Daystone. Robin sucked air through his teeth as his undead body was brought back to life, holding back the urge to fight the change. The white stone began to change color as it imparted new life onto the boy wonder, absorbing more and more red. Robin arched against Batman's restraining hold, finally crying out as his heart restarted. The Daystone flashed bright red, now holding all the evil magic that had made Robin a vampire, and broke into pieces. A Daystone could only be used once.
The question was…had it worked?