Chapter Six: The Serpents Rear
In the forest outside the city, Legion and his clones was busy moving their ill-gotten military hardware into one of the many abandoned caves in the hills, while Shift received a call from their taskmaster.
"The weaponsss have been recccieved, and you ssshall recccieve your paymentsss asss sssoon asss I have sssecured them," the familiar hissing growl said over the phone.
"Thank you, sir."
"No my dear, thank you, sssssss…Isss everything elssse moving at ssspeed?"
"As far as we're concerned, yes. Sir, I do have a question though."
"Yesss?"
"Why did you ask us to do this? I thought we were here just for Raven."
"Let me jussst sssay I have friendsss in the Middle Eassst on both sssidesss who are jussst itching to get their bloodssstained little handsss on some fine American weaponry. Alssso, consssider Legion, a creature able to duplicate himssself. Thusss the possibility for an endless sssupply of sssuicide bombersss presssentsss itssself, doesssn't it?"
Shift looked back at the toiling Legion, who had just finished moving their crate into the cave and was now placing a large bottle of Old Peculiar to his lips.
"I never quite thought of it that way," Shift said.
"What isss good for you isss good for me, essspecially in mattersss regarding our little Corbin."
"Pardon?"
"Corbin- it isss Latin for 'raven' " he said, before hanging up as abruptly as before.
"Prick." Shift said as she turned off her phone.
"Now, now, Shift, that is not at all ladylike," Legion, or rather, one of his clones said, coming up from behind her.
"To hell with being ladylike. I'd rather settle for being rich."
"I agree, although being alive long enough to spend said riches would also be nice."
"What do you mean by that?"
"We are sitting on a crate of high explosives, rocket launchers, and what seemed to me to be a flamethrower, that's what I mean."
Shift placed her hand to her forehead. "Why are you being such a bloody girl's blouse over this, Legion? If you think that the fire's too hot, get out of the kitchen!"
Legion visibly backed off. "All right, all right, no need for all that! I'm just wondering if we were not being cautious enough."
"To hell with caution! Caution does not get us paid!" Shift yelled, growing increasingly irritated over Legion's constant demand for prudence.
"Right, right, whatever you say," Legion said, holding up both hands in a conciliatory manner. "I'm just not used to dealing with metahumans, is all."
"I don't know what you are so worried about. You said it yourself, they are just children."
She took on a more thoughtful look. She had originally wanted to do this later, much later, but Legion's spinelessness annoyed her. It was time to take Legion out of his comfort zone.
"Come with me, Legion," she said, indicating their weapons stockpile, "we've got work to do."
(scene change)
In the Titans Tower, four Titans were still awake. Robin was busy converting the information in the videotapes into a digital form to be sent to the CIA, while…
"Thanks, Raye," Beast Boy said, as he felt warmth flow from Raven's hands into his face. The headaches remained, but "At least I can talk properly now."
"I wonder if that's a good thing." Raven deadpanned.
Beast Boy scowled, but inwardly he was delighted. He did not really manage to fully appreciate how much he had missed Raven, but even so, there was an emptiness, a longing that he had felt for the past few days that was only now being remedied.
As if he was going to show it, he thought playfully. "Ha, ha, Raven, very funny, I hear Saturday Night Live's hiring" he replied, but try as he might, he just didn't have Raven's ability to deadpan everything, and he broke into a smile.
And he thought it felt pretty good to see Raven smile back, albeit a little uncertainly.
What Beast Boy did not know was the reason behind it.
And had Blackfire, watching from the shadows had known as well, she would have walked back to her quarters with a far lighter heart, rather than one that made her bury her hands in her face as she sat leaning against the door, cursing the hopelessness of the inevitable.
(scene change)
It was the middle of breakfast when the call came in, the display screen flashing the word 'MESSAGE' over and over again.
Robin put down his sandwich, walked to the console and pressed the 'RECEIVE' button.
An image of distinguished older man appeared on the viewscreen. "Hello, Robin."
"Director Bristow," Robin nodded. "You get anything from those tapes we sent you?"
"A lot, actually," Director Bristow said. He pressed a few keys on a computer console in front of him, and a still from one of the tapes appeared on the screen, one indicating a beautiful woman. "This is Lucille Farrington, bounty hunter under the name Shift, for obvious reasons. There is an outstanding warrant out for her arrest involving her suspected connection in the Stag Industries incident a few years back, as well as several assassinations and kidnappings during the Thanagarian and Imperium regimes."
He pressed a few more keys, and the picture was replaced by another one, this one displaying a Chinese man in a trenchcoat.
"This may be the Chinese man you were talking about, also a bounty hunter," Bristow continued, "Called Legion, also for obvious reasons. Real name unknown, known aliases Richard Fa, John See and Aaron Liew. Some of our sources place him in connection with various terrorist groups and foreign dictatorships, in addition to outstanding warrants in connection with arms and drug smuggling as well as human trafficking."
He continued, "We suspect that the incident last night was a raid they were employed to carry out. The 'why', however, is what bothers me. Most of the weapons they obtained can be done with far less risk and expense on the black market. Either their employer is phenomenally stupid, operating on some sort of timetable, or has had a change of plans. However you look at it though, Shift and Legion were apparently given enough incentive to carry out this assault."
After Director Bristow pressed another key, the picture disappeared, and he leaned forward. "These two individuals are not to be taken lightly, Robin. Rest assured the CIA's doing whatever it can to stop them, in addition to whatever efforts you're making."
"Thanks, Director."
Director Bristow nodded and the screen went black. "So now we got ourselves a couple of names to go with the faces. What next?" Cyborg asked.
"Now," Robin sighed, "Now we give this information to the authorities while we carry out our own search. Raven, can you do whatever you did to find us to find these people?"
"I don't know. I can try, but I will not be able to come with you."
"Do what you can. Beast Boy, I'll need you here at the Tower too."
"Why?" Beast Boy asked. Not that he was that offended by the suggestion, as he risked a sideways glance at Raven.
"I don't plan on doing any fighting today, just finding out where they are. Anyway, Blackfire can't guard the Tower alone."
"What?" Blackfire and Beast Boy asked in unison.
"Look, Blackfire-"
"Let me guess," Blackfire said sarcastically. "You don't trust me; you want me where you can see me."
"Blackfire, that's not what I meant," Robin replied. "I was going to say that there's a good chance that those two bounty hunters have no idea you're with us. If we do run into any trouble, we may need to give them a bit more firepower than they expect."
Robin then gave a significant look at both Blackfire and Beast Boy. "Besides, you two have been getting on each other's nerves for too long, and I think it's time you learned to get along."
Although Beast Boy sticking his tongue out at Blackfire may not have helped, Robin thought as he left the Tower.
(scene change)
Raven concentrated on the crystal globe in front of her. She wasn't able to use her 'dowsing' technique to find the bounty hunters, but perhaps some of their previous victims, perhaps the ones Shift assassinated, would be willing to help.
The problem was not that the technique required silence, but also a calmness of mind that so far, had eluded Raven. She tried again and again to achieve total peace of mind, but she had so much to think about.
She cut off the soul link and sighed. It seemed that her life, of all peoples', had become far more complicated lately, and did not promise to become any simpler. AT least they weren't arguing.
At least, arguing audibly.
And when she considered what she had seen in her mirror…Raven sighed. She tried again, recalling the night she and Blackfire tried to find her friends…
Azerath Metrion Xinthos…
Azerath Metrion Xinthos…
Azerath Metrion Xinthos…
She found herself in a wasteland, it's grey sky visible even through the white fog that was everywhere. Ghostly figures, thousands of them, floated around her, accompanied by the faint sound of howling wind. Raven also saw the outline of impossible shapes, twisted forms from fevered imaginations, square circles, lines that were both curved and straight at the same time, smims and fouders that the specters flowed through
One ghostly figure, darker in shade than the other, floated in front of her.
What who do you seek
Raven formed a picture in the air, formed from the image Director Bristow had showed her.
I seek her victims so I might find her
The ghostly figure did not speak, instead pointing off into the distance. Then, it and the other ghostly shapes disappeared
Raven walked in that direction. She moved as if she were in water, but with every stride she took, her surroundings flashed past her as if she took a thousand strides at once, and in no time at all, she saw the back of a figure sitting on the ground, the only form there. As she approached, this time at a more normal pace, the apparition turned, revealing itself to be female, and Raven saw within her arms the sleeping form of a baby that would never wake up.
She took me she took my son she took my family and I'll never get them back help me help me please the spirit rambled.
I will but first I need to find her
The spirit opened her mouth to speak, but before it could 'say' anything, a large clawed hand emerged from the fog, and jerked her and her baby into the nothingness.
"Tut, tut, my dear Corbin," a voice hissed, and this voice wasn't like the voices of normal spirits, heard in the fibre of one's soul, but was actually audible.
Raven wished it wasn't.
"Yesss, my lovely sssongbird," the voice suddenly said from behind her, "I am not your average pitiful ssspirit, sssometimesss sssad, sssometimess missschievousss, alwaysss weak. I am indeed, asss humansss sssay, sssomething elssse."
Who…who are you Raven's soul croaked.
"Me? No one really, jussst a sssimple being with a complicated life. But dessscriptionsss can be ssso misssleading, can they not?"
The voice laughed, an incessant hiss that grated down to the bone. "Why don't you have a look at me, and form your own decccisssionsss?"
What emerged from the fog was nothing less than the stuff of Raven's nightmarish memories. A beast towered over her, at least seven feet tall; from the waist down, a pair of shaggy goat's legs, a long scaly snake's tail emerging from behind them, the torso, that of a man body covered in iridescent red and black scales, with two arms ending in hands with slim, taloned fingers.
But it was the head that caught all of Raven's attention, even though she would have given anything for it not to. A snake's head, the eyes red with yellow pupils, stared back at her. Behind the eyes, two long goat's horns formed an unholy U.
"Yesss, Corbin, I sssee that you are properly impressed," it hissed in good humor. Then its eyes narrowed, taking on a much more sinister look. "It really won't do for sssomeone of your ssstature to ssstoop to sssomething ssso low asss to conduct a sssearch for sssomeone. You ssshould really learn to leave that to underlingsss sssuch asss I."
Raven couldn't move, couldn't do anything, try as she might, as the beast moved to gaze into her eyes. As soon as it did so, she felt a tearing pain in her mind; not her head, but a pain that felt as if it were both far away from and yet right inside her. It was the pain of the regret of innocence lost, of losing all that one could without dying in a single instant, of knowing that one was truly alone in the world.
It was no physical pain, but the agony of the soul.
When it ended after, not an eternity, but rather an endless wait for the end, the demon drew back.
"You ssshould have done thisss a long time ago, my beloved sssongbird, it would have sssaved me a great deal of inconvenienccce. Ssso much have I learned, and I mussst thank you. Sss, I would have thought Robin much more prudent than that, leaving you alone with, ah, ssshall we ssay, two very ssspecial people? Pity they don't know jussst how…differently ssspecial you consssider them."
It grinned, revealing row upon row of fangs. "Pity they ssshall never know."
Fear clawed across Raven's heart. Please don't hurt me
"Hurt you? Why ssshould I hurt you? Don't worry, Raven, I won't hurt you. At least, not yet." Its smile grew even wider. "Your father would be very dissspleassed with me otherwissse."
And this time Raven did scream as the mouth opened impossibly large, until it formed a great abyss in front of Raven, drawing itself ever closer to her, until she found herself falling through its depths.
And on the edge of consciousness…voices.
"She's been in there all day!"
"Raven? Raven!"
"Raven!"
"Stand back!"
The sound of an explosion.
"Oh no, no, no, no…"
"Raven! Raven wake up! Raven!"
Raven opened her eyes to see Beast Boy and Blackfire kneeling near her, both their faces filled with concern. Had she been in any condition to notice, she would have noticed her door blasted in by a desperate Blackfire after she and Beast Boy heard the scream and the sound of her crystal ball shattering.
But she wasn't in any condition to notice, and in her distress, seized the nearest person to her in a desperate embrace.
"It's okay, Raven, everything's gonna be all right," Beast Boy said as he hugged her back just as strongly.
Blackfire took in the scene before her with a growing sense of jealous wretchedness as she watched Raven and Beast Boy share what was obviously a tender moment, a sense that she bitterly suppressed.
Then "Raven-"
"Blackfire!" Beast Boy said, offended. "Can't you see that she's crying here!"
"Yes she is, isn't she?" Blackfire retorted calmly.
Beast Boy was about to launch a verbal salvo of his own, when he realized, yes, she was crying. Raven was crying.
Raven. Crying.
The picture just didn't make sense.
Something had obviously gone very, very wrong.
Blackfire spoke again, and this time, Beast Boy did not stop her. "Raven, what happened?"
(scene change)
-Half an hour earlier-
"Wake up, Legion."
"Hnh?"
"Wake up."
"Why?" Legion asked blearily from his sleeping bag.
"I just got a call from our employer. He says that there's only three Titans at the Tower, and one of them's Raven."
"Bloody hell, that's a neat Copperfield, how'd he manage that?"
"I don't know, nor do I care. What matters is that our window of opportunity has just arrived. Get the stuff, and we'll set off."
"Righto, Shift," he replied. He blurred in place for a moment, and where there was one Legion there were now three. He blurred himself again, and another two Legions were created. The four of them set off for the cave while Legion Prime remained.
"Can I ask you a question?" Shift asked as she watched the four Legions carry out a crate and load it onto a SUV they had stolen the night before from a family camping in the woods. With any luck, the bodies would not be found for days yet.
"Go ahead."
"All this time I've known you, and I think this is the first time I've seen you use weapons other than those two machetes."
"Well, first off, I'm unable to duplicate the chemical reactions you find when you use things like guns, bombs, that style of thing. Second," he continued, his voice growing quietly reflective, "there's something personal, you know, when you kill someone with a knife. When you shoot a gun, you don't kill the person, the bullet does. It is quite clear that the bullet, traveling through the distance between you and your victim, is what kills. A small, cold sliver of metal. But when you use a knife, there is… a connection; the knife becomes part of you, uniting you with your prey. A sacred oneness, that's the best way I could describe it."
His eyes grew distant as he lapsed into silence. Then he repeated quietly, "A sacred oneness."
A long silence followed as Shift watched him hold his long knives, gazing wistfully at them. "Come on, Legion," she said, breaking the quiet, "Let's move out."
(scene change)
-Present time-
"Perhaps we should return to the Tower and see if Raven has made any progress?" Starfire asked Robin.
"She's got a point, Rob," Cyborg agreed. Indicating the evening sky, he added, "We've been doing this all day. I need a break, man."
"Look, just one more lead, and if it turns up nothing, we go home, okay?"
His two friends nodding in agreement, Robin walked into the dark alley, and the rat-faced man he expected emerged from the shadows.
"This better be good, Robin," the man said, lighting a cigarette. "It ain't gonna be a Hawaii vacation for me if people see me talking to you, get what I mean?"
"Like what could have happened to you if we hadn't stopped Slade?" Robin retorted.
"…What do you want?"
"I want to know if you've seen any one of them," Robin said, holding out two photographs of Legion and Shift.
The man looked at the photographs, and nodded. "The guy, I haven't seen him, but the girl I know. Kinda hard to forget her, get what I mean?" He pointed with the cigarette to the darkness of the nearby forest. "I was gathering some evidence to sting some main drug link, when she drives up to the pushers I was talking to and asks us if we know anywhere she and her stuff can have a little privacy. Paid double shift rates too, get what I mean?."
"Did you tell her anything?"
"Sure, it's not just the money, but a girl like that, guy'd Sieg Heil in Israel to get in her good books, among getting in other things, get what I mean?" He then proceeded to give Robin directions to where Shift and Legion had hidden their weapons.
"Guys, big break, I know where Shift and Legion are," Robin said.
"Gotcha. You want me to call the Tower?"
"No time, just call whatever law enforcement you can. Titans, go!"
As the man watched the Titans move away, he retreated into the shadows. "Good work," Legion said as the man reached him.
"Thanks man, just pay this piper, get what I mean?"
"Of course." Legion then took out a folder and applied a lighter to it, dropping it into an iron drum as it took flame.
"Thanks, man," the rat-faced man said as he leaned over the drum to watch the folder burn. "That stuff woulda really cost me some personal PR points, get what I mean?"
"Having your FBI superiors find out you're the drug link they've been looking for would definitely put a crimp in your social life, yes," Legion agreed. "But then again, so would this."
The rat faced man was about to ask Legion what he meant, when he suddenly felt a thump in his back, followed by a growing wetness. When he tried to speak, he found that the words would not, could not come out.
There was no pain. Just the sound of Legion wiping off a bloody machete on the man's jeans, followed by a growing darkness.
"Get what I mean?" Legion said to the cooling corpse.