The Spider and the Fly
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. I do, however, own the Black Widow and Pauk (As characters, at least.) No stealing! You can borrow, if you e-mail me first.
A/N: This is the prequel/lead-in to 'Fair-Weather Friends' (which so many of you seemed to have wanted!) and a sequel to 'The 12 Labors of Cyborg.'
Rated for character death, language and theme.
Chapter 2: Parlor
What are you doing here… little girl… here in the dark?
Get out. You're not supposed to be here.
I'm coming, so it'll all be okay…
The darkness spreads… the darkness spreads…
There are spiders everywhere down here in the Underneath… the place is lousy with them. They crawl up the walls, across the ceiling, over the floor, up the legs of anyone who stands there. But Raven doesn't have to worry about spiders… not really. At least, she does not have to worry about the small ones, about the baby spiders that stare at her hungrily from the darkest corners of the room. She does not even have to worry about the big spiders, the ones whose webs she pushes through with one careless hand.
No, the one she must worry about is the one that sits in the center of an enormous room. It is of such a great size that she knows it could swallow her with one great gasp of those hideous mandibles. The stench of it is terrible and deathly. Despite this, Raven is not afraid- does not 'do' fear, as she had once phrased it.
He slowly stretches his twelve legs… whoever heard of a spider with twelve legs? He stands upon those twelve (eight) legs, and regards Raven with twelve (eight) intelligent but ugly eyes. He knows her…
And Raven knows him…
"Friend Raven!" There was a loud knocking at Raven's door… Starfire's alien strength and over enthusiasm made each rap as powerful as the blow of a drum… or perhaps it was just Raven's imagination that makes them seem so amplified.
Nevertheless, not even Starfire's most enthusiastic knocking could get Raven's mind out from Underneath. It didn't take long for Starfire to figure that out… so with a deep breath, the golden-skinned alien pushed open the door to Raven's room. The half-demon was floating, with her back to Starfire. "I am sorry to intrude, Raven, but Robin wishes to see you downstairs. Something about a… demon."
Still, Raven did not move. Every instinct inside Starfire's body told her to turn around, to head back downstairs, to tell Robin that Raven was unreachable, in a state of meditation not even Armageddon could break. But she didn't.
Instead, Starfire laid one deceptively slim, powerful hand on Raven's shoulder. "Friend Raven…" she repeated tentatively. And then she drew back, sharply, fear in her glittering green eyes. Raven's shoulder had been as cold as ice… colder than ice, a temperature that not even the vacuum of space could hope to match…
Raven then wheeled around, turned without seeming to move. "Get out," she snarled, and there was rage in her features… and pure, unearthly malice in her eyes. Starfire almost screamed, instead just gasped- and was gone out through the door in a heartbeat. She turned once past the thresh hold… staring back into Raven's room, back at the powerful creature whose eyes were fixed on the alien. Those eyes held… rage, nothing less, though perhaps something more.
"Raven…" Starfire repeated, timidly, stretching out one hand towards her friend.
The door slammed shut.
Starfire stared at it for the longest time… but knew better than to try to enter once again. Instead, she turned on her heel and headed downstairs, down to where Cyborg was gleefully stuffing the Black Widow into a police car while Beast Boy and Robin watched attentively. Robin gave Starfire the slightest of nods when she walked up… the four Titans waited until the sound of sirens had faded out entirely before any of them spoke.
"So… good morning, everyone," Beast Boy said, with a broad, hopeful smile. "Is anybody but me getting tired of all the weird wake up calls?"
"There is something the matter with Raven," Starfire said, at the exact same moment.
"When she meditates, she can seem kind of dead… it's okay, Star," Beast Boy said with a small smile.
Starfire shook her head rapidly, "No, it's not that… not that at all. She… she was cold. Freezing. And when she looked at me, those eyes… those eyes were worse than… I do not know the words to say it in English, but in my world they call it dylji," she said.
Robin and Cyborg traded a glance that left Beast Boy completely out. "Can you at least give us a rough translation, Star?" Robin asked, after a moment.
Starfire took a deep, shuddering breath. "Perhaps… spirit self. But… in an evil way…"
Beast Boy shook his head, holding up both gloved hands. "C'mon, guys, let's at least go see Raven before we call her evil!" he exclaimed, and bounded up the hallways towards Raven's room. The other three Titans followed right on his heels.
They hesitated at the door to Raven's room. They all knew what happened when they intruded on Raven… but they had to see it for themselves. After a long moment, Beast Boy lifted one slightly shaking knuckle to the door. He knocked a few times… when there was no immediate response, he banged on the door with both fists. "Hey Raven! Can we c- can you come out?"
The only answer to Beast Boy's half-quip half-question was silence from the other side of the door. Robin knocked, this time, much more conservatively than Beast Boy had. "Raven? We need to speak with you," he said. If Starfire's assessment was wrong, Raven would be annoyed to have been interrupted in her meditation… but a miffed Raven was much easier to handle than an evil one. "Raven?"
Again, no answer. It was time to test Raven's good faith then, it seemed. Robin glanced back at his fellow Titans, shrugged, and opened the door to Raven's room.
Predictably, she was standing right behind the door. Beast Boy, the closest to her, jumped back with a shout of surprise. Raven's expression did not change… she did not seem to have any sort of expression on her face at all. "Didn't you hear us knock?" Robin demanded.
Again, only a blank stare from Raven. She stepped through her door, letting it close behind her, and regarded her teammates coldly. "I did."
"Then why didn't you answer?" Robin demanded.
Beast Boy and Cyborg stared intensely at Raven, looking for some hint of that… dyljiggity or whatever that Starfire had mentioned. Starfire was looking for the same thing. However, now nothing seemed amiss… she looked just as closed and emotionless as ever.
The telekinetic glanced over Robin's shoulder at Starfire for a moment, aware of her stare but not either of the other's. And then, she turned her attention back to Robin. "I was going to. But you got to the door before me, it seems," and there was just enough of her cold humor in that remark to relax Robin… but Starfire wasn't convinced.
"Uhm, sorry," Robin said, and shrugged.
Raven gave him the dubious honor of another disparaging glare, before starting down the hall. Without a second's hesitation, Starfire was following her, bobbing along on the other Titan's heels. The other three Titans watched them go, before trading glances. Cyborg just shrugged. "Just another creepy addition to a bad night, I suppose."
"Told Starfire that Raven was all dead-looking and stuff when she meditated," Beast Boy said proudly, puffing up his thin chest.
Robin just rolled his eyes, and headed back towards his room. Time to catch up on the sleep that being a super-hero seemed to keep away from him…
Raven moved swiftly, almost aimlessly, up the halls of Titan's Tower. She seemed, if nothing else, to be attempting to set foot in every hallway there was. Starfire tagged along behind her, watching Raven's cloak as it shifted and danced as she moved. Raven did not look in a spirit to be approached for any sort of conversation… but those of dylji never really did.
"Friend Raven?" Starfire ventured, after a moment.
Raven sighed. "I was wondering when you were going to stop following me and say something."
Starfire smiled despite herself, and drifted forward to catch up fully with Raven. The telekinetic glanced sideways at her… and then turned up another hallway. "I am sorry for intruding earlier, Raven… but you did not seem yourself. Are you well, now?"
"I'm doing ju-ust fine," Raven replied, in her classic, sarcastic drawl.
Starfire beamed, but she was a little suspicious as well… could not afford to be anything but wary. After all, she had seen Raven's dark side… but could there be a side even darker than that? Was that the side she had seen in those dark eyes? If it was, then she and her friends were in danger. If it wasn't, then she was simply being foolish.
A large window loomed ahead. Raven stopped alongside it, and started out into the paling darkness. Dawn was approaching, and it was looking to be a lovely sunrise. Rosy buds slowly unfurled onto the black velvet sky, and the stars faded randomly from view in the confusion of early morning. Starfire found herself watching the slow ascent of morning, for a minute completely forgetting about Raven… and the question she had been sent to fetch her for.
"Raven," Starfire breathed quietly, almost unwillingly, not really wishing to disrupt the view, "There is a question I meant to ask you…"
"I know," Raven interrupted. "And trust me when I say you don't want to."
There was another moment of silence as Starfire pondered this. There was something just… wrong… about this whole situation. Perhaps it was the dawn-hours… her friends preferred waking up well until the day, and she had fallen into their same schedule… or perhaps it was the simple oddness of having a cannibal appear on the front steps in the middle of the night… or perhaps it really was Raven. Starfire couldn't say… didn't want to, in case she was wrong. And this was not something it was acceptable to be wrong on.
"You know what I intended to ask about?" Doubt weighed heavily on Starfire's voice. She did not even try to mask it. "Pauk?"
Starfire watched the reflection of Raven's face in the glass. Her eyes darkened once again… darkened terribly. An arc of cold ice ran down Starfire's spine… not fear, not revulsion, but a wary mixture of the two. Dylji. So what did it mean?
Perhaps it had something to do with the Black Widow… more than likely, it had something to do with Raven's recent, new form of meditation. She had said she was going… where… to the Underworld? Underworks?
Raven shook her head, slowly laughed. "The Underneath."
Another cold shiver worked its way from Starfire's neck and straight down her back. "Raven… though I appreciate your assistance, I did not give you permission to enter my mind…"
The blue cloak in front of her shifted and danced as Raven slowly turned. There was a faint smile on her lips. "Sorry," she said… but it was clear she didn't mean it. Not only was her voice insincere, but those eyes…
It was growing paler and paler outside. The sun appeared on the horizon… a faint, white line of light just above the bay. Starfire glanced quickly between that and the eerie eyes of Raven… neither one was of a particular comfort at the moment. "Perhaps we should go speak with Robin," she suggested, lamely.
"No," Raven mumbled, laying one hand on Starfire's shoulder. "I'd much rather talk to you."
Downstairs, Beast Boy was making breakfast. Eggs, or something fairly close to it… Cyborg was watching with a critical eye as his little green friend fried them up. "Those had better not be tofu-eggs, Beast Boy," the half-metal man warned.
Beast Boy gave his friend a thumb's up, before turning back to his frying pan and rolling his eyes. Raven entered the room, then… the telekinetic looked absolutely bewildered.
"Hey, Raven!" Beast Boy called, excitedly. "Want some eggs?"
"No… no, I think I'll be alright," Raven said, but sat down at the table across from Cyborg, anyway.
Cyborg watched her for a moment. She looked… haggard. That wasn't natural for Raven, no matter how early or how rudely she had been woken up. "Are you okay?" Raven just shrugged, and Cyborg sighed. "Well… did you talk to Star?"
"No," Raven said, and picked at her sleeve. "I haven't seen her all morning."