Spartan is back again in full effect and ready to go. Sorry bout' the long wait but I had some things that had to get done. But now I'm here and back on track. Last chapter I left you with what happened to Raven, now its time to see what happened to the other bird. I guess now I can truly say that this story is AU. Facts will stay facts but they'll be mixed in with a little of my fantasy to try and create a unique experience. About the questions involving Raven and the rings, that will be answered next chapter. Thanks to the readers and reviewers. Read, review, enjoy.
VI: Mind Games
Starfire walked the silent halls of Titans Tower. She felt lonely but she knew the others would be back soon. However she had not known of Robin leaving with them. He had to be here somewhere. She continued walking until she stood right outside his door. She pressed a pad the door opened.
Empty.
'Oh Robin where can you be?' Starfire thought.
Starfire heard a noise come from the bottom floor. She quickly hurried towards the elevator. When it reached the bottom floor the door opened revealing a toppled Beast Boy. Cyborg stood over him laughing.
"That's what you get for not paying attention" said Cyborg.
"Not paying attention! Dude you pushed me" Beast Boy replied picking himself up.
"Well if you were paying attention you wouldn't of let him push you" said Bumblebee laughing.
Starfire was happy that her friends were joyful and playful. Even after Raven's death they had not drifted apart.
"Hey Starfire you alright" asked Speedy seeing a blank expression on her face.
Starfire snapped to attention and said "Friends, I am happy that to see that you're all fine. By any chance may any of you know where Robin is?"
"Haven't seen the man all day" said Cyborg.
"Yeah, not like him to miss a fight" said Speedy taking a seat on the couch. "We had to do a bit to hold off those thieves. It was like they had planned everything perfectly."
"But we still took em' down" said Beast Boy trying to show off the muscles he didn't have.
Starfire began to get worried. Even with the addition of Speedy, Aqualad, Bumble Bee, and Mas y Menos to their team she felt lost without Robin.
"Come on Star, its Robin, I'm sure wherever he is right now he's perfectly fine" said Cyborg. "Now who's up for a movie?"
Starfire smiled and hurried to join her friends.
TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT
Robin gasped as he fell down into an abyss. He felt as if his body was being pulled in every direction. It was painful, he knew it, yet he ignored it completely. In all the confusion he wondered where he was going. Then it was as if it had all stopped. Everything went black. Robin realized he had actually stopped and his eyes were closed. He opened them to see not much of a difference. The sky was black but also filled with thousands of red stars. He sat up to find himself on a rock suspended in the air. He looked around to find about a dozen or so rocks like that leading down to a main rock. Under the rocks was a pure black abyss. Robin could see nothing past that point. There were pure black trees with no leaves on them. Robin saw a bird on a branch. It flicked its head and looked directly at him. Its eyes were red. As Robin looked closer two slits right above the eyes began to open revealing another set of red eyes. Robin blinked and looked again but it was gone. The sound of laughter met his ears.
"You fell pretty hard" said a voice from nowhere.
Robin flipped up of the ground grabbing a birdarang as he landed. Standing in front of him was a girl in a pink cloak. Robin couldn't tell which solution appeared weirder to him, the fact that someone would be in this place wearing pink.
Or the fact that the someone in the pink cloak was Raven.
"Raven!?" Robin said confused, surprised and happy all at the same time.
"Bingo" said Raven laughing hysterically for no reason.
"You're alive" said Robin with a sad look upon his face.
"Your funny" said Raven continuing to laugh. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"But the bridge, Slade's minions, Ternion, everything that happened!!!" said Robin.
"Uhh…what?" asked Raven confused. "Yeah well I don't know about all that but at least we're here."
"True…but can I ask you a question?" Robin asked.
"Sure" Raven replied.
"What's with the pink? And why are you so happy? And also where are we?" asked Robin impatiently.
"Hey, hey, hey, I thought you said "A" question" said Raven. "Well to answer them, I always wear pink, I like being happy and we're in the mind."
As much as he could have argued every thing she just said Robin decided to wait it out to see what would happen.
"Well we have to find a way back to the tower" said Robin. "Any idea how to get back to Jump City?"
"Uhh…where's that?" Raven asked.
It was then when Robin realized he was in trouble.
"Oh man your no fun" said Raven. She began to walk away.
"Hey Raven, where are you going?" asked Robin beginning to follow her.
"I'm going to have some fun" replied Raven. Almost instantly she jumped off the rock into the darkness and disappeared. As she faded from Robin's view he could hear her yelling "see you later."
Robin thought of jumping into the abyss after her but knew better. Wherever he was it was not earth that's for sure. But instead it seemed like another place, another realm. He jumped down to the main rock. This place seemed more like an exquisite training ground. He began to walk randomly.
'What the hell is going on?' Robin thought to himself.
He found himself walking on a narrow steep pathway. As he walked up his eyes widened. He was standing right in front of a giant maze. He looked back the way he came but saw nothing that could get him anywhere. There was nothing to do but go through the maze. He walked inside and made a left at the wall. Walking for a bit he made a right, then another left, then a left again. Dead end! He turned around only to face a large demonic statue. It was solid concrete with two sets of piercing red eyes staring right at him. It stood about eight feet tall and held two long swords, one in each hand.
Not good.
The statue swung one of the swords at Robin. He ducked then ran towards the statue. He jumped and landed a straight kick to the abomination but it didn't even budge. Before Robin could land the statue grabbed Robin's cape with its sword still in its hand and threw Robin hard at one of the maze walls. However the wall was weak and Robin went through it. Hitting the ground hard he felt blood reach his nose. Regaining his ground he stood up and broke out his Bo staff. The statue came in through the broken wall and appeared in front of him. This time it swung both swords at him. Robin jumped back barely evading the swords. However before he could make a move the statue was forced back into the wall. Smoke clouded where the statue had crashed into the wall. Robin could make a figure out of the dust. When it cleared the figure revealed itself to be…
"Raven!?" said a surprised Robin.
"That's my name, don't wear it out" said Raven.
"What the fu-" but Robin caught himself. Raven was standing right in front of him wearing a green cloak. "Weren't you just-" Robin started to say.
"No time to talk" yelled Raven jumping up in the air.
The statue was behind her and she had just evaded the swing of its sword. Landing next to Robin she said "Come on you, we gotta take this thing out."
Robin decided to fight for now. Then again it wasn't like he had a choice. They both ran towards the demonic statue. Appearing right in front of it they spilt up and went to either side. Robin threw an explosive disk which hit the statue directly but had no effect.
"Let me take care of it" said Raven. She struck out her index and middle finger as she flipped over the statue. As she landed she ran her fingers right down the middle of its back. The statue split in two then began to crumple as the pieces crashed to the ground turning into smaller pieces. And just as quickly as Robin had seen the statue it was gone.
Simple as that.
"Whew that was easy. I swear their just not a challenge anymore" said Raven dusting herself off.
Robin was confused in such a way he thought not possible. Raven was strong, real strong with a sense of pride and courage he had never seen in her before. Yet she was also very boastful. And now, out of all things she was wearing green.
"Raven weren't you just wearing pink?" Robin asked trying to get some grasp of what was going on.
"Pink? Why would I wear that, it's for losers. Plus I'm way too cool for pink" said Raven boastfully.
Robin looked at her like he was about to drop dead. Never had he experienced anything this crazy. He had to figure out what was going on, or he'd be screwed.
"How do I get out of this maze?" he asked.
"Well we could finish it off but it could take a while and patience really isn't my style" Raven replied smiling at Robin.
Robin knew exactly what that meant. Time really was not of the essence for him either as he had to figure out his surroundings. He looked at the hole in the maze wall that he was thrown through. He whipped out a couple of explosive disks and hurled them at the next wall. It exploded on impact breaking through and revealing another path. He repeated the process going through each newly formed hole until he reached the end.
"Alright we're out, so now what?" Robin asked. There was no answer. He turned around to see nothing. Raven was gone. 'What the hell is going on now' Robin thought to himself. For the second time he had been abandoned by Raven in some unknown realm. "This is unbelievable; can I get some answers here?" Robin yelled out loud.
"Is something wrong?" asked a voice from close by. Robin turned around to see Raven.
"Whew I thought you had lef-" Robin couldn't finish his sentence as he looked at Raven. She was wearing a yellow cloak and on her face were glasses. She had a much taller upbeat stance than usual.
"I can answer your questions. Do you want me too?" said Raven.
This was the most random thing out of all the things that had happened so far. Here he was wanting to find answers all this time and now he's asked if he wants answers. But it wasn't like he was about to turn them down.
"Okay, lets start up at the top, who are you?" asked Robin.
"I'm Raven" she replied.
Robin expected her to say that. "No who are you really, or what?" asked Robin persistent to get the truth.
"That's the right question I suppose. I am a figment, a part of Raven."
"So there are other parts?" asked Robin.
"Yes" said Raven. "Seven, to be exact."
"So when you were in pink and green those were other figments" said Robin.
"Yes but that wasn't me those were actual other figments" said Raven.
"Okay, where are we?" asked Robin.
"We're in the imaginational figment of the brain, or better know as the creative part of the mind."
"Raven's mind" said Robin.
"Correct. Here is where she gets away from everything. It is her realm, her home away from home."
"Ok, so who are all the figments?" asked Robin not slowing his pace of questions.
"Well the one in pink you met was happiness and in green was courage. The other are grey which represents Raven's sorrow, brown which is her fearful side and orange which basically represents Raven's "sick" side or grossness. Then there's me, I represent-"
"Curiosity and smarts" Robin cut in.
"Yes."
"Ok, that's six. What's the last one?"
"Well" started Raven. "The last is red, but she is a special case. You see Raven has a solid hatred for her father. It is because of that anger that the red figment can take other forms. In her case the form she mainly always takes is her father."
"Has Raven ever been here?" asked Robin although he knew the answer.
"Of course, this her meditation place, her training ground" Raven replied.
"I'm going to take a wild guess here a say that Raven is the only one who can get me out, the real Raven" said Robin hoping to be proved wrong.
"But to no avail Raven said "Yes, you're correct.
'Oh man, this is bad" Robin though to himself. He looked up at the sky, and wondered if it was even real. 'Eternal darkness, gothic crazed nature, why is Raven like this? She leaves all her emotions trapped in a dark place so they can't get out. How much power does she have?'
Robin's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of laughter. Robin turned his head to see the pink cloaked Raven skipping towards his direction. He quickly turned his head again to see if the yellow cloaked Raven was still standing next to him. Sure enough she was still there. Robin took a few steps back so that both of them were in his view. They looked exactly alike the only difference being the color of their cloaks. He closed his eyes and opened them again. They were still there.
'This can't get any weirder' Robin thought to himself. At that exact moment four more Ravens appeared. Green, grey, brown, and orange cloaked Ravens all gathered beside the pink and yellow cloaked ones. 'I had to think it' Robin thought. 'This is way to many Raven's…wait.' Robin looked at each Raven.
"There's only six whe-" Robin was cut of by the rumble on the ground. "What's that?" asked Robin.
"It's her" said the yellow cloaked Raven. The ground shook causing tremors. Robin's nearly lost his balance. Looking around he saw a large figure appear from the darkness. As it got closer its shape got bigger and bigger.
"You need to get out of here" yelled the pink cloaked Raven. However it was too late the figure had arrived. It was a giant red figure with two sets of yellowish red eyes. It had white hair and its body was defined. It roared with anger.
"That's the seventh one" said Robin.
"No time to talk, we have to fight" said the green cloaked Raven.
The six Raven's and Robin ran towards the monster.
"Who's is that, really?" asked Robin.
"Trigon" they all said at once.
Trigon's eyes flared a bright red as energy pulsed from them. Robin jumped out of the way as the other Raven's began the fight. The pink cloaked Raven fired dark blasts at Trigon but to no avail. Robin threw a half dozen explosive energy discs, however Trigon barely got a scratch. He lifted his hand and swung at the orange cloaked Raven hitting her hard. She flew back into the yellow cloaked Raven and they fell to the ground. Trigon began walking to their location. The green cloaked Raven flew up towards his face and hit him hard actually managing to knock Trigon's face to one side, but he recovered quickly and grabbed her with his left hand. With his right he created a beam of demonic energy that was directed at the Raven's in the grey and brown cloaks. They both managed to evade the blast but were still in the blast radius as it collided with the ground. The force of it sent them rolling on the ground. Robin ran towards Trigon and shot his grappling hook at Trigon's arm. It wrapped around it twice as Robin pulled himself upward.
"Raven" Robin yelled running up Trigon's arm. "Close you eyes."
The green cloaked Raven still caught in Trigon's grip followed Robin's instructions and closed her eyes. Robin threw up a small triangle like object. As soon as it reached near Trigon's face it exploded releasing a bright light that blinded Trigon. The monster let go of Raven and reached for his eyes as Robin caught her and landed on the ground.
"Isn't there anyway to stop him?" Robin asked.
The gray cloaked Raven struggled to get up and said "No, that's why you must get out of here."
"I can't do that, there may be six of you but you all mean the same and each one of you is equally important. If I lose any of you then I might lose Raven and I can't let that happen again, so I'm staying" replied Robin.
All six of the Raven's looked at him directly. Never had any of them heard anyone say this to them. Robin was speaking directly to Raven's emotions.
"There is one way" said the yellow cloaked Raven. Robin was hoping for that. "But we will need a few minutes." Robin was not hoping for that.
"Why, what are you going to do?" he asked curiously.
"We can combine as one" said the brown cloaked Raven in a fearful voice. "But it will take longer because we don't have your Raven here with us" she continued.
"Well how much time will you need?" Robin asked.
"Five to six minutes" the yellow cloaked Raven replied.
Robin turned and looked at Trigon. He was starting to regain his sight and Robin didn't have any more solar flares on him. But they needed something. "I'll give you six minutes but that's all" said Robin. He ran off towards Trigon.
"Thank you" whispered the yellow cloak Raven. They all gathered around and formed a circle. Then they began to chant "Azarath, Metrion, Zynthos."
Meanwhile Robin ran towards Trigon who had regained his sight. He threw explosive discs at Trigon but the monster blocked them with an energy blast. However he missed one and it exploded closer to his head forcing him to turn for a bit.
Five minutes to go.
Robin reached for his freeze discs this time and threw them one by one at Trigon's face. Trigon caught all the discs with one hand but he could not open it after the discs exploded. His hand was frozen from the inside. Robin used his grappling hook again this time whirling around Trigon's legs. The monster fell back still trying to get its hand open.
Four minutes to go.
Trigon immediately got to his feet and roared as he forced his hands open. Little pieces of ice fell to the ground. He swung at Robin who ducked barely missing impact. Trigon swung again but Robin jumped and landed on his arm. As he ran up it he threw two more energy discs at Trigon's face. One missed but the other exploded right in front of his left eye. Trigon winced and held it tight with one hand. However this time he could still see out of one eye.
Three minutes to go.
Trigon fired another blast from his hand. Robin grabbed two birdarangs and combined them to make a small sword. He swung at the blast and deflected it. However the force of the blast was strong and Robin slid back some feet and off of Trigon's arm. Trigon stomped in frustration destroying everything around him while Robin landed on the ground.
Two minutes to go.
All six Ravens' rose in the air as a bright light surrounded them. It drew Trigon's attention and he began to walk towards them. Robin tried to distract him by throwing more energy discs but he was out. He had nothing more he could throw. He clutched his birdarang sword and ran towards Trigon's legs. He swung hard but Trigon's skin was too tough.
One minute to go.
Robin ran in front of Trigon who was now only three hundred meters away from the cloaked Ravens. Robin tried one last move. He threw the birdarang sword at Trigon's face. It reached his face but he burned it with his eyes before it touched any part of his skin. Robin was all out of tricks. Their time was up; he had done all he could do.
Trigon walked right past Robin as if he wasn't even there. He reached the site where the cloaked Ravens were still performing their unity ritual. Trigon didn't wait though, he eyes began to glow a bright red. Two huge blasts of energy, bigger than any of the ones Robin had seen before pulsed out of Trigon's eyes. The beams rained down upon the cloaked Raven's. All Robin could do was watch. Even though it wasn't truly Raven he felt like he had lost her all over again.
It was over. There was no way out.
Trigon now turned his attention to Robin. Having no way else to fight him Robin took a stance. Trigon launched a fist at him but before it could hit Robin it was stopped. Black encircled the monsters fist and pulled it black over his head. Then it pulled down. Trigon fell on his back causing smoke to rise up. However a strong wind blew the smoke away. In the middle stood one Raven clothed in a white cloak. However something was different. She seemed much stronger than the normal Raven, and she was really pretty. Her lips were red as if she had just put on lipstick, and her features, well they were much more defined then Robin had ever seen.
Raven hovered into the air as Trigon rose up to face her.
"It's over, give up" she yelled.
Trigon roared in her face. His eyes began to glow again. However Raven was too quick for him and encircled his head in black energy. Trigon still fired his energy, but it reflected off the black energy and hit Trigon back in the face. The monster fell to the ground. As he hit the ground there was a small rumble. Then suddenly red light emitted and Trigon started to shrink. He continues getting smaller until nothing was left but a red cloak. Then the cloak started to fill and in it emerged a body. Raven's body. The seventh and final Raven. The white cloaked Raven walked over to her and put her hand on the red cloaks chest. Almost immediately she absorbed her in a blinding flash. Raven then hovered over to Robin who watched in amazement.
"Raven you're one!" said Robin.
"Yes I am, but this is not the place for you Robin. You do not belong here. You are needed in your realm" she replied.
"I know but how do I get back?" Robin asked hoping this new Raven knew the answer.
"There is one way, but only the real Raven can get you out though that way" said Raven.
"I've heard that one before" said Robin.
Raven noticed him getting really disappointed and came up with another solution. "There is the ring" she said softly.
"What ring?" asked Robin.
"A long time ago a ring was hidden here in Raven's mind. We don't know how it got here, but somehow we knew it could transport people out if accessed. However it takes a lot to access it. And we don't know where it transports you. All we know is that Are you sure you're up for it? For not even Raven has heard of this place" said the white cloaked Raven.
"Why not? If this is her mind shouldn't she know about it?" Robin asked curiously.
"It is because she can not yet handle the physical aspects that are required, she is not yet ready" Raven replied.
"But I can go just like that?" Robin asked trying to catch her in a trap.
"Yes, you can, but if you think you can't handle it-"
"I can handle it…if it means I can get out of here" said Robin.
"Then shall we begin" said Raven pointing.
Robin turned to see what she was pointing at. Over a hill was a large stone structure. Just the look and feeling of the place was intimidating. That's where he'd have to go. That's was his only way out. His only option at the time.
"I guess we shall" Robin replied as they began walking towards the structure.
TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT-TT
Well number six is done. There may be a little period before chapter seven comes out. Sorry about that. However in that time I will be releasing my newest fic Teen Titans: Sagas dedicated to everyone who loves action, romance and a little in between. That's going to be here real soon, in a few days or so. Until then I'll try and get the next chapter up. Thank you all who have waited so patiently. Never again will a chapter take that long. In the meantime, Spartan out.