The Titans were restless in their tower; Cyborg and Beast Boy tried to get their minds of their recent defeats with a video game, Starfire simply stared out the window and Robin brooded. Raven hadn't come out of her room and no one would dare check up on her, she had suffered the worst it seemed and would come out in her own time.
"So many dark clouds…" Starfire said softly.
It was true there were many dark clouds outside, in particular an obsidian spot seemed to hover above an area just outside Jump City. But that was not all she was referring to, also there were the dark emotions hanging over the Titans. It was almost as bad as when Slade had had Robin under his command. Suddenly the doors opened and Raven walked into the lounge. Everyone stopped what they were doing, even Beast Boy who would have normally used such a distraction to get the drop on Cyborg in the game they were playing. Something was wrong, that was easy to see; Raven was shuddering, not from fear, but something else and her eyes were glowing.
"Raven? What's wrong?" Robin asked.
"Can't you hear it? So many people crying out in fear! A darkness is going to engulf everything!" She said.
"So where is it, Yoda?" Beast Boy asked.
"Yoda?" Cyborg asked Beast Boy.
"Yeah, she's going all 'beware the dark side of the Force' on us." Beas Boy said, doing a fair physical imitation of Yoda.
"Beast Boy this is serious." Robin chided him.
"It's always serious with Raven." Beast Boy aid under his breath.
"So what's she talking about?" Cy asked getting up.
"I believe she was referring to that." Starfire said in a concerned voice pointing out the window.
The Titans looked out the window; they could see dark clouds and generally miserable weather. At first they could not see what Starfire was talking about, but then they saw it: a dark splotch, an inky blackness in the sky was spreading at an alarming rate, covering the sky.
"Dude…" Beast Boy exclaimed softly.
"That ain't right." Cyborg said softly in shock. "Whatever that thing is, its driving my sensors nuts."
"We must stop that darkness before it blocks out the sky. Many things will die if ee do not." Starfire said.
"So how do we find what's causing it?" Robin asked.
"I can guide you to him. Come on, we have to hurry!" Raven said as she turned to leave.
"Friend Raven, wait for us!" Starfire followed.
"Yeah, you can't start the party without us." Cyborg ran after them.
"You are going to need help, none of use would be able to stop it alone." Robin said.
"'Him'? Him who?" Beast Boy mumbled as he followed behind.
It did not take long to get to the location thanks to Raven's guidance. They arrived at what looked like some ceremonial site, just outside the city, a column of dark light spread out from the center of the ruins and into the sky. In the center of those ruins, in middle of that dark light stood Crow.
"AWWW not again!" Beast Boy whined. "What are we supposed to do about him?"
"Beat him any way we can." Robin said brandishing his staff.
"It looks like he's using some sort of power amplification device. If we knock that off, the power drain should knock him out." Cyborg said.
"Yeah, I think I see it, that thing that's attached to his chest." Robin said pointing.
Sure enough there it was, a disc like thing attached to Crow's chest. It was emitting black lightning and was obviously increasing Crow's power.
"That's it? Knock that thing off and we win? That's gonna be so easy, just let me handle it." Beast Boy said, shifting into a cheetah and dashing off.
As a cheetah, he achieved a very fast speed and in fact made a very accurate leap towards Crow. However BB never got close; a force like a great wind or something held him in mid leap. BB had a shocked look on his currently feline face as he tried to move, to attack Crow, to do something, anything, but to no avail. Suddenly a great burst of wind hurtled BB up and away towards the Titans. He would have soared over their heads, but Starfire flew up to catch him. The two collided and crashed to the ground hard.
"Okay… maybe not so easy." Beast Boy said returning to his human form.
"Since a direct attack wont work, lets try long range." Cyborg said, converting his arm to a cannon.
The shot was straight and true and it would have done the job, had it actually reached its mark. It almost hit Crow, but instead simply flickered and vanished, like a candle suddenly blown out.
"That was useful." Raven said sarcastically.
Cyborg fumed, but said nothing. Robin looked at Crow and thought.
"Its like he doesn't even know we're here… Alright, its obvious single assaults wont work, so what we have to do is attack him all at once. If we distract him, Beast Boy can get close enough to knock the device off." Robin said. "All right, TITANS, GO!"
The Titans charged, Cyborg and Starfire blasting away, though their shots never touched Crow. Robin threw his birdarangs, though they were deflected by some unseen force and sent crashing harmlessly out of the way. Raven used her powers to throw blocks and debris at him, but again these things were seemingly tossed aside. However, their assault did seem to have an effect as Crow turned towards them. Raven stopped, a look of surprise on her face. Crow had two pairs of eyes, both glowing red, like her father Trigon.
"Beast Boy, now!" Robin shouted.
Beast Boy leapt at Crow and it seemed for a brief moment that he might succeed; however Crow made a violent slashing movement with his arm and a great gust of wind blew all the Titans away. Robin landed further away then the others, but he was not alone.
"How very sloppy of you, Robin." Slade said in an almost amused voice.
Slade stepped from the shadows and stood before Robin. Robin took on a defensive posture and then it suddenly dawned on him why Slade would be here.
"This is because of you. This is some evil plan of yours, isn't it?" Robin demanded.
"Very good, Robin. I see your grasp of the obvious is as keen as ever." Slade said.
"I will stop you." Robin growled.
"Really now, how could you possibly do that if you don't even know what I'm really up to, Robin?"
Robin frowned and then charged Slade, trying to strike him down. Slade didn't even react until the last possible second, where he grabbed Robin's wrist and then maneuvered himself so that he twisted Robin's arm behind the boy wonder's back.
"As I said, very sloppy Robin. Have you been neglecting your training?"
"I will stop you." Robin gasped as Slade twisted his arm painfully.
"Now Robin, I'm not the one you should be worried about."
"What are you… huh?" Robin started as Slade forced him to look in Crow's direction.
Raven was trying to approach him, forcing her way against some great wind that was trying to push her back. Cyborg and Beast Boy were also there, trying to come at him from different sides, but it seemed they were having greater difficulty than Raven.
Wh-what is she doing?" Robin asked.
"Come now, Robin. Surely you've figured it out by now. You have the clues, you're supposed to be the detective, figure it out." Slade said as he released Robin and threw him to the ground.
Robin recovered quickly and got up to face Slade, only to find that he was gone. Robin looked around and spotted Starfire unconscious on the ground. The wind that came from the center of the ruins was growing stronger and even Robin was having a hard time keeping his footing as far away as he was.
Raven was trying to get as close as she could to Crow, her goal was not to disable him, but to try to talk him out of it. The wind whipped her cloak back and even blew her hood down, revealing her face.
"Stop it Morgan!" She shouted above the wind's howl. "You can't do this… I know you're my brother… we're family, you're my only family on this world, in this plane… You have to stop this!"
"'Brother'?" Beast Boy said shocked.
Beast Boy had stopped in his tracks after hearing that. It was only momentary hesitation, but it was enough for the wind to send him flying. Fortunately for him, Cyborg was able to catch him. So there Cyborg stood, struggling against the wind, holding Beast Boy by the ankle, who was flapping in the wind like some sort of flag.
"What are you doing, man?" Cyborg shouted over the din of the wind.
"You heard Raven, right? She said that guy's her brother!!" Beast Boy yelled back.
"Doesn't matter who he is… He's a danger and we gotta stop him." Cyborg said as he aimed his canon at Crow.
"Awww man!!! Raven's gonna make tofu eggs out of us for this." Beast Boy whined.
"I'll take my chances… She'll understand this is for the best… I hope." Cyborg said as he fired at Crow.
It seemed it would hit, the blast went farther than it had previously. Crow glanced in their direction and held up his hand. The blast impacted against an invisible barrier.
"Enough!" Crow said as he raised his arms.
The darkness around him solidified and took the shape of a giant bird. The bird let out a mighty screech as it stretched out its wings. The darkness spread, engulfing Crow, the Titans and the ruins.
Raven Facts: After the defeat of the Wildebeests and the supposed death of Raven the Titans hit hard times and the group seemed to be falling apart. Also an evil version of Raven (who shall be referred to as Evil Raven) appeared and began implanting Seeds of Trigon into certain people. These 'seed' were actually the souls of Trgon's children all of whom had died when their mothers committed suicide instead of give birth to them. Dick Grayson had at this time asked Kory (Starfire) to marry him and they almost did get married too, except that Evil Raven had interrupted the ceremony in order to implant one of the Trigon seeds into Kory. This seed influenced Starfire to leave the world, because it was in fact the soul of Raven trying to escape Evil Raven. Among the others that Evil Raven 'infected' with these seeds were Beast Boy, Magenta, Thunder, Lightning and Supergirl. After fighting the Titans Evil Raven was presumed dead (yeah right!) and they thought that was the end of it. They ended up having to chase her to Tamaran where Evil Raven had incited a war to force Kory and Raven out into the open. Tamaran was destroyed and so was Evil Raven. Kory, Raven and the rest of the Titans survived.
This chapter is my x-mas gift to my readers, happy holidays.
