Disclaimer: Only own the interpretations of at least two characters, maybe three. And it's spelled Kardiak. Not Cardiac, Kardiak. Don't ask me why.
(Begin fic)
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
UNKNOWN
Raven was dreaming.
She was dreaming a nightmare.
There stood before her, in cloaks of black and red, Despair and Rage.
The two emotions of her demon half.
The emotions she feared the most.
Knowing this was more than a dream, Raven spoke. "What do you want?"
"We are giving you one last chance to embrace your demon side."
Raven glared. "You know my answer already."
Rage then spoke, her voice almost a scream.
"WE know, but HE won't accept no for an answer, Raven."
Raven took a step backward. She knew who Rage was talking about.
"What does he have to do with this?"
Rage burst out into insane laughter while Despair stated coldly "If we told you, it would spoil the surprise."
Raven gave another look of annoyance. Speaking firmly: "What are you hiding? Tell me."
Rage stopped laughing abruptly. "Let us have him, Raven. Let us have vengeance for all he has done. Let us teach him the meaning of pain."
"You will never have to worry about him again…you will never have to worry about anything again."
"I should have guessed. You tell me nothing."
Despair had no change in expression. Rage laughed insanely.
"I told you, Despair, there is no changing her. She will have to find out the hard way."
"A pity." Despair whispered, as she waved a hand.
T-T-T-T-T-T
Raven awoke.
'Was I dreaming?'
She wasn't sure if she dreamt…and if she did, she could barely remember the dream.
Raven sighed, looked at the clock, and began her morning meditation.
If it was something important, it would come to her then. If it wasn't important…then…no matter.
Later…
What looked like a giant human heart was waiting in the park.
Of course giant human hearts normally don't have metallic tentacles that can vacuum up organic matter.
Kardiak, the heart monster, stood in the empty park. The Titans were facing him.
"Hello Titans."
The voice was like a heartbeat, but the words could be easily made out.
Beast Boy summed up the Titans' thoughts. "Does EVERY monster have a voice now?"
"I think…" murmured the giant heart, "that your little friend gave me that."
Raven was shocked for a moment, but wasn't really surprised. She had a while ago guessed the spell she used changed the creature in certain ways.
"Doesn't matter," murmured Robin. "It's still going down. Titans, GO!"
Of course, he was already out, throwing his birdarangs at the creature as he strafed around it.
The creature responded by simply picking up a tentacle, and with the rush of moving air, blew them off course in a gust of artificial wind.
The heart then gave an impressive leap in the air; landing on the back of a T-Rex shaped Beast Boy. It then swung a tentacle sideways at Cyborg.
RRROWWWWWRRR! SLICE!
The tentacle was cut in half by a swipe from Cyborg's hand, which had become a fast moving chainsaw.
If Kardiak had eyes, it would be looking rather surprised.
"Booyah!"
"Hmph. There can only be one cybernetic-organic."
A sudden burst of wind from another tentacle sent Cyborg flying. Robin barely leaped over his friend. He readied explosive disks.
WHUMP. A tentacle got him by the feet and sent him to the ground.
The heart let go of Robin as it suddenly leapt into the air to avoid a flurry of Starbolts.
A midair barrage of tentacles eventually caught Starfire and got her grounded.
The heart promptly landed even as Raven levitated the trees with her black energies.
Kardiak quickly stuck out a tentacle…and this time began to suck inward.
Raven was caught. She immediately sacrificed her concentration on the objects to project her soul self.
And she couldn't.
Her eyes widened in shock and surprise. Miraculously, nothing blew up.
Of course, losing her concentration meant she was sucked into Kardiak.
It was looking at the world through red cellophane. Of course, red was definitely not Raven's favorite color.
An attempt to break free of the monster was cut off by smaller metal tentacles wrapping around her arms and legs. Raven groaned in pain as a small electric current was activated, disrupting her focus.
"I usually prefer to dine on the emotions of children…absorbing emotions, you see, is my form of sustenance." Kardiak spoke like an experienced connoisseur, going into details about his favorite food. "The fear they have is so much more delicious than the feelings of adults. I suppose it has to do with the wide imaginations of children, of the fact that they believe their nightmares are real. Adults, though, are more prone to insanity, especially when they feel as though they are about to be digested."
Raven would glare at Kardiak's face if it had eyes anywhere. The heart continued. "But adolescence, that time when a human is neither adult nor child… they have varied tastes in their fear…but they also had in them an emotion which I was fascinated by. A dish that looked like it could put the fear of children to shame! And though I would have loved to see how it would taste, I was reluctant to do so…until now…"
Raven was calm. Yes she was calm. She had to be calm, even amongst the disruptions of her focus, even as she knew that anything and everything could happen.
"I see so much pain in you, human. Let me have it!"
And then it intensified the electric shock.
And there was pain, pure pain, exploding and pure pain, consuming her and going up her, even as she sensed her friends fighting frantically to get her out, but Kardiak kept dodging leaping hitting, and she could hear its voice—"Ohh…delicious!"—and she tried not to scream not to scream
(don't go easy on it don't go easy you don't have to worry about hurting me just free me before I scream oh Azar please)
Too late.
She screamed in pain.
And then the scream turned to laughter.
Insane, inhuman laughter.
Four eyes open, Raven, smiling like a sadist, poured her own dark energies into the heart.
Or should I say, her own demonic energies.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The heart screamed in its heartbeat way as every nerve sensor, organic or cybernetic, gave off messages of intense, infinite pain.
The 'heart attack' soon ended when Raven flew out from the heart in a burst of black, tearing a large hole into it.
The heart fell. But Raven wasn't looking at it.
She was looking at her friends.
Her shocked, surprised, and not a bit frightened friends.
And then she grabbed herself, seemed to struggle with herself, as she fell to the ground, and when her eyes opened, there were only two again.
The Titans were quickly at her side.
"Raven!" They all said that word, almost at once.
"I'm fine…I just lost control for a second…that's all…"
A sound caused her to turn around. Kardiak attempted to get up, but quickly overbalanced and fell.
"Need…aspirin."
Titans Tower, 11:50.
The figure came.
It leapt and slid, with an almost supernatural grace.
It was silent, utterly silent, in speech and in motion. It was as if there was silence around it.
It leaped over a trip wire, went under a hidden camera, and pushed a hand against the base of the tower.
It then recoiled, as though it had just touched a disgusting, filthy object. It looked up at the Tower skyscraper.
Security was disabled. The Titans would be alone this night.
T-T-T-T-T-T
Raven's Room.
Raven was meditating.
It was midnight and she couldn't sleep.
Something was nagging at her…something she just couldn't grasp on.
It wasn't the events of the day. Yes, she had been losing control a bit too much, but she had lost it before and she got it back.
Raven was a bit unnerved that Rage didn't whisper into her mind, but eventually paid it no mind. If she couldn't hear the voice of her anger…well, that was a good thing, right?
Still, it nagged her.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"
And then came the red light.
From the very chest in her room.
Raven's concentration was broken. She could barely hold her fear as it opened up and a vertical book flew out, with red coming from the pages.
The book.
It opened, and the blinding red light poured out…but Raven could see…all too well.
The characters were normal at first, but then the pages began to turn rapidly, as though a heavy wind was blowing…
And then pages became nothing more than lines of a single mark.
And when Raven saw that mark, she had to control not fear, but abject terror. The blood in her veins ran cold, her powers threatened to go awry.
And the pages kept turning, turning, turning…until…
The book opened to blackness. Pure blackness…
And it was beginning to slide off the page.
It eventually gained cohesion and began to form.
Red…with black markings. Long white hair. Pointed ears. Gray gauntlets. Black talons. A white cape. In one hand, a white scepter, the top glowing with faint red energy. A gray loincloth. Sharp, crocodilian teeth.
And then the mark, the mark the paralyzed her with fear…the mark of the eyes.
The four yellow glowing eyes.
The inhuman creature spoke with a bizarrely human voice.
"Hello, daughter."
Raven hissed out the word, like it was poison.
"Trigon."
T-T-T-T-T-T
Robin jolted up with a start.
Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.
He looked around the corners of his room. Everything in order, everything perfectly white.
With an adept leap he leaped over the wall separating the two halves of his room, the walls changing from white to a particularly dark gray-mostly from newspaper clippings posted on the walls.
Robin's gut told him there was someone there…and his gut was rarely wrong.
"I see you still haven't gotten over me."
Robin whirled around. Standing there calmly was Slade.
"Oh…you made some progress," Slade crooned in that sinister voice of his. "But you still can't put the past behind you. Not really."
"How did you get in?" Robin spat the words out.
"Simple. I let him."
The voice came from the shadows behind Slade. It was oddly familiar.
Never taking his eyes of Slade, Robin shouted to the darkness. "Who are you?"
The voice in the shadows chuckled. "Someone you hoped not to see, Robin. Someone you never hoped to see. But you have to see me anyway. After all, you can't ever put the past behind you. Especially when it comes back. Like Slade. Like Red X. Like me."
The figure stepped into the light.
'No…'
At once Robin realized why the voice was so familiar…of course it was familiar. He heard it every day. Whenever he spoke.
Standing right there, an impossibility but still right there, was himself.
He was in the apprentice uniform, with the same predatory mask. A mocking sneer was on his face.
Robin could only stand still, his jaw slack, as Slade and his apprentice lunged.
T-T-T-T-T-T
"Subject is awakening."
The words weren't in English. But then again, they weren't even spoken.
Starfire was groggy, but when she came to, she wished she stayed asleep.
'This is a nightmare. A horrible nightmare.'
Indeed, it seemed that way, for how could her pink room suddenly turn into a black metallic laboratory?
She looked around, eyes darting wildly at the various computer screens and pulsing energy in the walls. Her eyes glowed as she attempted to move.
Finding herself stuck, she turned to look at her yellow bonds. She attempted to charge up a Starbolt, burning it off with heat.
Instantly, pain shot up her arm, making her cry out, as the energy she stored up was disrupted.
"I'm afraid breaking out is quite impossible, sister dear."
Blackfire walked in, calmly, smoothly, with poise, smiling.
"Sister! Thank X'hal! You must help me get out of here and find my friends!"
Blackfire only laughed: a cold, cruel, insane laugh.
"This is no time to be laughing! Please, sister, set me free!"
"Why should I set you free," chuckled Blackfire, "when I was the one who captured you in the first place?"
Starfire could only open her mouth in shock.
"Oh yes," Blackfire continued. "The Psions need to finish their experiments on you."
Starfire was utterly and completely stunned. "Sister…Komand'r…why?"
"Why, Koriand'r? Why? You know why!" Her eyes turned purple as her mouth twisted with rage. "You know darn well why! This has always been my life, sister, chained to a wall, never able to break free. And you were always there before me, taunting me, jeering at me!"
"Komand'r, I would never…"
"You took everything away from me Koriand'r. EVERYTHING!" Her anger changed into a sadistic grin. "You took everything from me, and your pain will pay me back. BEGIN THE EXPERIMENT!"
"Experiment One has been initiated."
Starfire's world exploded in pain. But even in it all, she could still hear her sister's voice.
"Feel free to scream all you like."
T-T-T-T-T-T
Cyborg was in the training room.
He didn't know why. It was just a hunch he had.
It wasn't even that. It was more like some subliminal signal telling him to go there.
He turned on his shoulder mounted flashlight and searched the room.
Weights, projectile launchers, treadmills, everything seemed normal.
Cyborg turned to leave the room.
"My, my, Victor. You've forgotten most of your lessons."
He swirled around to look at the smiling figure of Brother Blood, in his red battle suit with robotic arms.
"I must say actually," Blood continued, "that it's quite an irony. Victor Frankenstein, as you may remember, created an inhuman creature…and what do we have here?"
Cyborg growled.
Blood was undaunted. "Of course, it is a common mistake to call the Monster 'Frankenstein,' and certainly it would be a mistake to call you Victor. Your proper name is 'Silas's Robot.'"
Cyborg leapt with a charge…and was knocked to the ground from the side.
He was suddenly swiveled around; hands pinned behind his back, and forced to look at the evil priest.
"You know, Vic, you have so much hate for the man who saved your life. What would your mother think?"
"My mother's dead,jerk!"
"Don't talk to me like that, Victor."
His respiratory systems froze for a few moments at the voice.
He immediately broke free of the hold and turned around, knowing and yet refusing to believe what he would see.
It was his mother, of course, Elinore Stone.
Except she, too, was half robot.
Silver metal and red circuits replaced her face and arms. Her hair was all metallic. Her metallic eye glowed next to her normal one.
"No…"
"You are a horrible son, Victor. Give up now. Listen to your mother."
T-T-T-T-T-T
Soy milk.
That's all he wanted. Soy milk.
He flicked the switch but no light came on.
He flicked it a few more times, angrily, but to no avail.
"Come on, come on! Work!"
"Beast…Boy…"
The voice came from the couch.
"Hello?"
"Beast Boy…you're here…"
"Who is this?"
He peeked over the couch, and gasped for air.
It was obviously a girl with long hair, in some kind of armor.
More importantly, it seemed that two things were stuck to her head, looking in the shadows like horns.
Beast Boy's voice was a whisper. "Terra?"
WHUMP! A barrage of pebbles slammed into him, knocking him to the floor.
"I'm sorry, Beast Boy. Did that hurt?"
He looked up at her, the girl he loved, and still did, smiling cruelly in her apprentice outfit: standing on a pair of rocks, hair covering one eye. In the shadows, she stood out in color.
'This is a nightmare.'
Terra cackled madly, insanely. "You wish this was a nightmare, Garfield, but my big friend will give you a nice wake up call."
"GRAHHH!"
WHUMP!
A huge figure slammed into him, picked him up, and slammed him into the ground again.
He struggled to get up, and turned to the immense monster standing before.
He never seen it before…but he knew what it was.
"This can't be happening…" His mind began to crack. "This can't be happening!"
The green Beast Within gave a cruel crooked smile, and pounced.
T-T-T-T-T-T
Trigon. Four glowing demon eyes looked down upon his daughter.
He was not as huge as the mental image Raven saw in her head, although certainly, he almost reached the ceiling of the room.
Raven fought a losing battle over her emotions as the demon spoke.
"My dear Raven, are we still on a first name basis? Come now, you had to have missed me, it's only been a couple of years." Trigon smirked, his teeth flashing.
Raven's face was a battle between stoicism, fear, and pure hatred.
Her mind was even more tormented. Rage and Despair spoke as one: "Kill him. Finish him now. Destroy him. End it all."
Trigon could easily see the pain his daughter was having. "Here…" he spoke maliciously. "I got you a present."
With his free hand, Trigon reached into the book, which immediately burst into flame. The book burned into ashes as Trigon held out his gruesome trophy.
The severed head of a purple dragon.
"Do you like it?"
Raven was only horrified as Malchior's head spoke, in pain. "Help…me…"
"What did you do to him?" Raven said, barely keeping her mind from spinning out of control. Some part of her wanted this to be a nightmare…but she knew it was all too real.
Trigon responded matter-of-factly. "He broke your heart, my little Raven, so I decided to break him." He then turned to the head. "Tell her you're sorry. Now." And his hand glowed with orange energy as the dragon screamed in agony.
"I'm sorry…!"
"Say you should never have broken her heart!"
"I…should never…have broken…your heart…ohpleasekillmenow—the pain!"
"Kill you? Yes…but not without punishment. After all, you did not just lie to my daughter; you hurt her in one of the worst ways imaginable."
Her anger flared. "Like you did to Mother?"
Trigon's eyes immediately locked on her. His face became solemn. "Now, Raven…can't we let bygones be bygones? It's all in the past now, isn't it?"
Raven gritted her teeth. "All in the past? How can I say that when you killed my mother, Azar, everyone? When I still have nightmares of the end of Azarath?"
Trigon gave a sigh. "Perhaps I haven't been the best father to you, Raven…but that's not the question." He held out the head again. "The question is, don't you want to finish him off?" Trigon once more gave his crocodile grin.
Raven just looked at the head with startling revulsion and…
(not gratitude not gratitude I never wanted this to happen I never)
"Oh, really?"
Trigon took his daughter's silence as a 'no'. "Well if you won't do it…" His face became grave again, "farewell, Malchior."
And Trigon smiled malevolently as his hand glowed with a geyser of energy, and the dragon's head screamed and screamed and my how did he scream as in those few seconds he experienced an eternity of pain and then the head broke into pieces that broke into nothing.
Nothing more.
He chuckled a bit at his handiwork, and then looked up to quickly see Raven attempting to flee the room.
With a wave of his hand, lines of red energy appeared from nowhere and wrapped around her body like a rope. She struggled against them, an act both determined and futile.
"Sit down, Raven."
She was forced to. A chair glowed as it was placed under her. Trigon himself sat down upon her bed. There was a creak in the springs, and nothing more, despite his larger than average size.
"Get out of my room." It sounded silly when she said it. Get out of my room. Why not 'Get out of my life,' or 'Leave me alone'?
And she couldn't hide the fear in her voice. The fear she was so desperately trying to control.
Trigon laughed. "I must say, daughter, that you have done…poorly." His grin turned into a look of disapproval. "You save the very things you were created to destroy. You go against your very nature, your very being, in trying to be a hero. Do you not realize that you are committing the ultimate sin, by defying the reason for your creation?"
"I never wanted to be created," Raven spat.
Trigon shook his head wearily. "You truly worry me, Raven. All this sadness and despair… something to savor in mortals, but not in your own family. Every day I wonder as to whether you have taken your own life voluntarily. It is a fate almost incomprehensible to me…and yet I don't need to read your mind to know that you think about it!" Trigon looked to the ceiling, and then looked to the ground.
"Like I said, daughter, sometimes I worry about you. Sometimes I worry about you a lot. I suppose, though, that most of it comes from you hanging with the wrong crowd."
Those two words…
(No…)
…sent a chill down Raven's spine.
Grinning like a shark, Trigon raised his hands. Four orbs appeared between him and Raven, all in a row so that she could see each one.
And what she saw was her friends.
Fighting—and losing—to their own nightmares.
She screamed, "Leave them alone!", as if those words would make her demon father stop.
"No, Raven," Trigon said, in an almost whispering voice; "I will not. Your friends are preventing you from realizing your full potential. But if you let go of the pathetic human resistance to what you are…"
"NO!"
"…then I suppose you will have to watch as their own nightmares claim them."
She couldn't close her eyes, couldn't cover her ears…as the Titans suffered, as they drowned in pain…her emotions…
"Kill him, kill him, make him pay, kill him, slay him, slay them all. Make them bleed."
…were totally out of control.
She watched…she watched all the horrible things…
T-T-T-T-T-T
"RAHHHH!"
SLAM. Beast Boy was bowled over.
"Give up, Beast Boy…you know, you should have died a long time ago…with your parents…"
Giving a roar, lion Beast Boy pounced, and the Man-Beast swung him away like a rag doll.
It was the African jungle…the African jungle.
And the raft fell.
And they all plunged. Except for a bird.
Terra laughed insanely. "You know, Beast Boy, you really are a failure. You couldn't save me, couldn't save your friends, couldn't save anyone. And now you can't even save yourself."
And for a split second, she had four red eyes…
Not that Beast Boy could see. It was hard to, when your green dark side was pounding you into the ground.
T-T-T-T-T-T
Pain.
Sheer pain.
Pain and her sister's voice.
"You stole everything from me, even before you were born! My appearance, my powers, my birthright!"
"Sister…" Starfire choked, "they were all returned to you…all of them…maybe you look different, but…"
"INCREASE THE CURRENT!"
"Increasing…"
Starfire gritted her teeth to keep from screaming. But she still had to close her eyes as the red pain washed over her.
They poked her, prodded her, treated her like what humans would call a "lab rat". She wasn't a person, only an experiment. And that experiment wasn't even given life, only pain.
So of course she didn't see the four eyes looking in everywhere on the room…and on Blackfire's face.
T-T-T-T-T-T
"You are pathetic," sneered Slade.
They moved around Robin with superhuman speed. No matter where he hit, he always missed. Not matter how he blocked, they always got passed his guard.
Not like he was concentrating. He was trying to wrap his mind around the impossibility of himself being in two places at once.
"Bruce would be so disappointed." The apprentice's smile never changed. "Turning into a criminal, betraying your friends, working for your enemy…of course, he was disappointed in you already. That's why you left him, isn't it?"
The real Robin lunged with a punch, but his hand was grabbed behind him by Slade.
"Why did you create this little team, Robin?" Slade swung his face against the wall. "Did you want to impress the Batman? Step out of his shadow? Or did you just want a boost to your fragile ego? You're flawed, Robin...interesting, perhaps, but flawed, like everyone else. And because you're flawed, you are weak."
And there he is again, facing his nightmares as he fights his friends. He fights them in order to save them, for if he doesn't, they die. It is always amazing how history repeats itself…as it is repeating itself even now.
There was a small change of tone in his voice…as if almost another person was speaking with him…
A whispering person.
T-T-T-T-T-T
"You are a bad boy, Victor."
He was tossed across the training room like a ragamuffin.
"Shut down. End your life. Accept your fate."
Cyborg looked up at the roboticized
(how is she still alive she was dead man she was dead!)
being that was his mother.
"Listen to your mother, Cyborg." Blood stepped in behind her. "You should have died in the laboratory with her. An ungrateful boy like you doesn't deserve his life! Rejecting his own father! How utterly foolish."
He wakes up, and all is different. He knows this immediately, knows before he even went under, that life would never be the same again…and there is the Dr. Frankenstein of his creation—his father, his very biological father, always treating him as machine to be tested. And time, he really was a machine.
"I always talked to him, Victor!" The Elinore-robot screamed. "I always tried to get him to listen, to get him to care about you as a person! But Silas wasn't the problem, you were! You ungrateful, selfish child! Go and die. Go out and die!"
"Mom…"
"I am not the mother to a creature such as you!"
Brother Blood laughed.
T-T-T-T-T-T
And for her, and for the watcher, it is the worst of all, because she has always been watching when these things happen, always has been, and everyone around her ceases to exist…
"What's the matter, daughter? Not enjoying the show?"
Raven thought she would explode; the thought that exploding was exactly what Trigon wanted her to do was failing to have power to stop her. She would explode in emotion and then…
And then…
And then…the spheres winked out.
Just like that.
T-T-T-T-T-T
Brother Blood stopped laughing. It really isn't a good time to laugh, you see, when a white blade of energy is sticking out of you.
Cyborg caught it all, and with his half-electronic brain had analyzed what happened in the split seconds that followed.
From the point of the blade, 'Brother Blood' turned black. His shape began to fall as he turned into a shapeless, bulbous black shadow. His blue eyes disappeared and were replaced by four crimson ones.
And the shadow then promptly dissolved into nothingness, leaving the figure standing behind it.
SWISH! It nimbly danced out of the way of the robo-Elinore's attack.
It moved to Cyborg's side, and even with his cybernetic vision, he could only see the brown that seemed to be its entire body.
But even then, its hands glistened with two white blades.
In a voice that was many and one, it spoke. "It is but an illusion. See it for what it truly is, and you can defeat it."
Cyborg understood immediately when the thing that looked like his mother turned around. Even as it did, it became the same dark mass he saw before. It glared at them with its four red eyes as it gave an inhuman screech.
"Grahhhhhhhhhh!"
Cyborg answered with his sonic cannon and a battle cry of his own. "Booyah."
The creature bent under it. Being a shadow, it was pretty easy to do. It lunged…
And the figure merely raised a hand, and the shadow slammed into a white wall.
"Now!"
Cyborg didn't need telling twice. The wall disappeared as the sonic beam struck the shadow in the eyes, passing right through it and leaving a gaping hole. It dissipated soon after.
Cyborg then turned to his deux ex machina. "Who are you?"
The figure waved him off. "No time. The other Titans need rescue."
T-T-T-T-T-T
The voice was a whisper, but Robin heard it well enough.
Finding his strength, he broke out of Slade's grip and knocked him back with a spin kick.
Still in midair, he fired a projectile that looked like a yellow ball spinning on and around a black wire.
It wrapped around the apprentice's shoulders and legs entirely. Losing balance, he fell over.
"You're both illusions," Robin announced. "None of this is real."
He was answered with an inhuman cackle.
"Not bad, mortal." The 'apprentice' turned into a four eyed creature of pure shadow, slipping out of the bonds. 'Slade' then began to change into a similar creature.
"But you still don't have all the answers." The two shadows lunged.
Robin quickly leapt in the air. In a flash, he had his Bo staff out, and in another, he jammed it into one shadow, right between the eyes. It uttered a shrill scream as it dissipated.
He then swung at the other shadow, which dodged, its formless shape moving out of harms way. Shaping part of its mass, it slapped with several dark tentacles.
Robin ducked one, jumped over a second, and was hit by a third and hit hard against the wall, dropping his staff. The tentacle felt like burning cold.
Clutching his chest with one hand, Robin got up as the creature struck again. This time, Robin got out a birdarang.
SLICE! The red and yellow projectile cut the tentacle off. It disintegrated before it hit the ground.
The creature let off a roar of pain as it held its shadowy stump, eyes partially closed. The scream was cut off abruptly when the returning birdarang protruded in the small space in the middle of the shadows four eyes.
The creature turned into nothingness. The birdarang clattered to the ground.
A feeling crept over Robin…a feeling that there was still danger…but not to himself…
'Starfire!'
He bolted out of his room.
T-T-T-T-T-T
"Hahahahahahaha!"
Terra laughed insanely, maniacally, as Beast Boy was pounded by his mutant alter ego.
The Man-Beast took a few steps back, baiting him, taunting him, almost.
Beast Boy, in human form, looked up with unbelieving eyes at the monster he was…
At the girl he loved…
A pair of flashes, of blue and white.
"RAHHHH!"
Within an instant, Cyborg was next to Beast Boy, sonic cannon at the ready.
"Cyborg…Terra's…"
"It's an illusion BB! It's not really her or you!"
Beast Boy suddenly understood. The monster dodged the sonic cannon blast…but one arm was blown off, leaving a shadowy stump.
The monster's eyes split into four.
And then Beast Boy was a ram, and he ran right into it, through it, past the burning cold, the fiery frost.
And when he turned to normal and turned around, the creature was a black dissolving mass.
"Grahhhhhhhh!"
'Terra,' four red eyes now visible, was fighting against…it looked like something of pure brown. She leapt into the air and fired the very rocks under her feet. Beast Boy saw the red energy that surrounded it.
'It is a fake…her color was always yellow…'
But the brown's color seemed to be white. Energy daggers of the color appeared in the air in front of the figure and tore the rocks to pieces in a small burst of energy.
The figure leapt forward an impressive distance, a white blade forming in its hands as the sword cut through the four-eyed thing posing as a girl.
"Begone!"
There was a line of white where the cut was for a second, her face stunned. Then she turned into black mist, cut in half, and then disappeared into nothingness.
Beast Boy shook his head to clear it as the figure, in its multiple voices, addressed him and Cyborg.
"Your friends are in danger. All of them. Go find Raven. Quickly!"
The figure vanished in a flash of white.
Cyborg and Beast Boy ran, not even thinking about the figure, just doing what it said.
They both felt…knew that something else was in the Tower this night.
T-T-T-T-T-T
"X'hal, setana stratovmy'r. Setana stratovmy'r, Niah X'hal…"
"Praying, sister? She is a false god you know. A myth made by others. If there was, she would have saved you al—"
Blackfire's voice was cut off by explosions inside the room; explosions that seemed to scream.
The pain vanished abruptly as Starfire opened her eyes. The room was turning into a dark shade of black. Four eyes everywhere. On the walls. On the floor.
Suddenly, she understood. 'It is not the explosions that are screaming. It is the room that is screaming.'
Feeling the righteous fury she charged her inner energies, ignoring the freezing burn that seemed to suffuse her.
"RRRRRAH!"
A wave of green energy spread outwards, engulfing the whole 'room' in green energy as it screamed.
When it dissipated, she saw her real room, untouched by the energies, as pink as ever.
Two figures were standing almost in profile to her, gazes locked.
'Robin, I knew you would come! Thank you, X'hal.' She turned her green eyes to the other figure.
It looked like her sister. It had the same voice as her sister. It disguised itself, but it was not truly Blackfire. The creature seemed to know this, and revealed its true nature with its inhuman voice and four red eyes.
"Grahhhhhh!"
Starfire fired a pair of green lasers from her eyes. They plunged right through the creature's middle, leaving a pair of burn marks on the wall and two neat holes through the thing.
The scream turned from fury to pain as it lost its cohesion and died…
"It is not dead…" Starfire murmured to herself, "…as it was never alive in the first place."
She locked her gaze with Robin. Eyes with green whites locked onto the white and black of his mask.
'So many secrets, Robin…'
BOOM! The explosion ended the moment.
"That sounded like it was from Raven's room!"
He sprinted out, Starfire not far behind.
T-T-T-T-T-T
When the viewing orbs went out, Trigon's smiling face turned into one of shock and confusion, his more than human mind already solving the problem.
Raven reacted immediately. "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!"
Pure black spread out from her as her bonds were consumed and nullified.
She burst off the chair, aiming for and passing right through the door as her father's roar echoed out behind her.
She barely got out and down a corner as pure red energy slammed right through the door, leaving a large hole in the wall, opening it up to the interior.
In a flash of red, Trigon formed in front of her, blocking her escape route, four eyes looking down.
No words were said as she landed. Trigon's eyes glowed…
And a sonic blast at the chest knocked him back a few steps.
"Rraw! Rrrrrrrr…" His growl of pain turned into anger as he looked at the figures of Cyborg and Beast Boy.
"Have we met before, four eyes?" Cyborg was forceful in his tone.
"I don't know," the demon said in what was almost a whisper, a pair of eyes raised upward. "Have we?"
Trigon gave no time to answer his own question as he slammed his staff downward.
The floor promptly broke under the three as they fell down straight into the main room.
Cyborg fell with a WHUMP, but got up quickly, while Beast Boy countered gravity by turning into a bird.
Raven projected her soul-self, went right through the ground, and came back up, drawing the black bird into herself.
Trigon landed soon afterwards, his size shaking the entire Tower like an earthquake. He turned his eyes to Cyborg and Beast Boy.
"I have no time for you insects," he growled.
"Then make some time." Robin then swung down on his grappling hook and unloaded exploding disks on Trigon's face, which turned around to look at the voice.
When the smoke cleared, the four eyes confronted five figures, Starfire floating down from the hole in the ceiling.
He took their images in, imprinting them in his mind. "The Titans, all together. At last, we meet."
Robin stepped forward with one foot, staff out. "Who are you?"
His four eyed gaze turned to the girl in the blue cloak. "Raven, I'm hurt," he said in mock surprise. "Haven't you told them anything about me?" He grinned.
The Titans eyes quickly shifted to the person in question. But her face was a mask, hidden by her cloak.
The monster chuckled, closing his eyes. "I have been called many things in my life…monster, demigod, demon." The eyes opened again as he gave a smirk that would make a normal man run. "But allow me to introduce myself. I am Trigon the Terrible, and I am only here to see my daughter."
The Titans faces were in varying degrees of incomprehension, then shock as they understood. Except for Raven of course.
Beast Boy essentially spelt it out. "You can't be Raven's dad! Her dad is some big, scary, red…" His voice trailed off as he realized just what he was talking to.
Trigon was smiling, teeth bared. "So you have told them something about me! I have to say, Raven, regardless of everything else, you have certainly picked some intriguing companions. A pity, really."
Starfire's eyes glowed green, gaze turned to the demon lord. "Raven, I have encountered something that looked like…my nightmares. But they were only shadows…"
"With four eyes?" murmured Raven in an almost whisper. "I wish you were right, Starfire…but this is real…this is my…" she trailed off.
Trigon laughed. "Father, Raven! Can you not say that word? Father? Perhaps I can force it out…"
He raised his hand, and created a fireball.
"Titans, GO!"
He threw it.
T-T-T-T-T-T
The fire ball exploded even as Robin lifted up with his grappling hook, staff extended, for a blow.
Trigon lifted his white staff up. CLANG! The demon smirked. The top of the staff lit with fire, like an open lantern.
Quickly landing on the floor, Robin gave a fury of swipes. Trigon blocked them with his staff, moving with dexterity contrary to his size.
Trigon then swung his weapon sideways, sending Robin rolling. The Boy Wonder rolled into a crouching position and fired a pair of birdarangs. Another swing, and the demon deflected both projectiles into opposite walls. He then spun his staff with one hand for a few quick spins before planting it right in front of chest, the bottom of the scepter-staff on the ground, hands right on the top of it.
"Don't presume that you can beat me with your armaments, mortal. I've had centuries of practice."
Robin's response was to through a yellow disk that promptly exploded and encased the demon in ice, still in the same position.
Silence.
A four-eyed force beam erupted from the eyes encased in eyes, forcing Robin to cartwheel out of the way. With a roar, Trigon erupted from the ice in a large display of fire.
"Freezing a demon? I thought you were smarter than that." Trigon leaned forward and gave an exhale of frozen wind, blowing Robin to the wall and sticking every part of his body but his head inside a frozen cube. The tips of his fingers and the front of his boots were still unfrozen, not that it was helpful.
Trigon appraised his handiwork. "Keep cool on ice," he said with a smile.
"Huuuuuhhh-YAH!"
Cyborg had no idea how it got from the training room downstairs, and he didn't much care.
He charged at Trigon swinging a one-ton dumbbell.
"HAH!" Trigon swung his staff at the same time, parrying the blow. The resulting sound radiated throughout the Tower.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Several slow swings made the weapons collide with each other. The combatants raised their weapons to strike.
There is saying that goes 'Great minds think alike.' Trigon and Cyborg certainly had the same idea when they fired their respective projectiles from the swinging position. The sonic laser met an eruption of fire.
The energies hit each other, but then the fire spread around the beam and onto Cyborg.
"AHHHHHH-OOF!"
As the fire consumed Cyborg, Trigon gave an expert roundhouse kick, sending him and his weapon sprawling.
The metal man quickly got up and raised his fists in a fighting position.
The demon obliged him, letting go off his staff which immediately winked out in a flash of fire. Trigon went into a similar position, the gauntleted hands reflecting what little light there was.
"As you humans would say, bring it on."
Cyborg charged.
"HAAAAAAAH!"
"REEEEEEEEEH!" Trigon answered with a charge and battle cry of his own.
Trigon was a bit bigger than Atlas was, so Cyborg quickly ducked under the silver-gray knuckles. But a punch of his own was dodged by a surprisingly quick back step from the demon lord. Three more punches were dodged, and then the next one was grabbed by the demon's hand. The next punch was also grabbed.
Cyborg was then lifted off the ground as Trigon, with what looked almost like a push instead of a throw, sent him flying through the air and crashing through the hallway wall.
Trigon rolled his neck a bit before turning to a sudden movement. He faced a green T-Rex.
"ROOOOOOAR!" Beast Boy leaned in for a bite, jaws open.
CLAMP! Trigon clamped his hands down on the jaws, shutting the mouth. He then threw it into the ground. CRASH!
Some smoke rose from the floor as the dinosaur's body fell. Trigon backed up a few steps waiting for an attack.
It came. Out of the smoke came a charging green giant bull.
Trigon sidestepped past his charge, grabbed his tail, lifted him into the air, and swung him around like the demon was doing the Olympic hammer throw. Trigon let go and Beast Boy was sent flying out the window.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" SHING SHING SHING. Starfire fired her Starbolts. Trigon turned his head, and in a move that defied all common sense, did a series of one-handed backflips. The bolts only hit the ground.
Trigon's staff materialized in flame the moment he was in a standing position. The Starbolts were then deflected to the sides, ceiling, and ground by his staff.
Starfire then fired her green eyebeams. Trigon countered with his yellow ones. The blasts converged, but the eyes of the demon quickly overpowered the eyes of the alien. Starfire was blasted to the wall, and fell on the ground.
"Azarath Merion Zinthos!"
A cabinet was sent flying at the demon lord. Trigon merely broke it to pieces with a wave of his staff.
Raven then created around her several shadowy daggers; in fact air-pockets encased her powers. She sent them flying.
Trigon raised a hand, and suddenly the daggers' black energy slowly turned to red and stopped abruptly.
A flick of his wrist, and the daggers were sent flying back.
Raven projected her soul-self and dove into the floor. She then rose into the air, a giant shadow raven flying.
And Trigon disappeared in red energy that went directly at the soul-self. It turned and fled, but the energies were too quick.
CRACKLE! Trigon and Raven rematerialized and fell to the ground, the daughter in her father's arms.
Trigon leaned his head closer to her ear and began to slowly whisper.
"You are quite underdeveloped, daughter. You don't seek to conquer, to control. You haven't even destroyed your first planet yet! I can't say I was in your exact position…but I can tell you, Raven, it's like bursting through an eggshell. You break out and see a whole world to do with as you see fit. It is a glorious and beautiful thing, daughter, and it sickens me," his face turned into a sneer, "sickens me, that you find it so repulsive." He looked at her for a moment then broke into a deadly smile. "But I can never be truly mad at you, Raven. I suppose it is my one flaw, that I can't help loving you anyway! Heh heh heh."
He turned her around, his four yellow eyes piercing into her two violet ones.
The violets turned white as she sent a blast of black energy at the demon lord, knocking him away and freeing her from his physical grip.
Trigon shook his head a bit, white hair flying, and then laughed. "So you wish to fight for real. Excellent."
Raven raised her hands, and all kinds of debris rammed Trigon, covered with her black energies. Even as his shape was lost in them, she prepared one final spell.
Her raised hands seemed to hold one end of a cutter of black energy. With a yell, she threw it.
Fire exploded in front of the debris, blocking the blade. CRASH! Trigon flew out of the projectile pile, cape flapping, eyes blazing, mouth smiling. He waved his hand.
And because her eyes were on Trigon, she couldn't dodge the wave of fire that came at her.
WOOOSH!
"Ungh!" Raven was sent to the ground, her cloak burnt a bit; singed. Her father descended, eyes looking at her with some sort of pity.
Starfire got up, cleared her head, and went to the frozen Robin.
Eyes and hands glowing green, she melted the ice. She caught him as he fell over.
"Brrrr…thanks, Starfire…."
A green hawk flew into the room and turned back into Beast Boy, in a crouching stance. Cyborg followed him.
All eyes were on the impromptu reunion between Trigon and Raven.
She spat at him.
He didn't even flinch.
"I hate you," she stated. Anger flashed behind Raven's eyes.
"To hate is to be demon, my dear daughter."
Her expression didn't change, but Trigon could easily see beyond his daughter's mask.
His grin was predatory. "I thought perhaps that you would accept your true self in your teenage years, Raven. But it seems that you found something that blocks you from doing that. Your 'friends."
A wave of his hand, and all four of them were grabbed by pure red energies, swirling around them like a tentacle. And they pulsed with energies.
Painful energies, which even removed the resistance to screaming.
They all screamed. All four of them. They were practically forced to.
Trigon laughed insanely, maniacally, demonically.
Raven gave a nightmarish howl, eyes turning red and splitting into four.
A sudden growth spurt put her at Trigon size. Tentacles of her own, black ones, wrapped around the demon lord and began to squeeze.
Trigon's expression couldn't be seen, as his very face was being crushed in black.
"DIE!"
Sounds of bones breaking were heard as Raven squeezed even tighter.
But Starfire was right.
This was just another shadow.
The four eyes turned red as the pieces of Trigon's body turned into a shapeless black.
This was a shadow.
But a different kind of shadow.
Because this one didn't scream, even as it was being crushed, even as it's life-force was being sucked out of it invisibly.
No. It only spoke a simple parting phrase, in Trigon's voice:
"That's…my…girl…"
And then it was gone.
The demoness gave a deafening roar to the ceiling, angry at being denied vengeance.
Her eyes then closed, and she began to shrink down. And when the eyes opened again, there were only two of them.
Raven fell to her knees, violet eyes open in shock, hands grasping her head.
The eyes quickly closed.
T-T-T-T-T-T
"No!"
"I have to, Raven."
"No! That's why I cried! I never wanted you to die because of me! You shouldn't die because of me! Don't do it, please don't… don't leave me…"
"No…I have to do this…for once, I won't listen to other people…I'll only listen to myself…for the first time, I'll do something that I know is right."
"Please!"
"Goodbye, Raven. Live for me. Live for the world."
T-T-T-T-T-T
"MOTHER!"
The memories of the Destruction flooded fast and furious, threatening to consume her with their powerful intensity.
And she was all alone…no-one there…
But then, she felt an embrace.
Four embraces.
The memories subsided. She found herself, tears in her eyes, being embraced by her friends.
And that's all she wanted.
The next morning…
Cyborg woke up. The sun was bright.
He yawned for a bit, shook his head, and looked around him.
He was on the sofa. Along with the others.
'Wait…the sofa?'
The sofa was still there, and by the feel of it, it was just fine.
Cyborg then looked around the room.
Fixed. Utterly and completely.
No burn marks. No holes. It, in fact, never looked better.
The Tower was made for being repaired quickly and easily in case of an assault,
(yeah, another gift, thanks a lot, dad.)
but repairs such as this magnitude simply couldn't happen overnight. Especially with everyone asleep.
He noticed to his left Starfire leaning on Robin, both eyes closed in slumber. At least it looked like Robin was sleeping.
He turned to his right, and found Raven curled up into a ball, head on a pillow.
And Beast Boy…
He was sitting on the sofa's armrest. He was awake.
"Hey," he said quietly.
"Hey yourself," Cyborg replied.
Beast Boy took a look around the room. "It seems…seems like a horrible nightmare. I look around the room and I think that I never fought Terra…never fought that beast. But then, I ask myself why I'm not in my room. And then I look at Raven…"
Cyborg understood. The marks of the battle were still on her…faint, but there.
"What did you think they were?" Beast Boy asked. "What were they?"
"Shadows of an evil being, which can turn into the nightmares in a person's mind. Others are aspects of him, weaker than he is, but no less fearsome."
The figure in brown was in front of the window. Just like that.
This time, it could be seen.
Not that there was much to see. The brown cloak covered almost its entire humanoid body, just touching the ground. Over the head was a brown hood. Gray gloves appeared out of the sleeves.
And then the mask.
Pure white. Eye slits showing only black. A line down from the middle of the forehead, down to the chin. The cheeks seemed to be sunk in from the rest of the face, while the mouth was a horizontal slit, bent at the ends.
It turned its head to the changeling "Beast Boy. A true pleasure." It turned its head to the metal man. "And Cyborg. Bumblebee has spoken highly of you."
T-T-T-T-T-T
"You had a contact. Someone who gave you instructions. In fact, I'm willing to bet that your benefactor tipped off my friends. So who is he?"
"You're going to meet… my friend… I can't say much more than that. You'll have to trust me on this. My friend will eventually speak to you; I have no doubt about it… I think it'll become clear, Cyborg… I think everything will become clear eventually."
T-T-T-T-T-T
"You're Bee's friend?"
"Indeed."
Beast Boy was confused. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, who are you? What are you? How did you get here? Did you fix the room? Why did you help us? And Cyborg, what are you talking about?"
Silence.
The figure gestured to Cyborg. "Go ahead. My answer will be longer."
He nodded. "Well, Beast Boy, before I left Titans East Bumblebee told me a bit about the person who tipped you off to the problem I was having…am I correct?"
The figure nodded. "You are. And in order, Beast Boy, our name is Phantasm. We are…a ghost."
"A what?"
"You heard us. We are a collection of spirits. As for your other questions, I have powers, yes I fixed the room, and we helped you because it was immensely necessary that we do so."
With one gloved hand, the entity called Phantasm pointed to Raven.
"It is not in our best interests for us, or for anyone, to have Raven fall into the hands of the demon."
Beast Boy was still skeptical. "Okay then, for all your powers, why didn't you help us when we really needed it?"
"There is much we wish we could say. Much we wish to tell you. Much we cannot. The demon's four eyes see many things, and we do not want him to see us. Not yet. Nor can we have Raven see us, for the demon always keeps at least one eye right on her."
"You did help out, though, didn't you?" Cyborg said. "That weight didn't move on its own."
"No, it didn't. We wish we could have been of more help." Although its expression did not change, could not change, sadness seemed to radiate from the entity. "It is a hard thing, watching from the sidelines, wanting to help but having to reign yourselves in, for the greater good."
The figure then looked around itself. The sadness changed into…a bit of fear. "His eyes are passing over this place. Please, we must ask the both of you for two things.
"First, we request that you do not speak of this to anyone. Robin would be suspicious, and telling Starfire…would be like telling Robin."
Beast Boy was flabbergasted. "Keeping a secret? Dude, I…"
"You kept Silkie a secret, Beast Boy. We have no doubt you'll keep this too."
Cyborg still had reservations. "What about Raven's powers?"
"Raven cannot sense our powers, or anything involving us." Again, more sadness. "You will have no trouble keeping myself a secret from her.
"The second thing we request is fairly simple. Stand by Raven."
There was a pause to let the request sink in. "Now, more than ever, she needs friendship. Be her friends. Don't dig too deeply into her, but don't neglect her. Let her know you care. The moment alone is the moment when the demon takes control of her."
Silence.
"Please, this we beg of you. Do it for her, for yourselves, for everything you have ever cared about. Please…"
Cyborg and Beast Boy looked at each other, and then looked back at Phantasm. Cyborg smiled.
"Did you even have to ask?"
"I though you were going to ask me to fight that red guy. Now, don't take me wrong, I want to help Raven, but he'd kick my butt all the way to…well, you know."
Phantasm chuckled at Beast Boy's joke. It was a short chuckle, but one that spoke volumes of wisdom and the beauty of life.
"We thank you tremendously. And we will be in touch."
And in a flash of light, Phantasm was gone.
The sun had now risen above the horizon.
"Ngggggg."
The metal man and the shape-shifter looked to the couch to find the three slumbering Titans in the process of waking up.
"Hey, dudes and dudettes!"
"What would you like for breakfast?"
Even Raven smiled.
The sun shined like it was set afire by an angel…
(Fade to black…)
Postscript: WHEEEEEEEEE…
I do believe I have a deadline on this fanfiction now. Well, almost. I want to be done the moment after "The End, Part III". That's how I am.
Phantasm is ALSO from the comics, but don't look him/her/it/they up if you don't want to be spoiled (although to tell you the truth, it's obvious as to who…or what is under the mask). The swords? Inspired by the Unknowns of Square-Enix's Kingdom Hearts. Something about the cloaks…
Trigon is probably even more evil than he was in the comics, and definitely more fatherly. My major inspirations were IT by Stephen King, various Teen Titan episodes, the comics, and my own father. No, my dad is actually a very nice (hu)man, but he often makes incredibly bad jokes and goes off into lectures about "opportunities" and other stuff. So…yeah.
Special thanks to TitansGo(dot)net for finding out Kardiak's name spelling, and TitansTower(dot)com for backstory inspirations for the characters.
Malchior's severed head is something I've wanted to write about for a long time.
And for the next chapter…well, the Titans have recovered a bit…but Robin is going to have some trouble for two separate sources. Featuring the completely made-up backstory of a popular character on the show who wasn't in the comics. Can I make it any more obvious?
Once again, I must thank you Blackshield, for without you…well, I wouldn't have a beta-reader.
Please review, as they let me know SOMEONE is reading this.