Chapter Five: Firewall

HARDAC stared at Robin for a moment. "So, you figured it all out? You are your master's apprentice, no doubt."

Robin glared at him. "That's right! And I'll take you down, just like he did!"

He flung one of his disks at him, which exploded and released a quantity of black smoke.

"Oh, good move!" HARDAC said sarcastically.

Robin whipped out his staff, and charged at his opponent. He swung at him several times, putting his weight into each blow, but each time he was deflected by his shield. 'Great, how am I going to do this?' he thought.

He was suddenly picked up and thrown into the wall!

"You can't defeat me!" he said. "Here's another new trick!"

He raised his hands, and unleashed a blaze of electricity from them.

"Oh shit!" Robin exclaimed, dashing toward the kitchen where he ducked behind a counter, barely avoiding the barrage of energy.

He saw no sign of Raven or the other Titans, which he considered a good sign.

Suddenly, the mystic teleported right next to him.

"I took Starfire and Beast Boy to a safe location." she said. "I take it its not going well, huh?"

He shook his head at her.

"Here, I got these, just in case." she told him, handing him a pair of rubber gloves.

"Thanks!" He put them on and stood up.

"I'm back!" he yelled, brandishing his staff. He leapt toward his enemy.

HARDAC unleashed his energy bolts at him again. He blocked the blaze with his staff, safely insulated by the gloves. He laughed defiantly at him.

"So, you have some tricks to you as well, huh?" HARDAC said.

"That's right!" Robin said. "And you're going down!"

He charged at him, staff at the ready. HARDAC shot his energy at him, but Robin caught it with his staff and jabbed at his energy shield. The shield blazed, then shorted out, leaving HARDAC on the floor, smoldering. Robin stood over him.

"Cyborg, can you hear me?" he asked.

He was unexpectedly kicked from behind and sent into a wall! HARDAC stood up.

"I can still crush you!" he exclaimed.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" yelled Raven, who emerged from her hiding spot.

"Ah, the mystical one!" HARDAC said. "You will be defeated just as easily as your friends were!"

He sent his energy blaze toward her, only to meet a dark energy barrier.

"You underestimate me!" she said, defiantly.

"And me too!" yelled Robin, as he leapt and swung his staff at HARDAC's head.

He knocked down his foe, sending him sprawling on the ground.

"Good move, Robin!" Raven complimented.

"Yes." HARDAC said weakly. "Very nicely done. Now it is time to die!"

He grabbed Robin and threw him out the window, sending him crashing through it. He just managed to shoot out a grappling hook and stopped his fall.

"Your future is at an end!" HARDAC yelled, triumphantly, walking to the broken window.

Raven watched him, considering crashing an object into him. The, she realized what she really had to do. She first had to distract him.

"Hey you!" she yelled, flipping him off. "Fuck you, you fucking machine!"

HARDAC turned to face her, smiling. He started walking toward her. Raven then crossed her legs in her meditation style.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" she yelled.

Her soul emerged from her body and entered the combined mind of Cyborg and HARDAC. He stopped in his tracks, startled.

Robin took advantage of the lull to climb back up.

Meanwhile, in the world of Cyborg's mind, Raven saw she was out in the open, the ground the color of asphalt, stretching to the horizon. The sky was dark and cloudy, with lightning flashing about.

"What is this?" she said aloud.

"Welcome to my world!" came a voice.

She turned and saw Cyborg! His form was covered in a silver, polished covering.

"Cyborg, it's me, Raven! I'm here to help you!"

He chuckled. "There is no Cyborg! There is only HARDAC!"

He continued to walk toward her. She stared him down, knowing that she had to reach her friend somehow.

"Cyborg, I know you can hear me! Please, fight back!"

"Why should he fight back?" HARDAC said. "I'm giving him all he wants!"

"The destruction of everything he knows and loves?

"Power, respect, and the role of a leader!"

"All you're doing is showing him how to conquer the world for your own good!"

"And at the same time, he will be the leader of the machine race!"

"No, you will be the leader! You're just putting him on the back burner!"

HARDAC chuckled. "How else could I get control of all these wonderful abilities? Cyborg is the perfect blend of human and machine, and through both, I shall establish a new era!"

He shot out a blaze of lightning at Raven. "Too bad you won't be able to see it!"

Raven used her powers to stop the attack, but she was straining.

"Cyborg, listen to what he's saying! He's just using you! Telling you lies! He doesn't care about you! All he wants is power! You must stop him! You're the only one that can!"

She was on her knees now. "Please Cyborg! You don't want to do this! We're your friends!"

HARDAC laughed. "Friendship is irrelevant! I am a machine!"

"You're more than that, Cyborg!" Raven yelled. "You're more than a friend! You're a brother!"

She fell to the ground as the electric blaze intensified.

"Cyborg! Victor! I…" she gasped for breathe. "I…I love you, my brother!"

Her barrier collapsed and she was sent flying several yards!

"Such weakness!" HARDAC chuckled.

He walked over to Raven, who was struggling to get up.

"Maybe I can take over your mind too!" he said, reaching for her.

"Go fuck yourself!" she hissed.

Raven managed to roll out of his reach, when she saw something unusual. The liquid metal covering on Cyborg seemed to quiver and peel off his face! HARDAC paused and seemed to be involved with an internal struggle.

"No! NO! This is not possible!" he screamed.

The liquid covering slowly came off, dripping on the ground. A lightning bolt then struck him, and the liquid was forced off faster. Raven stood up and also contributed her own powers to help. The combined efforts of Cyborg's will and Raven's powers worked, as the liquid flowed completely off him. It coalesced into a human shape.

"You fool!" it yelled at Cyborg. "You're throwing away your chance for glory!"

Cyborg glared at it. "What good is glory without the people I care about?"

With that, he fired his sonic cannon at him, but without effect.

"You idiot! I'm still part of you!" Several bolts of lightning struck around him.

"He's right, Raven!" Cyborg told her. "You have to get him out!"

"Where is he?" she asked.

"The left side of my chest! Find him and get it out!"

Raven nodded and returned her soul to her own body.

In the real world, Cyborg was yelling, suffering from his internal battle. Robin was with him.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I helped reach Cyborg!" she replied. "Now we got to get HARDAC out of him!"

She used her powers to knock Cyborg on the ground.

"I'll be back!" she told Robin.

She went to Cyborg's room to get his special welding and cutting tools. She had learned about them from helping him with his work. She grabbed a plasma cutter and ran down the stairs.

"Here!" she said.

"Hurry!" Robin yelled. "I think he's losing it!"

Cyborg was groaning. "Please! Help…me!"

Raven turned on the cutter and set to work on opening the left side of his chest. When she had cut through the whole side, she pulled off the piece.

"Now, which is it?" she asked.

There was such a complicated maze of electronics inside, that she was afraid she might pull something important!

"I…got it!" Cyborg yelled.

"NO!" he yelled in HARDAC's voice.

Struggling with control of himself, he reached inside his chest with his right arm.

"Get out!" he yelled.

With a quick motion, he pulled out the wretched CPU that was his enemy from inside him and threw it on the floor. It still had a faint blue glow. Cyborg stood up, mostly back to normal.

"You are terminated!" he said, stomping on the chip until it was no more than a ground up piece of metal and silicon.

"Boo-yah!" he yelled.

And with that, he slumped to the ground, his power cell depleted. That was the last he knew, save for the sound of Raven's footsteps running toward him and a feeling of intense pain.