The Albino Telepath Saga

by DBAinsw

Discontinued: I keep this long, long story around as an example of what NOT to do. Once this was my superfantasy played out in a forum others might read it in. Now I see it as typing practice with an embarrasing garystu focus.

12. The Journey Part 3

Intro: Ah, hello again after a sadly long absence. Things around school and the dorm proved most distracting these past weeks, so it is only now that I update with the exciting conclusion to this story arc. Yes, it is its own story arc well and truly now, it just happens to take place halfway through another story arc. Anyway, it has all the combat I promised, plus so very much more, so I hope it was worth the wait for anyone who actually reads this (recent reviews, or lack thereof, have left me doubting on whether there are such people). Sit tight for the long haul, you won't want to miss the end of this one, even though I did kind of blow my own length limitations out of the water (I just couldn't think of a good place to split it for a two-chapter update).

Chapter 12: The Journey Part-III

Meandering Bog Entrance, fifteen minutes after they go in

One gazing into the pitch black of the nighttime swamp from the arch-like point where the bog ended and the wasteland before it began would have noticed some strange happenings around this time. Most likely, that person would first see a few discreet points of light, some moving, others just pointing straight toward him or her. The lights would vary in color, some green, some bright blue, others the plain yellow of firelight. As the moments passed, the lights would grow closer, and sound would gradually accompany the lights. The buzzing of high energy projectiles would be distinct among the bass of enormous explosions and the constant rattling of some kind of mechanical engine working overtime, always growing louder as the lights grew brighter and more distinct. Everything would be underscored by a terrifying wailing sound, as if thousands of disembodied voices were crying out in a symphony of pain and anger. Someone with the guts to stick around to this late point would be able to make out figures struggling on top of a mechanical carriage, beset by ethereal forms of a distinctly terrifying nature. This hypothetical observer would have done well to get the fuck out of the way at this point, because there wasn't anything that could stop the breakneck momentum of Cyborg's autocarriage now.

Bursting from the swamp's edge like a shot, the carriage fairly hopped over the rough ground as a furious struggle raged on the roof. Cyborg and Starfire stood back to back, surround on all sides by horrifying apparitions and spawn of hell. Flaming skulls circled and gibbered as huge zombie bats and vultures harried the already battered pair. Floating ghosts with frozen, dead faces tried to suck out their souls and posses their bodies, even as animate skeletons clung to the sides of the carriage and tried to claw at their legs or pull them from their defensive position. Beast Boy was poised on the very edge of the driver's seat, legs barely able to reach the steering pedals, gripping desperately at the throttle lever as he vainly attempted to open it further, eyes wide with terror.

The life and death struggle on the back of the carriage was winding down, the incredible fury of the undead creatures lessening now that they could no longer receive endless reinforcements from the fetid waters and brittle trees of the cursed bog behind them. "WIDE BEAMS" shouted Cyborg, whose hand was now a magic cannon that bore a striking resemblance to his weapon in the real world. Responding to his plan, Starfire prepared for yet another effort, tired, but far from out of destructive energy to rain on these freakish foes. At the same time then, Starfire opened up with one wide beam from each of her hands and Cyborg added one of his own from his cannon arm, the two of them quickly sweeping the air clean of ghostly assailants like one might wipe spots of filth from a windshield with a squeegee. As vaporized zombie flesh and bits of charred skull rained down on them, a jolting bump threw them from their feet, leaving each of them in a separate heap on the carriage roof.

Before Starfire could take off from her prone position and resume the battle from the now clear air, a bony hand reached out from the edge of the carriage and gripped onto her leg. Screaming reflexively, her eyes darted down to see the empty eye sockets of a bare skeleton staring at her from the back side of the speeding vehicle. A supernatural strength jerked at her leg, causing a burning pain to arc down her limb as the claw-like bones of the fingers dug into her flesh and left shallow red cuts between the leather straps that wrapped up her legs. The jerk brought her closer, pulling the skeleton's bleached white form up into view, giving her a great big target to exact her revenge on. After her grimace of pain at the new cuts in her leg, her eyes opened to reveal twin pits of green fire that would not be contained, green lasers leaping out to sweep over the bony form before her. The brittle animate bones disintegrated easily, leaving only a bone arm clinging to her leg and a set of skeletal legs that clattered off the back of the carriage and were crushed by the wheels of the wagon that still followed behind them. She was given no time to rest, a scream of frustration from Cyborg prompting her to look back at him.

Somehow, four fleshless forms had mustered enough force to hold the immensely strong metal man down to the top of the carriage, one at each of his arms and legs. As she watched, the one holding his right arm got its head blown off in a single iridescent flash of blue. As he tried to train the cannon on another of his assailants, he found that it was still pinned, the skeleton's headless body clinging as ferociously as ever. The Skeleton holding his left arm then climbed further up onto the carriage, reaching for Cyborg's face with the intent to kill, most likely going for a stab into the brain through his one good eye.

A hastily thrown starbolt from the back of the carriage struck the skeleton in its reaching arm close to the body, vaporizing the arm, head, and part of the chest before proceeding on to fry off a u-shaped burn in the carriage's front edge right next to Cyborg's ear and zip forward to singe a few hairs off Beast Boy's only recently fixed dew. Ignoring the skeletons for a moment, both guys turned bulging eyes accusatorily toward Starfire, who had the presence of mind to blush deeply at her mistake. All joking aside then, Cyborg used the broken remains of the skeleton that had gone for his face like a club to sweep the skeleton on his cannon arm away, freeing both hands and allowing him to sit up. At the same instant then, he trained his cannon at the head and shoulders of the bone heap on his left leg and Starfire got a bead on the one to the right, a set of energy blasts disintegrating the upper bodies of the final two creatures simultaneously.

Getting to his feet, Cyborg ordered Beast Boy to pull the breaks. The next moment, Starfire took off to keep her balance as Cyborg was thrown from his feet once more, this time landing upside down on the passenger side of the driver's perch. Having a few choice words with the shorter man, who honestly hadn't known that pulling the break all the way up immediately would do that, Cyborg became engrossed in making sure the untested driver hadn't damaged the controls, probably as a way of blowing off the post traumatic stress they were all suffering right then.

Starfire landed once more on the roof of the carriage, using a melting green touch of green fusion-fire surrounding her hands to fry the skeleton's ironclad bony grip off her leg. The slaged bone fell to the carriage's roof as she calmed herself, examining the cuts in her leg to make sure they weren't too bad and generally taking stock after the battle. She had just about finished when the situation changed once more.

"Nooonnnne escape the cuuurrrssse," wailed a deathly voice, sounding as if the wind itself were moaning out words into the night air. Leaping back up onto the roof, Cyborg stared out into the blackness in the direction of the swamp, a look of fury twisting his visage into a frightening mask. His red eye flared, even here possessing enhanced vision over normal eyesight. Thus he wasn't at all surprised when a lithe figure leapt out of the bleak shadows beneath the wagon trailer, catching the speeding figure with a classic uppercut as it flung itself toward him. The sickening sound of impact was followed by the muscular beastly form flying into the air, twisting about in the moonlight before falling back toward the carriage. With a straight right punch, Cyborg dug the barrel of his magic gun deep into the demonic figure's gut, the furry, horned creature twitching in agony as it was held in the air on the end of the blaster.

"Boo—yah," said Cyborg quietly, emphasizing the syllables one at a time for effect. After a short pause where the demon gave him a pathetic pleading look, Cyborg pulled the trigger, blasting the creature off into the night at high speed, the beam carrying it far out of sight before Cyborg let it die.

"HAH! No one escapes, huh? If that's the best you can do, then I guess there's a first time for everything!" shouted Beast Boy, following up with some mildly offensive hand gestures and annoying faces toward the swamp behind them. The unnatural quiet of the night eventually cowed him into silence, a strange gravity hanging over the area as they stood in silence, hoping against hope that they were safe at last. No such luck, I'm afraid.

A few clouds that had been partially blocking the moon edged out of the way, casting the area in a light bright enough to illuminate the swamp behind them. As they stared in that direction, each felt goose bumps rise on their flesh and the hair stand to attention on their necks. Without warning, an inhuman shrieking filled the air, sending shocks up and down their spines and causing each of them to flinch back at the terrifying sound. As they each looked on in horror, the swamp trees took on an unearthly glow in the moonlight, gathering some kind of cursed energy for some unknown end.

"I begin to think that perhaps taunting the swamp of hurting and ghosts was not the best of plans," commented Starfire, wringing her hands along her red braid in fear as she watched the glowing energy collect in three swirling nexuses above the trees. Beast Boy managed a nervous giggle at her comment before the developing situation squished everything but terror from his mind.

Emerging from the three mounds of collecting power were what could only be described as enormous body parts. A skull easily as big as their whole carriage came first, empty sockets staring up at the sky, two huge bone horns projecting from just above each eye socket showing it to be a demonic apparition as well. To either side, bony hands that were more like enormous talons sprouted out of the other two mounds of power, each as large as the skull itself. When all three had finished manifesting, the two talons reached out of the swamp in two quick flashes of growth, the skull following more sedately as it turned its blank gaze at the three of them. The parts were connected by a formless body of smoky shadow, distinguishable only as a deeper dark than the sky against the bright moonlight.

"Any chance of us getting out of here?" asked Beast Boy, in a voice made small by cowering.

"No way man, not after the number you did on the engine with that emergency braking. Thanks to you, we aren't going anywhere." Cyborg's gaze stood frozen on the ghostly monster before him as he spoke, his voice also colored by fear.

"Well hey, we wouldn't even BE here now if you'd just listened to me in the first place!" Beast Boy vented a slight sound of satisfaction at being right for once, but it was a rather feeble attempt at breaking the grip of fear on his chest that failed miserably.

"It's a little late for 'I Told You So' now man." Any further comments from Cyborg were cut off by the enormous demon before them speaking out in the same ghostly voice of before.

"Nooonnnne escape the cuuurrrssse," it said again, whipping one huge claw through the air as though practicing for the blow that would tear them all to shreds. It advanced slowly toward them over the ground they'd managed to cover since leaving the swamp, a distance that seemed all too short now that it was all that separated them from it. As it came, it trailed its shadowy body behind, remaining connected to the swamp as though it depended on the pit of death behind it for power.

"ESCAPE THIS!" shouted Cyborg suddenly, the first to turn his fright into fight and strike out at the creature that threatened to end him and his friends. Gripping his gun arm with his left, Cyborg sighted at the leading hand, blasting it with a wavering blue beam as it wove toward them through the air. The beam caught the beast's hand perfectly, and it screamed with pain as a black burn was traced down the side of its bleached bone talon.

"We... can hurt it?" asked Beast Boy, stunned to see the terrifying beast reel from the relatively small burn Cyborg had given it.

"Yes, and burning is something I happen to excel at!" screamed Starfire, charging a starbolt in each hand and firing up her eyes as well for good measure. Bringing her hands together, she formed a single huge sphere of green power, allowing it to grow to the size of a large beach ball before shooting twin green eye lasers through it. The lasers carried the huge starbolt with them, the collective energy shrieking through the air with a smell of ozone and impacting beautifully with the hideous demonic skull that still flew toward them. The explosion of vaporizing energy was spectacular, she having used enough to turn a building into a pile of dust and charred metal. When the green smoke cleared, the monster was missing a huge chunk of its skull and its left horn, the gaping hole in its head revealing a hollow cavity within.

"FOOLS, you think you can harm me?" the demon shrieked in a voice far more human sounding that before. His threat was somehow reduced by the fact that his injured hand was covering the gaping hole in his skull, even as his other hand drew back to strike down at them.

Working together, Starfire fired two green beams from her hands and Cyborg added a blue one of his own, piercing the third talon together and burning a hole straight through it. Venting a final scream of pain, the demon's solid parts faded in a swirl of shadow, the whole dark mist of him drawing quickly back into the swamp from whence he came. The celebration was magnificent.

Once they were sure the thing was gone, Starfire spontaneously jumped up and wrapped her arms around Cyborg's neck, hanging from his huge shoulders as she fairly screamed in glee. Beat Boy was shouting incoherently in elation, jumping up and down a few times before turning around and giving Cyborg a huge low-five. Cyborg himself, who had felt particularly aware of his own mortality for a long moment there, merely smiled and enjoyed the celebration of the other two, discarding his usual victory ritual of 'the booyah dance' for simple appreciation of his continuing life. They were a tad premature with this.

"HUMANS!" shouted the demonic voice, louder than ever before, startling them from their celebration. "You may have defeated me, but we are LEGION, and we will never rest as long as you still draw breath, so is our curse!" When the booming voice had died down to an unpleasant memory, Cyborg noticed movement along the tree line of the swamp before them.

"Uh... guys. We may want to give getting out of here another thought," he said nervously as the distant sight began to sink in.

"But you said our vehicle would not move until repaired?" asked Starfire, wondering what in the world could motivate Cyborg into leaving one of his precious machines.

"Still, we're a tad outnumbered here," he responded, indicating the now easily visible unbroken line of undead... things, now marching toward them out of the swamp. To say that there were lots of them would be stupid, because of course there were a lot of them. Much more interesting to note that there were TONS of them, more than the population of some countries. They marched out of the woods, row after row along a front that was three miles long if it was one, stretching from one barren horizon to the other. Moonlight glinted off of bones and rotting flesh beyond number, a veritable tide of dispossessed, soulless bodies striding steadily toward them, stepping in perfect time to some inaudible, forsaken beat.

Despair was a sensation for those who had some hope left, and that was one thing the three warriors lacked at this point. Watching the army of death stride forth from the swamp was like listening to one's own death rattle, so certain did it cement their own demises into their minds. Cyborg was the first to make a movement then, charging his blaster and testing his joints methodically as he stared at advancing doom.

"You two can fly, so there's a chance you can get away," he said calmly already resigning himself to the destruction to come.

"We would not dream of leaving you to do this alone!" Starfire spat indignantly, warming her powers up for yet another battle. The green fire in her eyes still burned brightly, hope for life gone but a warrior's determination steeling her for combat.

"Yeah, besides, they'll chase us to our graves, so it's not like turning tail would help us anyway," Beast Boy's humor shining through as he thought of the most destructive things he could possibly become. "Oh, and, I know it's pretty late, but you have to admit, I was right about the swamp."

"Oh come on man!" Cyborg complained, his resolve faltering slightly for Beast Boys poorly timed jokes.

"Admit it!" Beast Boy was obviously trying to go out with his pride, and Cyborg decided now was not the time to deny requests, especially ones likely to be of the final variety.

"Fine. I was wrong and you were right. Happy now? Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"...Nah. It wasn't quite as satisfying as I'd always figured it'd be."

"Damn."

"Yeah... NOT! HA! YES! That was just as great as I always dreamed! And to think I actually heard it once before I... died..." Beast Boy trailed off into silence, his perfect moment sort of tarnished by the circumstances.

With that the chatter stopped, and for a long time there was nothing but the sound of the slow advance of the enemy. There was no anticipation, no fear, just a common resolve to fight it out to the very end. It was about this time that Caspar chimed in.

"Uh, boss?"

"This is not a good time Caspar," Starfire snapped out loud, drawing curious stares from Beast Boy and Cyborg.

"Well, I was just going to say that Sky is communicating with me from the real world. He says he's about to remove the damaged parts of your spirit, and that it might cause some changes to the world around here. He specifically said, 'look out below.'"

"I fail to see how his warning could be of any possible aid to us at this point!" Caspar ignored her frustrated snappishness, instead continuing with the rest of the message.

"He also says that he's sorry for any wooziness or fatigue you might feel when he does it, but that he's sure it will help you heal faster in the long run."

"What is this you speak of?" and Starfire's frustration was serious now, Caspar's commentary completely throwing her determination. Beast Boy was explaining the concept of spirit guides to Cyborg quickly, assuring him that their newest ally hadn't snapped under the pressure, when it happened.

Without warning, the sky above them lit with a bright silver light, as if the moon had suddenly decided to try its hand at being the sun, illuminating the landscape with an ethereal glow that seemed to cool the spirit and energize the mind. As their eyes were drawn upward, a single shining, silver line spread endlessly across the heavens, a bar of pure spun starlight stretching through the sky. Suddenly, like some great curtain of the cosmos unrolling, the line grew downward with breathtaking speed, striking the ground in instants and separating the undead horde from the three heroes.

The sparkling ribbon then proceeded to sweep across the ground away from them, taking with it the top layer of barren soil, and, eventually, the front most ranks of the opposing army. The heroes watched in awe as the ribbon proceeded to grind the creatures up from front to back, pushing them away from end to end along their entire enormous battle line. Soon, the ribbon reached the edge of the swamp, carrying with it the soulless minions of the curse. With the sound of general destruction on a massive scale, the ribbon proceeded to tear up the swamp mercilessly, scraping it away like so much mud off the bottom of a boot. It was a big swamp, and the ribbon was not moving that fast, so the entire process took quite a long time, but it finally finished, the astonished trio standing in quiet awe the entire time.

"Does someone want to tell me what the hell just happened here?" Beast Boy asked at length, watching still as the upper part continued to stretch into the sky, even though the leading edge had gone over the distant horizon ages ago. Before anyone could answer, the ribbon began wrapping itself up at a pace not the slightest bit hindered by the megatons of earth, tree, and undead warrior it took with it. As it became merely a line again, and then shrunk to a single bright point in the sky, all three stared on in renewed amazement. In a final act, it split into two parts, a single red streak flashing out of it and into space, and a bright spot slowly growing brighter and brighter. After a long moment of stunned silence, Cyborg noted something interesting about the growing white blob in the sky.

"IT'S HEADING STRAIGHT FOR US!" he shouted, smacking his hands to the sides of his head in fear and stupefaction. How many times was he going to be certain of his own death tonight? Following the example of the quick thinking Beast Boy, Cyborg leapt from the carriage and proceeded to put some distance between him and it, as much as it hurt him to leave one of his babies defenseless like that, he knew it was it or him. It was a long moment then before he noticed the absentee among them (an interesting oxymoron, that).

"Where's Starfire?" he asked, when he'd finally caught up with Beast Boy and the changeling had morphed back from gazelle form. Beast Boy's eyes only widened in fear, answering with a horrified, wide-eyed, open-mouthed, finger point back toward the carriage. Not needing to turn to know what was meant by this, Cyborg merely allowed his head to tilt back in shock, eyes advancing toward the starry sky as a strange calm enveloped him. He noted bemusedly that the ball of light seemed to be coming from a different direction now. Putting two and two together, he snapped out of his euphoric shock, shouting, "MY GOD! There're more of them things!" before turning at last to look back at Starfire.

As his eyes caught sight of her slender from flying about forty feet above his autocarriage, he had about half an instant to admire her grace in flight before no less than four enormous spheres of white light impacted with her simultaneously. There was no flash, there was no bang, there was only a slight emission of silver sparks from the combination of four spheres of billowing energy around one suddenly hard to see young beauty. The process lasted only a few moments, and suddenly Starfire was falling swiftly to the ground, white light completely gone.

"Quick! Give me a boost!" shouted Beast Boy insistently, smacking the still stunned Cyborg on his steel chassis with a resounding clang. Not questioning even momentarily, Cyborg picked up the smaller man and wound up for a huge pitch, flinging him out into space the next instant as hard as his magically powered body could manage. Swooping up into the air, Beast Boy covered the ascent faster than any of his animal forms could possibly have managed, transforming only when he'd reached sufficient height for his idea to work. In a quick writhing of green flesh, he'd become a wyvern, swooping down in a high speed dive that caught up with Starfire's own uncontrolled decent in instants. Grabbing her with his massive claws, he spread his wings, letting the twin leathery sails catch their combined weight on the air and pulling out of the dive a matter of inches from the freshly plowed wasteland behind the carriage.

Beast boy landed and changed back, leaning down to check for vital signs in the still woman beneath him. Finding a strong pulse with ease and feeling her breathing almost right away, he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, allowing himself fall back onto the desolate soil. In a moment, Cyborg arrived, his clanging footsteps shaking the ground under Beast Boy's back. After assuring him that Starfire was fine, the two of them rested together, this time really sure that they were done with the whole matter.

"That was weird," observed Beast Boy as he stared up at the now super-ribbon free sky.

"Tell me about it," confirmed Cyborg, not really able to think of anything else to add to such an all-encompassing comment. Something shiny caught his eye the next moment though, and he asked offhandedly what it might be. Beast Boy checked it out himself and confirmed his own ignorance on the matter.

The object in question was a brilliant geometric shape gently cradled in Starfire's still right hand, the one with the snake tattoo coming out of it. It looked like a perfectly transparent crystal ball with a multi-faceted three-dimensional star embedded within it, the kind of jagged and many-pointed shape often used to represent the Star of Bethlehem in Christmas decorating. The sphere glowed with an internal light that was strangely reminiscent of the comforting and soothing glow the sky had given off during the undeniably magical occurrence of only a few moments ago. It seemed somehow cold, and eased the tension weighing on the minds of the two young men with a cool refreshing power that seemed to shoot straight into their eyes as they gazed at it.

"I don't know what it is, but I figure she may—hell, she may know all about what just happened—and we shouldn't touch it until we know what the hell it does," Cyborg decided commandingly, taking the lead as he often did when Robin wasn't around. "Come on man, I'll put her in the passenger compartment, then you're going to help me fix the engines. All the weird shit that just went down doesn't change the fact that we're supposed to meet Raven at the Temple of Azar by midday tomorrow."

The two of them walked the short distance back to the carriage, Cyborg carrying the unconscious warrior woman, careful not to touch the mysterious sphere that seemed attached to her right hand. Once they had her squared away, Cyborg lit his shoulder lamp once more and the two got to work on the rather minor damage to the engine.

"You know," Cyborg said after a while, something amusing occurring to him as a kind of afterthought, "We may have to reexamine something that was said earlier."

"What are you talking about now?"

"It's just that, well, we're fine right?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Doesn't that mean that, technically, I was right about the swamp?"
"WHAT?"

The Temple of Azar, one hour after midmorning, the next day

The autocarriage rolled swiftly up the twisting hilly paths that lead to the isolated structure nestled at the foot of the Mountains of Agony. Done over in a distinctly gothic motif, the towering cathedral had a multitude of leaping spires and bell towers, its tallest tower graced with a fabulous stained-glass window that reached nearly the entire central wall up to the highest leaps of carved stone. The building was set directly into a crevice in an enormous mountain wall, so that even its tallest point was still a huge distance beneath the lowest cliffs of the monumental stone behind it. It was rarely visited, but those visitors were powerful, so the roads leading there were all well-paved, leading directly up to a courtyard overshadowed by the towering mountain it lay beneath.

Pulling into the courtyard, Cyborg was a little nervous to notice that there was no one waiting for them. Usually, the woman they were coming to meet with was the type to be there at the door to greet you, not so much from fondness as a desire to get started as quickly as possible. He had driven all night long to get here, but the huge delay at the swamp and the disgustingly slow progress they made through the scraped up ground had been terrible time-wasters, and fear began to weigh down on him as he began to imagine what she would be like if they'd kept her waiting so long that she'd gone back inside. He actually sat indecisively on the stopped vehicle as he tried to decide if he liked Robin enough to face the image he'd thought of, but the decision was taken out of his hands by the appearance of a sudden dark presence to his left on the ground.

"Right on time I see," said a quiet, neutral voice that none the less made Cyborg nearly jump out of his metal plating in fright.

"DAMN! Raven, you know I can't stand it when you do that!" he shouted, turning to look down at the familiar young woman who he'd shared many an adventure with in past years.

Her slight, dark form was shrouded in an unadorned robe of extremely fine blue material. The robe covered most of her body in plain folds of cloth, leaving only her face and her arms past her elbow exposed. Her arms were otherwise covered in the skintight embrace of jet black sleeves belonging to something she wore under the robe, these coming all the way down to wrap around her hands. The robe had a hood she could wear to shroud her features, and often did when she was feeling moody or during combat. It could also open up down the front along invisible folds, but Cyborg had only eve seen this once, and the things she'd done with the extra mobility had been scary enough that he didn't care to be in a situation where she did it again. She was Raven, the greatest warrior-priestess of Azar. Well, technically, the only warrior priestess of Azar, but that was a damn long story.

"Live with it," she responded calmly to his complaint about her teleportation, fixing him with an icy glare that made him incredibly uncomfortable. It quickly became clear that she expected him to speak next, so he nervously ventured the best phrasing he'd managed to come up with so far.

"I... uh... well... sorry we're late. It was kind of an eventful trip. 'May you live in interesting times,' and all that, if you get my drift."

"Not at all," and Cyborg couldn't tell if she meant his allusion or his apology or what, "like I said, you're right on time."

"You mean you expected us to be late? C'mon Rae, can't you ever give us the benefit of the doubt?" Cyborg desperately tried to substitute offense to cover his own embarrassment and nervousness.

"I had a vision saying you'd either be one hour, one week, or one month late. I believe I did give you the benefit of the doubt." Her icy response blew away his attempts at offence without mercy, leaving him sadly without anything resembling pride or confidence. More or less at her mercy then, he was gratified when she actually granted it for once, leaving off of rubbing in his failure to meet her simple request of punctuality and changing the subject to work with, "So, did you get the items I asked for?"

"Uh, yeah, sure thing. Everything you needed is right here in the wagon. I had a hard time finding some of it though, stuff like this is rare since the war."

"I'm sure the priestesses will appreciate your tireless efforts. We can only hope they appreciate it enough to hold up their part of the bargain. Come on, let's get this stuff in there and start the ceremony."

"Hold on a sec... don't you want to know why we were late?" asked Cyborg, hoping to win back some brownie points with the juicy information he'd gathered on the trip here. He knew Raven would just love what he knew, and he was betting it would be enough to gain some grain of respect back out of her.

"I had assumed it was the same old story of you running out of power and/or Beast Boy getting into trouble with princesses. It always is." Nonetheless, she fixed him with the steady gaze of her complete attention, willing to at least listen to what he felt was important enough to interrupt their effort to save Robin.

"Well, you wouldn't have happened to have noticed a bright light in the sky southeast of here would you?" he asked as he climbed off the carriage and stood looking down at the shorter woman.

"No, of course not, how could I have noticed a light that consumed the very sky itself? Especially one that has apparently also consumed one of the most grievously accursed places on the planet? A light that, if the reports sent by pigeon and telepathy from priestesses abroad are to be believed, had three sister lights that consumed the other three most grievously accursed places in the entire world? Seriously now, why would I have noticed something like that?"

"Sheesh, okay! Enough with the sarcasm already, it was just a question." Raven met his complaint with a new icy glare, clearly waiting for him to spit out what he felt was so important.

"Right, well, it just so happened that we were in the vicinity of that swamp when the light came down to smite it and—"

"Do you mean to tell me that you were near the swamp I specifically told you to stay away from?" and there was a submerged heat to her tone that renewed Cyborg's nervousness in a flash.

"Oh, yeah, you did say something like that... but no one really believes in curses like that, and we needed to shave some time after the delays of me running out of power and Beast Boy getting into trouble with princesses, so..."

"So you walked right into one of the worst curses ever to exist?" Cyborg was damn right cowed by the stirrings of anger in her neutral tone, her ability for intimidation seeming to have grown with the years. "I warned you away from that swamp because it was dangerous. If that light hadn't shown up you'd be dead right now. Please, don't ignore my warnings in the future, your safety is far more important to me than punctuality could ever be."

Her speech was delivered with complete neutrality, but she actually turned away toward the end, probably unable to keep a cool continence due to whatever thoughts that accompanied her touching words. It was at times like this that Cyborg remembered that, before everything else, Raven was their friend, and also that, really, really deep down, she was just a big softie anyway. Not that he'd ever say that to her face.

"I assume you still have some point to make?" Raven said, having regained complete control and turned back to Cyborg.

"Oh, like I was saying, we got a really good look at the ribbon of light scraping that cursed swamp off the face of the map, and then at what happened to the ribbon of light after it disappeared."

"What?" and Cyborg could have jumped for joy at the distinct interest in her voice. It looked like he was going to score some respect with this one yet.

"Weeeelllll, you know those blasts of white energy that flashed off from the four places the ribbons were sighted after they disappeared? It turns out that the lights converged on each other, really damn close to where B.B. and I were."

"Go on." Raven clearly didn't enjoy being strung along, but was more than willing to put up with it for info like this. Priestesses of Azar were incredible information collectors, their spy network the greatest in the world.

"More exactly, they converged on someone. She was a pretty young warrior we bumped into on the way here that incidentally turned out to be instrumental in our surviving to meet you," and Cyborg completed his statement by walking over to the carriage's passenger compartment doors and popping one open, revealing a figure currently recumbent on the wide padded seats.

"That's Beast Boy." Raven said, more than a little annoyed. Cyborg did a double take, seeing that it was indeed where the young man had passed out that he'd shown Raven. He wished quite explicitly that he had enough leg joint articulation to kick himself, then shut the door and stepped one stride further to the right, grabbing the other door (each side had double doors that open out in opposite directions), he apologized and opened this one.

This time, he got the right one, and the tranquil form of the beautiful young warrior was revealed, also currently lain out on the long seat opposite from the one Beast Boy occupied (passengers face each other to facilitate conversation on long trips). Raven leapt onto the first step up to the passenger compartment to get a closer look, her curiosity eventually prompting her to climb all the way in and gaze down at the girl from above.

A cursory examination revealed nothing exceptionally interesting in her other than the spectacular tattoo that was currently projecting a mysterious energy that Raven couldn't quite place. Other than that, she could sense great power, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Actually, there was also something familiar about her, like they'd met somewhere before, but Raven couldn't place this feeling either, so she let it go for now and climbed out of the carriage.

"She's cute, but I don't really see what's so special about her. Are you sure she was the conversion point for those spheres of excess energy?"

"Sure as what I saw with my own eyes! I watched it happen, I even helped Beast Boy rescue her when she fell out of the air!" Cyborg was understandably upset that she was so unimpressed by the spectacular find he'd dug up for her, and proceeded to play his gambit. "I mean, did you get a look at that freaky sphere she was holding? That appeared right after the light struck her, and B.B. and I had no clue what it was."

"What sphere? I didn't see anything like that," responded Raven, narrowing her eyes as she tried to recall anything like what he was talking about.

"Come on (he looks into the carriage)... I can see it from here—there in her right hand. How could you miss something like that?" Cyborg asked, concerned that his normally magnificently observant friend had glazed over something as intrinsically interesting as a glowing sphere with a star-crystal inside of it.

"That tattoo..." Raven mumbled cryptically, a dark look sweeping across her expression as she turned once more to the carriage. "It was emitting a distraction compulsion!" Cyborg recognized that tone and took it upon himself to try and keep Raven from killing someone, following her to the door of the carriage as she climbed back in and stood over the sleeping beauty once more.

"Come on Raven, I'm sure her spirit guide was just trying to protect it from thieves or something!" he shouted in, trying to reason with her.

"You could see it because you'd already gotten a look at it before that mark started hiding it. I couldn't see it because my mind shield didn't consider the energy of the distraction compulsion as hostile... I don't appreciate it when entities mess with my perceptions," and she stared down at the girl's right hand, even now noticing that no matter how hard she tried, her eyes still slid away from its contents every time she set them there.

Getting fed up, she drew deeply on her powers of concentration, forcing her eyes to look at Starfire's right hand, finally breaking the compulsion and getting a look at what had so impressed Cyborg. Truthfully, she wasn't all that unimpressed herself. The sphere was not only beautiful, but it emitted an energy that was clearly oriented toward the healing of mental and spiritual maladies. This being a skill lacking in the Azarath Order, Raven found herself completely absorbed in her examination of the incredible ball of power. She actually found herself drawn to it, wanting desperately to touch it. As she reached her hand slowly toward it then, sudden movement rearranged things quite forcefully.

Without warning, Starfire's free hand flashed up, grabbed her wrist, twisted her arm into a locked position directly forward, and then pushed back with incredible strength that sent Raven flying into the far wall of the carriage. Striking it with a bang, she promptly fell down and landed squarely on Beast Boy's back, causing the young man to gag on his most recent snore and jerk uncontrollably to wakefulness. He emitted a strangled cry as his eyes darted around the compartment, trying to figure out what the heck had just happened.

"RAVEN?" he finally asked, summing up his confusion with the simple question to who was probably the last girl he ever expected to see sitting on his back.

Raven was a little too distracted by her own shock to notice the rather compromising position she was in. All of her attention was focused on the young woman who had just attacked her without provocation, the young girl that had almost broken her arm, the young girl who... was still sleeping? Upon further consideration, Raven could not deny that Starfire had never woken for an instant while throwing her across the room, leaving only one possible conclusion. That damn spirit guide.

"Hey, as much as I enjoy you rubbing your butt on me—"Beast Boy managed to get out, before Raven turned to him with a glare of pure murderous fury.

"Stuff it," she said, somehow managing to mismatch her homicidal glare with a completely cool tone. Extricating herself from Beast Boy's back, she stepped once more across the compartment to stand over Starfire's sleeping form. Starfire had rolled slightly in her sleep, lying on her left arm and leaving her right fully exposed, the crystal orb cradled lovingly to her chest as she rested. This position gave her an excellent look at Starfire's tattoo, and deciding it was time to talk, she reached out with a single finger and touched one of the twirling coils on the outermost part of her upper arm.

"We have some things to discuss," she said simply into the sentient marking's mind the instant she'd established mental contact. Her words didn't convey it, but it was impossible to hide her rage over the mental link. Caspar for one wasn't the least bit impressed by her anger, and made no small show of getting this fact across.

"I don't think we have too much to talk about myself," he said, warming up to get his powers of annoyance into full gear, finally having a hostile target to use them on after such a long time of being in contact only with people he actually cared about.

"You attacked me. I consider that a GREAT reason for us to talk," and Raven was really pouring on the fury now, trying to overwhelm the spirit with pure force.

"No really? I figured you'd want to talk to share that winning personality of yours. Anyway, I attacked to defend my host, so you can go have a party with any complaints you may have, because I'm sure as hell not going to listen to them." With that, Caspar severed the connection between the two, leaving a slight sting on Raven's finger and a serious sting to Raven's pride.

"RRRGGGG" she growled uncontrollably, her whole body enveloping with a white-edged black aura of destructive energy as rage consumed her mind. She was verging dangerously on loosing complete control, and recognizing this, Beast Boy took the opportunity to vacate the carriage, transforming into a small green fox and slipping lithely past Raven and Cyborg both, changing back to look on from the relative safety of behind Cyborg's huge metal frame. Cyborg, for his part, was torn between his desire to protect their newest friend and his almost as strong desire to be far away from Raven when she got like this. Raven meanwhile reached down and touched Caspar once more, her rage not showing by her finely controlled movements and smooth reconnection to Caspar's mind.

"Oh, it's you again. Have something more relevant to share this time do we?" asked Caspar boldly, his snide tone all the thicker for his intense amusement at her anger.

"WHY... EXACTLY... DID... YOU... ATTACK?" Raven managed, coherent thoughts a little difficult with that much anger coursing through her veins.

"I told you, I had to defend my host."

"SO YOU THREW ME AT BEAST BOY?" she snapped, her anger coalescing slightly and allowing her thoughts to come easier.

"Hey, I figured you two would make a cute couple. If you guys got together, why, there'd be the pitter-patter of fuzzy green mystics in the house!" That did it, and Raven lost it completely, spazzing out at an exponential rate. Having had his fun, Caspar took this moment to turn the tables, sending a pulse of energy through the mental connection that she'd formed and bypassing her defenses (which were already shot by her rage-caused lack of concentration) effortlessly. With a flash of power, he pulled the bottom out of her anger and watched it drain down her arm and into his 'stomach' at a truly impressive clip. Her eyes were wide, the emotion drain not having the mind-clearing effect of a simple equalizing, merely leaving her suddenly devoid of feeling where before she'd been controlled by one. Needless to say, she took a moment to reorient her thoughts.

"What--?"

"Never mind that, I've got something to say to you now. That sphere of energy was a gift from Master Skye to Miss Starfire. You have no place touching it without her explicit consent, no matter how much you're drawn to the raw power there. If you'd like a closer look at it, wait for her to wake, then just ask. It's really as simple as that. In the meantime, I'm obligated to protect her interests, and none of your spitfire is going to shake me from that. You were in the wrong, I made a move, get over it—okay?" and with that closing remark, he snapped their connection once more.

This time, rather than exploding with indignant anger, Raven merely stepped back and took to calm consideration. It had been foolish of her to let herself be baited by the cheeky spirit inhabiting this mysterious woman, and she chastised herself as she once again gazed at the orb. There was power there, and she had been unduly drawn to it, and while that wasn't much of an excuse for what the spirit had done to her, it was enough of one that she shouldn't have gone off like that.

Satisfied at last, she turned and stepped toward the entrance, her enmity with the spirit settling in her mind as she considered the way he'd humiliated her, baited her, then defused her anger like she was some kind of amateur. Next time she wouldn't underestimate him, that was for sure, then they'd see who was the better at the little game they'd been playing. This was more or less her last thought on the matter as she glared at Cyborg and Beast Boy until their stunned faces twisted into nervous smiles and they stopped blocking the entrance. Once out of the carriage, she ignored the confusion at her emotional flip-flop and got back to business.

"Come on, we have to get these supplies into the temple and start negotiations," she said simply, indicating the tarp-covered wagon they'd hauled for so long now.

"Uh, yeah. Do you want to get it or should I?" asked Cyborg, hoping she'd get his drift. She did, perfectly, once again proving to be just as observant as he'd always known, and the confirmation was comforting.

"You go ahead and get it, I'll carry the girl to a more comfortable bed. Beast Boy, you can help Cyborg," she said simply, responding to Cyborg's prompt by choosing exactly what he'd silently asked of her: to carry the unconscious girl for him. Cyborg could handle heavy weights, but he didn't exactly have a delicate touch, and carrying girls around was something guys did in emergencies and intimacies, of which now was neither.

Plans lain clearly, Raven used her power to lift Starfire gently from the carriage seat and convey her toward the building, mind already absorbed in a figure named Skye and how he was able to wipe out the world's four greatest curses in a single sweep, not to mention puzzling over his relation to this mysterious young warrior who seemed so familiar to her. Cyborg took the wagon coupling off with a few quick movements, grabbing the stem where it had been attached to the carriage and dragging it the last few feet toward the door like it was a child's red wagon and not a half-ton of mysterious supplies for an isolated priestess convent. Beast Boy followed after him, finally transforming into a Yeti, helping him unload the heavy 3'x3'x5' boxes and carry them inside.

Temple of Azar Antechamber

"So ladies, this is what I've got for you," began Cyborg, addressing a group of three dozen women both young and old, all dressed in the same blue robes Raven wore. They crowded around the huge man eagerly, wanting to know what he'd brought to their remote home as payment for the services Raven had requested of them. Truthfully they wouldn't have put up with the girl if it hadn't been for promise of this payment, her violation of their order's precepts on non-violence making her something of an outcast among them. In any case, looking for all intents and purposes like a huge metal UPS guy, Cyborg began reading off an inventory list he'd made up himself as he picked up the various things Raven had asked for, knowing as she did exactly what the ladies here were interested in. (AN: any views expressed in the following paragraph in no way represent the author's own opinion of women in general. This is an exaggeration of a particular stereotype of woman that fit the scenario well.)

"Okay, first off, I've got two hundred bars of Heinric's Best Soap, half scented, half unscented," he started, eliciting happy sounds right off the bat. "Next we have one manufacturer's shipping crate full of 'Ye Olde Hair Tonic,' guaranteed to prevent tangling and keep hair at its softest. Moving down the list, there's one crate of this past year's back copies of 'Princess' magazine, assorted face and nail paints, thirty manicure kits, thirty pounds of rich chocolate, and one crate of... (ahem) 'Sanitary Napkins,'" the last he sort of snuck in with the natural male discomfort on that subject. "Last but not least, four hundred rolls of toilette paper, two-ply with aloe." At this point, half the ladies where ready to faint and the other half were fighting over who would get first crack at claiming swag. General bedlam reined until the Abbess stepped forward and began organizing things.

When she was done dispersing the crowd, the tall, extremely angular woman in her particularly nice blue robe strode forward and considered the two young men, the only two men within 50 miles, with extreme dissatisfaction. With curt words and strong gestures, she instructed them to be on their best behavior, specifically detailing all the places they were NOT to go, before having the pure gall to order them to carry the crates full of stuff to the store room for sorting. Beast Boy didn't take it well, but Cyborg smacked a hand on his back hard to curtail any smart ass remarks, reminding him once the old hag had left that they need the temple on their side if they wanted to sneak past the Mountains of Agony and all of Slade's defenses.

Hauling the heavy crates then, Cyborg with one in each hand like they were big pillows, Beast Boy much the same in the form of a sasquatch, they finished in a few trips down the long twisting path to the store rooms below the temple proper. By the time they were done and had returned to the antechamber, they found two familiar ladies waiting for them.

"Friends, it is so good to see you well!" shouted Starfire as she spotted them coming up the narrow stairway from the storage cellars.

"Hey, hey, look who's awake," responded Cyborg, the woman's cheerful voice prompting an immediate smile out of both him and Beast Boy. "You gave us quite a scare with that whole incident by the swamp," he said, trying not to give too much away to the prying ears that were always around in Temples to Azar.

"I am sorry for any trouble I caused you. It was, 'circumstances beyond my control'?" she tried another new turn of phrase she'd been practicing, her success rate actually having gotten pretty good over the past months.

"I think it would be a good idea to take a walk now," broke in Raven, clearly having something she too would like to discuss away from the spies all around them. "Starfire is still recovering, and fresh air would do her good while the priestesses prepare for the ceremony."

"Sounds good, I think we can all do with a little relaxation after the long trip over here," was Cyborg's code response agreeing that a discussion of various things was definitely in order. Beast Boy and Starfire were sort of left out of the loop, each of them thinking Raven had actually suggested some kind of communal recreation, a first in any world, and were quite perturbed by the unprecedented action. Nonetheless, they all filed slowly outside, beginning to chat about this and that in a totally natural manner as they left the building. Once they were gone, no less than four persons slinked stealthily away from various positions of concealment, knowing better than to even bother trying to shadow the likes of Raven across open hills in broad daylight.

The Foothills beneath the Temple

"Do you think we've lost them?" asked Cyborg of Raven after they'd leisurely made their way into the warm afternoon sunlight and out onto the handsome green hills of the vacant countryside beneath the mountains. They walked in a loose line, Beast Boy bouncing along on Cyborg's right as Raven seemed to float along on his left, her strides so even that she seemed to hover as she moved to keep up with his big steps. Starfire actually did hover, floating along vertically a few feet off the ground, just above and behind Cyborg and Raven.

"Oh, we lost them at the door. They haven't bothered tailing me outdoors since a certain... incident... soon after I arrived here a few weeks back." As usual, Raven's tone revealed nothing, the incident could have been a tea party for all the coloring her speech gave it. Cyborg suspected something more serious however, and felt his metal chest fill with pride that this amazing woman was on their side.

"That's our girl, gave 'em hell didn't you?"

"Something like that. In any case, we have a few things to talk about, you and I," and the menace not communicated by her words was more than made up for by that carried in the glare she leveled at them now that they had stopped walking. Cyborg felt ice fill his spine, despite the pleasant warmth of the open fields, and tried to think of anything he might have done to tick her off recently. Coming up empty, he was forced to wait for her to explain herself, never a good situation to be in with Raven.

"Why exactly did you neglect to tell me that our newest ally here was, in fact, Princess of Tamaran, lawfully betrothed of the errant Prince Robin?" she asked, causing no small amount of consternation in the male portion of their group.

"PRINCESS?" shouted Beast Boy, jaw dropping even as he began reevaluating the young warrior on several different levels, not the least of which was 'what are my chances with her?'

"How... I mean, I thought you wanted to keep that a secret?" Cyborg asked Starfire, turning to look up at her, obviously assuming she'd let herself slip to Raven in some way. She was currently floating with her eyes down, staring fixedly at the ground below her as she felt opinions, at least Beast Boy's opinions, shift in a way she'd been trying to avoid.

"I told her nothing. She found out on her own," Starfire said at last, feeling the sting of failure at the memory of Raven confronting her with her secret, seemingly never fooled for a moment by her disguise. It had happened shortly after she'd awoken, Raven standing silently over her and examining her with an inscrutable look on her face, then greeting her with her Tamaranean name.

"I noticed that she looked familiar, though I couldn't really think of why. By chance, I took the long way up to the dormitories through the old portrait hall. Who would have thought that we'd have a full eight by ten (that's in feet for paintings) of the Royal Family of Tamaran hanging there? I wouldn't have believed my own eyes if I hadn't had her right there with me to compare, but it was definitely where I recognized her from." Raven's explanation left Cyborg reaching, his mind missing a few key facts that would have settled things for him rather quickly.

"So let me get this straight," he began, trying to satisfy the ache in his head, "You spotted her through her disguise from some musty old painting hanging in a back hallway of an isolated mountain temple?" Feel free to insert your own look of complete disbelief on Cyborg's face.

"Not exactly, you see, the paintings in the portrait hall are all enchanted. They constantly repaint themselves to keep track of the actual appearance of the members of the family they are attuned to. It's a slow process, but so is aging, so it usually doesn't matter. The clincher for my believing what I saw was simple however: I could see a white tattoo beginning to appear on her portrait's neck, just above the line of her dress."

Cyborg shook his head in wonder, having little choice but to believe what he was hearing. Raven went on to describe the incredible advantage having such an important political figure on their side could mean, how it opened doors she'd never considered before. Apparently she'd described these things to Starfire, who had reluctantly agreed to drop the façade of mere knighthood for her own titles in the many dealings to come. Specifically she mentioned something along the lines of trying to end the war by having Robin and Starfire marry, making the war a clear treaty violation and more than likely bringing in neutral powers like the Kingdom of Metropolis. None of them were terribly enthusiastic about this forced union, but discussion kind of ended there with Beast Boy's sudden exclamation.

"HOLY CRAP! Do you guys see what I see?" he asked, pointing off toward where the road disappeared behind a distant hill. He'd been sulking off to one side since Raven dropped her bomb, thinking of all the chances to put the moves on Starfire that he'd missed thinking she was just a really good warrior. Warrior princess though? That was like the best kind! As he lamented opportunities lost then, he'd gazed off at the landscape, making him the first to notice the ranks of marching figures pounding around the crest of the foothills.

"It can't be..." Cyborg said, disbelief coloring his voice in a much less pleasant way than it had with Raven's story.

"The bastards must have tracked us after the run in with Dominic in the forest!" and Beast Boy once again regretted his choice not to transform into an elephant and make that scumbag into toe jam.

"Just perfect. If they catch us up here, the Temple will loose its political immunity. Do you know what the likes of Dominic will do with a detachment of golems and a building full of defenseless maiden priestesses?" asked Raven grimly, even as she began scouting around for goodly sized erratic boulders and rock outcroppings to use in the coming battle.

"He will do nothing, not if I burn off his shnashpalps first," said Starfire, her eyes becoming green novas as starbolts began to play about her clenched fists. This comment caused Cyborg and Beast Boy to exchange pale stares, each of them surreptitiously covering their important bits for a moment at the thought of what waited Dominic if Starfire was the one to get a hold of him. (Note: shnashpalps is one of many Tamaranean words for 'hand')

"I'll scout their numbers, B.B., help me out here man," stated Cyborg, trying to get his mind off the thought of burning and what he assumed shnashpalps were. Touching a button on the metal plating of his skull, he caused some changes in the structure of his magical eye, slowly causing it to telescope out of his head. Much like a telescope, it gave him a magnified view of the enemy's ranks, and he began to tally quickly as Beast Boy landed on his shoulder in the form of an eagle, gazing out to help him count.

"Starfire," began Raven, drawing the furious girl's attention, "You haven't fought Slade's forces before, so I'm going to go over their tactics for you. They always do the same thing, basically just forming into ranks and using their durability and magical firepower to their advantage. It isn't exactly pretty, but they managed to flatten Gotham's army before King Batman developed useful countermeasures. Since we can't limit the size of their ranks on the open hills, we're going to have to flank them. We're faster than the boys, so we'll have to go around the sides and try to roll them up. The guys'll take up a defensive position in the center to try and break their charge and draw their fire." As she spoke, she glanced around the area, using her powers to collect various boulders and place them in what Starfire assumed were strategic positions. As she finished stripping the landscape, she said, "First however, we might as well use the high ground to our advantage."

"I do not understand," began Starfire, slightly confused by what Raven was telling her. "Why should the golems charge? They cannot possibly know our exact position, why do they not merely march into the temple and search for us there?"

"Slade's forces never take any chances," Raven answered, when she realized Starfire's question actually had and intelligent and tactics-savvy point behind it, "They always charge whenever there is the slightest chance of engagement. Golems are such easy targets while stationary that they always want to be moving if an ambush should take place, as it's about to here. This sitting-duck defect is what King Batman learned to take advantage of, and what we're about to use against them ourselves." Starfire nodded, finally getting a good idea of what was about to happen. As she continued to charge two glowing starbolts behind the cover of the ridge, Cyborg and Beast Boy finished their task.

"Looks bad, I count seventy of the man sized ones and twenty of the bigger ones," Cyborg said, retracting his eye back into his head. Around the same time, Beast Boy reverted to human, not bothering to get off Cyborg's shoulder as he confirmed the numbers.

"Plus, if I'm not seeing things, that's Masonstone forming up at the center with Dominic riding on his back." He added, having seen them come around the mountain crest after Cyborg had stopped counting.

"Huh, I wonder how that little shit managed to score Slade's number one errand freak?" Cyborg mused as he transformed his right arm back into a cannon and surveyed the steep slope of the hill the enemy would be charging up any minute now. Even as he asked, the army finished coming around the hill valley at the far end of the long, slow incline that led up to the temple, forming up in classic golem assault lines for the inevitable charge.

The smaller golems looked like stone masked men, the small objects wrapped around their uniform right hands being magic blasters that, along with their strength and speed, made them exceptionally deadly. The larger golems looked like poorly made statues, all smoothed off curves in bear-like proportions, wicked metal claws on the hands and feet having terrible destructive strength, the large, red, cyclopean eyes set into their cylinder heads able to shoot magic blasts of their own.

The small ones lined up in an advance formation two rows deep and 35 columns across. The big ones formed up behind them, two rows of ten. Masonstone's huge from brought up the rear, Dominic's shock of blond hair shining in the distance from where he perched on the huge stone beast's back for safety.

"He probably just dropped our names and got a blank check from whoever was in command of this force. We are pretty notorious y'know. War criminals and all that," responded Beast Boy to his big friend's question.

"What makes you say there's another commander?" asked Cyborg as he tested his aim, sighting down his arm and checking his joints in a longtime pre-battle ritual of his.

"Well, he couldn't have picked up these troops in a town, there'd be no way for him to keep up with us after a detour like that. They must have been out on patrol, or on assignment or something, and he just bumped into them on the road. Anyway, when was the last time you saw Masonstone leading golems?" Beast Boy sounded more than a little full of himself, and Raven took the opportunity to knock him down a few pegs, just to keep him sharp.

"Wow," she said, not the slightest hint of actual awe in her tone, "you actually made a relevant and comprehensive observation. Congratulations. Now I'd be really impressed if you hadn't lifted nearly the whole speech from what Robin said that time they had us cornered in Westwood."

"Heh heh haa, yeah. Well, I was just applying experience to the situation."

"Cut the chatter, they're on the way," Cyborg snapped, and sure enough, the smaller golems began to move. They were slow to begin with, moving in a few jerky strides to the start of the incline, then took off at high speed. Leaping back and forth up the hill at a disgusting pace, the golems had closed half the huge distance to the heroes' hiding place on the ridge in no time at all, all seventy of them charging toward the temple, no idea in their automaton minds that there was quite a spectacular trap waiting for them.

Signaling the start of the ambush, Raven muttered her magic words, her whole body taking on a black glow as she simultaneously lifted every stone she'd lain along the lip of the hill they were hiding behind. Ranging in size from watermelon to tractor, the enormous and disassociate load tested both her strength and her skill, but it was a maneuver she'd had cause to use before, and with a grunt of effort, she managed to fling all the various debris forward with a decent initial velocity, letting gravity do the work from there. The avalanche rained down on the advancing statues like a meteor shower of rolling destruction, each stone bounding and twirling over the slope with its own unique path of demolition. Where smaller stones impacted with high-speed golems, arms, legs, heads, or whole bodies were dashed to pieces in an explosive crumbling of one rock against another. Where the huge, completely unstoppable boulders went, only the wide, thin line the golem's had utilized saved them, three and four being rolled over at a time, not even well-placed magic blasts deflecting the overrunning granite, instead merely creating smaller projectiles to rain nearly equivalent destruction over a larger area. By the clouds of dust that went up everywhere, Cyborg estimated 40 casualties, but then the remaining dozens were already past the point of impact and another fourth of the way up to the hill's crest.

Raven was keeled over, but taking a few quick breaths, she nodded to Starfire and melted into the ground like ink, the leftover pool swirling away to nothing as she removed herself to her flanking position. Starfire in turn leaned back and put on a burst of speed, flying inches above the ground to remain concealed behind the hill's peek, zipping all the way back to the very edge of the enemy formation just as it came leaping over the peek and onto the plateau beyond, the hopping golems now going headlong for the final slope up to the temple. As she took her opportunity to shoot up into the air and get an ideal firing position, Cyborg kind of... "interrupted" their progress.

With an explosive shout of "BOOYAH!" his arm erupted with blue energy, lashing out in a line that shattered the nearest three golems from behind in the miniscule moment between their landing after clearing the peek and their next leap. The golems, ignoring as per programming the inanimate assault from the boulders, now turned their attention backward, many of them from midair, as an active enemy appeared, also per programming. Here's where the King's genius comes in.

The golems, extremely mobile when in full gear, have the turning radius of a big boat (like a fucking battleship), and thus their ability to respond to attacks from behind (while at attack speed anyway) is somewhere between pathetic and embarrassing. And yet, their magi-conditioning mandates that they respond to new threats like that whenever they lack a specific objective ('attack the temple ' doesn't count). So, the whole damn cavalcade of them reduced speed, coming to a halt as they turned to train an array of potential destruction at one metal man and one green man. There was an audible hiss as forty-something magic blasters charged, thus the flanking maneuver.

With Raven rising from a pool of shadow on the left and Starfire bearing down from the right, the stopped golems transformed from an array of death in tableau to so many big stone targets.

Raven began this time too, sweeping her arm expansively through the air, she sent a black blade of solidified air radiating out in a scythe of destruction, bisecting a path of golems thirty feet wide and stretching from her to the hillside behind the twenty-something stone men she'd just shortened at the waist. Starfire, who'd been charging her fists for the past three minutes, flung first one blast, then a second, somersaulting for force and leaving a few feet of space between them. The two fusion charges were so immense that they actually pulled on one another, twisting through the air like enormous wrestling fireflies and striking the ground with simultaneous bursts of incinerating energy. Those golems within about ten feet of the blast were vaporized instantly. One who just made the grade was only partially vaporized, its other side getting a half-instant reprieve before the shockwave from the explosion eradicated it and everything else within an additional twenty feet.

Cyborg and Beast Boy used the moment of smoke-filled confusion after the green flash to charge off at the last survivors. They themselves had had a little trouble with that shockwave, but that didn't slow them from their own attacks. With a flying leap, Cyborg came down on two with open arms, crushing them to pebbles with a huge falling body slam. The last two, who had miraculously avoided Raven's and Starfrie's attacks, actually got some shots off, lancing out with orange lines of fire at the green serpent that slithered toward them. Beast Boy finally changed into a bull, coming up from the ground with a butting motion that smacked the first one into the sky even as it shattered, then reversed the motion left and beat the second one onto the ground, where he proceeded to trample it for a while. Less the world seventy golems.

The ambush had been a crushing success, all of the enemy's light units eradicated in a matter of seconds. Celebration would have been premature however, because they were still outnumbered five to one, and that counted neither Masonstone nor the mysterious other commander and whatever forces he or she might bring. And, oh yeah, they didn't have the element of surprise anymore.

Nothing made this fact clearer than the sudden concentrated magic fire that erupted from the bottom of the slope, red lances of heat lashing up and out at the most prominent target the curvature of the incline allowed to them: Starfire. For her part, she managed to avoid dozens of blasts as she fought her way down to the cover offered by the hill crest, but heavy golems are really good at coordinating fire. With a cry, she was winged by one blast, a black scorch mark etching along her left shoulder even as she twisted to avoid another three blasts that would have fried her head and chest. As she pretty well fell the last ten feet to the ground, she used her last moment of attack angle to fling a quick counter blast in the general direction of her assailants, but the explosion disappeared behind hill's green peak, and none knew if it had connected.

"Are you alright?" queried Cyborg, all question and virtually no concern. He had gotten past the point of worrying how she felt, knowing that as a warrior, she would take it as any of them would, but he needed to know if they had a fighter down. Even as he kept an ear out for her response, he flung himself over the the top of the hill and pointed his cannon at the advancing heavy golems. He had had enough time to fire off a couple of reflexive, unaimed, completely ineffective shots and get a good look at nineteen glowing red circles before he heard her reply.

"It is nothing!" Starfire shouted, not really sure if he heard her as he flung himself backward and rolled away from the crest, closely followed by roaring red beams so concentrated that they burnt away the hill itself and left a huge boiling pit of molten earth in the hillside where Cyborg had been instants before. Starfire's 'wound' was little more than a stinging black mark where heat enough to flash-melt steel had met Tamaranean skin, and she was more embarrassed that she'd let them hit her than actually hurt. Cyborg lifted only his head from his prone position, a look of annoyance and frustration stretching across his face. Thinking quickly, he snapped out a quick plan of attack.

"Raven, you flank from the back, get them where their eyes can't get ya back. B.B., you find a way to get in close on the right, but watch out for Masonstone, I didn't see him when I took those pot shots. Starfire, take a trip high around the side and watch our backs, we still don't know where that other commander is."

"What will you do?" asked Raven, raising her voice over the sound of the suppression fire that constantly sizzled overhead, the golem's firing blindly as they advanced toward the top of the hill, each shot coming closer and closer to the fighters' heads. Cyborg merely sat up, brought his cannon up next to his face, and gave her a truly frightening look out of his human eye.

"I'll take another go over the top," he said, almost too softly to hear over the racket. The angle of red beams frying along the ridge told them the golems were only a dozen feet from the peak, so the four of them split up, taking a near miss along Beast Boy's hair (ah, his poor hair, is nowhere safe?) as their go signal.

Always the mobile one, Raven was once again the first to move, fading into a classic teleportation shadow in the shape of her moniker, black wings spreading across the ground as she swept forward and under the clueless nonliving enemies. Beast Boy moved up over the hill on the right, taking a moment out of the line of fire in the form of a field mouse, creeping through the grass and thinking up something particularly destructive to become when he reached point blank range. As the first line of ten golems reached a place where their slight hovering position would let them train their cannons over the crest and down at their opponents last known position, only empty fields greeted their red eyes. As they tried to reacquire their targets, their targets had surrounded them.

Cyborg, as was his want, came over the top. With a sound like a thunderclap, he came down from a power leap so huge that his initial rocket into the air (aided slightly by a boost from Starfire and some lift jets he'd secreted into his legs) had completely passed their opponent's notice, leading back down with two huge metal feet and a single glowing orb of energy on the tip of his cannon pointed between his legs at his unwitting landing pads. Like a blue comet, he instantly crushed two of the central leading golems, the blast of air and magic energy from his reentry smacking the other hovering behemoths to the earth without discrimination. Leaping out of a four foot crater from his perch on two piles of ruble and bent steel, he immediately grabbed up one of the fallen brutes by his wickedly clawed paw and flipped its damned enormous weight around in a shoulder throw that smashed a second sprawled statue to bits.

As he turned to do the same to another, he spotted Raven crushing two with brute force, her telekinetic grip literally grinding to bits a pair she'd snapped up from where he'd knocked them. Mostly-busted golem still ready for bludgeoning, Cyborg used it to smash another as it struggled to right itself, cumbersome limbs barely articulate enough to tilt it back up to a hover position. He also then spotted Beast Boy making his presence known in the form of a small (only about, 20' long) hydra, each of his three snake-like necks wrapped around a different golem as he crushed them in a constrictor's grip, immensely tough scales only barely able to hold back the terrible rending force of their arms before he crushed them beyond use.

When a red beam smacked into his armor and left a glowing red spot on his cold steel body, Cyborg was brought back to strictly his own concerns, flinging the now disembodied arm into that golem's eye and bringing his cannon to bear yet again. As he disassembled that one with a series of frantic blasts, he dodged a blow that would have taken his arm off and ducked away from a second beam, coming back to his knee and plugging yet another golem at extreme close range. The other was back the next instant, and only a sudden burst of green light kept his head on his shoulders.

Starfire's support fire next took out a golem that tried to swat Raven into a bloody pulp from behind while she used her black grip to yank at the one slashing at Beast Boy's hydra tail. Hovering thirty feet in the air, Starfire was free to rain down destruction with impunity, the big lugs so busy with her friends that not so much as a single red eye turned her direction. She got another assist a moment later on two ganging up on Raven when she vaporized an arm that would have gutted the levitating mystic while she was occupied with slicing another to bits, the dark woman's blades of black energy finishing what Starfire started moments later as the thing's eye beam charged up for a go. The Tamaranean amazon's green beams melted down one after another of the stony foes, a quick ball of green energy smiting down her fifth kill with a radiant flash as Cyborg gave the last straggler a pitch toward gryphon B.B. and the airborne bird-beast ripped the statue apart with his talons. Starfire was then in a perfect position to take a look around and figure out what had happened to the rest of their opponents.

As it turned out, the reason none of them had seen Masonstone attacking was simply because he hadn't attacked. A quick inspection of the valley from her high vantage point showed Dominic's blond hair shining from atop Masonstone in exactly the position he taken when the golems began their attack. As the others regrouped beneath her, each nursing slight injuries, they all advanced slowly down the hill to the stationary giant and his snidely smirking passenger. They approached to a cautious distance, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg all training energy blasts at their massive opponent, wondering why he hadn't attacked but not willing to give up hope of surrender.

"Ah, if it isn't the old Black Knight core squad, reunited at last," said Dominic arrogantly when they had all come to a stop at about twice Masonstone's huge reach away from him. "I see you picked up the little black birdie that we've been searching for, though you seem to be short one red-feathered friend."

"Cut the crap Dominic, I'm not in the mood. Now you and that ugly-butt horse you're riding can come quietly, and maybe I won't be forced to kick the living shit out of the both of you!" Cyborg fairly spat his ultimatum at the stationary pair, whishing they'd try something so he'd have an excuse.

"I have a better idea," and he had nothing but contempt and a manic smile for Cyborg's threat, "Why don't you surrender, hand over that pretty little priestess and the Tamaranean whore, and maybe I'll let you live a little longer than I had planned to. Yesss, I think you'd enjoy the show I'd put on while exacting my revenge from that red-haired tramp—and the priestess for dessert—"

His fantasy was interrupted by a sudden flash of green heat lancing out of Starfire's glowing eyes, the target obviously being his good hand where it pressed against Masonstone's shoulder. A quick jerk from the stone giant, his first movement so far, forced the beam to strike his shoulder, leaving a spot of stone hot enough to cook an egg on. When he regained his breath after the sudden jolt, Dominic screamed in rage and gripped his unharmed hand to his chest protectively, then burst out in sudden, completely unhinged laughter.

"HAHHAHHAHAHHAhaha, nice try slut! I think you'll find me harder to hurt this time however. You see, I've moved up in the world since you took my right hand the other day. The moment I reported to Lord Slade's expeditionary force with your whereabouts, I was given an immediate promotion to lieutenant, and my big friend here was assigned to protect me as I lead my own force to kill or capture you and the other conspirators."

"Hellooo? Earth to Dominic? In case you didn't notice, we already wasted your stupid golems, so I don't exactly see what makes you so confident here!" shouted Beast Boy, who'd had more than enough of his old foe's ranting for one lifetime.

"FOOL! You disposed of some useless obsolete model golems, Lord Slade's main force is coming behind me, not even ten miles behind my point force. You should see the new models, they're to die for."

"Man, what makes you think we can't kick your sorry ass and be out of here before the rest of your goons show up?" asked Cyborg, his trigger getting itchier with ever passing moment. He somehow knew that stopping to talk to Dominic had been a bad idea, and he ached to just start swinging. Something about Dominic's talking stopped him though, the brazen confidence of it all forcing him to smell the waiting trap.

"Oh, well, I think you'll all be quite reluctant to attack when I show you the little surprise I cooked up on the way here!" he said, mania once again edging his shrill voice. Tapping his huge subordinate on the shoulder, he signaled the brute, causing him to reach around to something behind his back, apparently strapped just below Dominic's perch. When he brought his hand back around, there was a collective gasp from the heroes. "Ah yes, I caught this little mouse sticking her nose where it didn't belong. After having a little fun with her, I decided she'd make excellent leverage to keep you scum in line after you scrapped those old junkers I foddered into your ambush."

The vicious ooze of Dominic's words fairly dripped from his tongue, his eyes crazy wide as he watched the looks of horror and disgust scratch across their faces. Held securely in Masonstone's crushing grip was a battered and beaten woman, probably no older than fifteen, though one couldn't really tell through the bruises and dried blood on her face. The tattered remains of a once brilliant blue robe showed her to be a priestess of Azar, probably captured while spying out their position. It was also probably why there'd been no warning of this impending attack.

"DOMINIC—YOU SHIT EATING WORM! RELEASE HER!" shrieked Raven, her whole body exploding with her power as the nausea at what her former sister must have been through mutated into burning fury that made her earlier snit with Caspar look like a child's tea party.

"Calm down little birdie, or your dear sister priestess will join her deity—oh wait, now that I've defiled her, she can't can she? HAHAHHAHAHAHA!" Despite his taunting, Raven managed to reign in her anger, reducing her flare of hate to a subtle burn in a disturbingly short time. As it turned out, she only managed it by... redirection.

"Do you really think you will get away with your vile and unforgivable acts of disgustingness?" asked Starfire quietly, her eyes cast down and away from the battered girl that dangled like a dead thing in Masonstone's big hand. There was a frail quality to her voice that Dominic couldn't resist, drool slowly dripping down his chin as he gave himself even further to his madness of lust and violence.

"My dear little slut, why should I possibly think I wouldn't?" he asked, a fierce desire burning in his body for the bitch that had wounded him, taking his right hand forever. To his surprise, she quietly answered his rhetorical question.

"I was thinking perhaps you would find this convincing..." and her voice trailed off as she floated slowly toward him, eyes still concealed, as if she were too embarrassed by her current desperate act to look at him. Her magnificent braided hair slung over her shoulder and hung down across her scintillatingly form-fitting gilded armor, her hands clasped nervously behind her back as she inched ever closer through the air toward the young blond rapist. As though to cement the deal, small motions showed the bindings of her gilded-plate top slowly coming undone as she loosed the ties on her back, the stiff garment slipping enticingly loose about her shoulders and promising the unveiling of so much beautiful flesh. Dominic looked about ready to loose whatever shred of control he still possessed, foam gathering at the corner of his mouth as the woman he'd constantly desired to slowly cut to pieces for the past day was about to submit to him.

Starfire was soon right next to Masonstone, her bare midriff floating inches from his dull stare, Dominic's twitchingly excited from within easy arms reach, her compatriots looking on with abject horror. Slowly then, she placed one hand on either of Masonstone's monolithic shoulders, leaned forward, and looked up and into Dominic's bulging, bloodshot eyes. The flaming green pits that greeted him froze his quickened heart and curdled his breath in his lungs, choking down any order he might make to the clueless brute beneath them. In the next instant, Starfire's hands were two globs of molten stone where she was melting holes in Masonstone's body. The stupid living boulder dropped his hostage and swatted upward at his own squared head, hitting only his hideous face as Starfire flipped up to a handstand on his shoulders and opened up with beams from her burning hands. The burst of pressure threw him backward and ground his enormous bulk into the dry soil, pinning the scum pile on his back to the ground and probably doing all kinds of horrific damage to everything below his almost certainly shattered hips.

Raven wasted no time in taking her turn, the concentrated hate that she'd pressed hastily into the ground to save the priestess's life suddenly erupting back up again and enveloping the stone brute and his putrid companion in inky black energy that quickly concealed their prone forms. The blanket of black began to roil and quiver disgustingly, terrible bellows and screams of agony and fear making their way out of the dark shroud. The awful sounds and movements continued until the rage had run its course, Raven's emotions acting far independent from her will and taking revenge on the clear object of her hate, however momentary the initial feeling had been. When the darkness finally receded, there wasn't much left to do.

Both Masonstone and Dominic were still in one piece, Raven had managed that much control, but neither would be moving any time soon. Masonstone had huge black scars all over his hard body, scuffs and scratches that looked to have been made by some enormous claw raking up and down. Dominic was blackened and bloodied, as though he'd been beaten severely with clubs and stones, much as he richly deserved. As a final act however, Starfire made good on her earlier threats. Flying up, she landed hard, her left sandal digging into his left arm a few inches from his hand.

"I claim your shnashpalps," she said coldly, before flashing out with green fire from her eyes, flaying his hand away to nothing with three solid seconds of slow melting heat. As he screamed and writhed from where he was pinned under Masonstone, she finished, leaving only a smoking black stump. To silence his pathetic wails, she twisted around with a quick punt along his chin, snapping his head around and leaving him quiet on the ground, finally floating away from him.

As the others looked on with a new kind of amazement, stunned to silence by this utterly unexpected violence from their newest ally, Starfire pushed through them and fled the scene of that horrible experience, tears dripping from her eyes. Beast Boy moved to go after her, but Raven caught him by his ear and dragged him over to help her with the former prisoner, who'd lain still and silent since being dropped. Cyborg was caught in a major dilemma, wanting to comfort and thank Starfire for actions that had clearly saved them all, but truly having no earthly idea how.

They hadn't asked her to degrade herself like that, but then again, there was no way of knowing if Raven's subterranean attack would have been able to do the job by itself, so she might well have not even had to, binding Cyborg up in all kinds of messed up concerns and giving him no clear path to comforting her. Unable to just stand there, he walked up and placed his huge metal hand on her slim shoulder, standing in powerful silent support as she wept in midair. Suddenly, she spun around and wrapped her arms around his neck, crying onto his cold metal shoulder and making him intensely uncomfortable as he placed a hand gently on her back in turn, taking the liberty of rebinding her chest plate before something truly embarrassing happened.

"I... I want to be with Robin..." she said quietly as she cried, her shame and shock from that encounter driving home a desire that had burned in her soul unabated since the ages and ages past when she'd found herself in this queer land. All her stress had focused into a hate for Dominic that truly frightened her, inspiring her violent vengeance and the ploy she'd used to implement it, something she'd never even momentarily considered in the past. Deception like that was normally beyond her, but like magic, her burning desire to cause pain to the sub-human trash before her had drawn out her deepest warrior instincts.

Death was no stranger to any Tamaranean, a race with a rich warrior tradition living on a harsh ice world surrounded by hostile aliens, she herself had seen it on many an occasion, but it was not something she'd ever remotely considered inflicting on another. As she'd stood over that... creature now lying bloody and unconscious, crushed by his own tool of destruction, she had wanted to destroy him, to stick her hand into his chest and squeeze his heart till it burnt to a black ash as she'd once seen her combat instructor do to a Gordanian in a skirmish of her childhood. As it was, it took all her self-control not to break his neck rather than his jaw as she could so easily have done with that kick. He would live, though he would never walk, talk, or handle anything ever again, of course assuming Slade actually let him live after his failure anyway. The grim reality of it all frightened her deeply, and tears were her only solace as she searched her soul for answers, wishing Robin were there to make it all clear to her as he always had in the past. It was Raven who finally snapped her out of her reverie then.

"Are you just going to cry there all day, or can we get a move on?" she asked heartlessly, the badly wounded girl cradled gently in a telekinetic gurney before her as she levitated calmly up the hill past Cyborg and Starfire. Beast Boy followed in tow, head down as he once again regretted not wasting Dominic's worthless hide when he'd had the chance, largely blaming himself for all the pain of the innocent (relatively, I mean, she had been spying, but no one deserves what she got) priestess and the seemingly inconsolable Starfire.

"Why do you say hurtful things?" moaned Starfire through her tears, far too gone to really be hurt by Raven's insensitivity, but none the less wondering at her snappishness.

"What I mean is, if we could get a move on here, there's still a good chance we can finish the ritual and get out of here before Slade's main force arrives. Blubbering like that will neither help you feel better, nor save our lives, nor get Robin back from the Tower of Jump, so put a lid on the waterworks and let's get out of here." Raven's words were not vicious, but they were emotionless, her dull tone snapping out each syllable like it was a stiff metal bar, no softness or understanding whatsoever. She could be like that when in a certain mood. Cyborg almost said something, but decided he'd be better employed getting the woman on his neck back into the temple so they could get a return on all that junk they'd carted out here. Discussion stopped then as they all made their way inside, the promise of closing in on Robin quieting Starfire's tears, albeit slowly.

(On a side note, Cyborg did make a short side stop to fiddle with his carriage. Using the hand that wasn't comforting Starfire, he set up something he'd never really thought he'd have to use. When he left to enter the temple, it was with the knowledge that anyone who tried to mess with his ride and possibly copy the technology would be in for an explosive surprise.)

Back in the Temple, an hour later

The priestesses, despite their rather fu-fu shopping list and less than admirable personalities, did have one thing to say for themselves: they didn't mess around in an emergency. The Abbess had gotten word of the battle rather easily (there were always eyes and ears everywhere there, after all) and had begun organizing the ritual Raven had asked for well before the heroes had finished their business with Dominic's advance force. By the time they'd gotten inside, there were already women trained in healing waiting to attend to them, though truly only the former prisoner was in bad enough shape to require any attention. The rest found comfortable chairs in one of the waiting rooms off of the antechamber, resting after their exertions, except for Raven, who walked off discretely at some point or another, presumably to work out whatever was necessary for her role in the mysterious 'ritual.' None talked, and an uncomfortable silence pervaded in the rather clammy room for some time, until Raven finally returned, fully an hour after their battle, and probably only an hour or so ahead of the rest of Slade's force (a 5mph march is easy for golems with enough crisym on hand).

"What's the word," asked Cyborg immediately, "Is this going down or what?"

"They'll be able to do it all right, but there've been a few alterations in the plan," responded Raven, crossing her arms and looking off at some random corner, body language expressing the annoyance her words didn't.

"LIKE WHAT?" and Cyborg was way past angry at this news. It was damn late for them to be pulling something like this.

"They say that since we've brought Slade to their door that we'll have to make arrangements for their protection before they'll chant a single spell to help us," and this time Raven's voice held distinct bitterness, the reasons she left the Azarath Order all glaring back up as perfectly justified in the face of their shortsighted foolishness.

"What do they want us to do?" asked Cyborg, rubbing his metal hand over his human eye in frustration, "We can barely protect ourselves and spring Robin, we can't leave anyone here that'd do a lick of good against the army Slade's set on our tail!"

"They know that. What they want instead is for me to use some of the power they're about to call down to move the Cathedral somewhere safer."

"NO! No way in hell! We were going to use that power to teleport into the Tower of Jump, we'll never break the magic barrier of the city without it! We can't spare any for them—it would defeat the whole purpose of calling it down in the first place!"

"It doesn't matter now," Raven said, her mask wilting slightly into unhappiness as she prepared to deliver what was clearly even worse news.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"After I heard that Slade had upgraded his golems, I asked the temple seer to scry Jump City. The barrier's power has doubled from all earlier intelligence reports, even with every ounce of power the temple can call, I still wouldn't be able to break through it."

"GREAT! Just perfect! It's over! We're DONE," Cyborg raved in his rather overdramatic manner, leaping up from his chair and pacing back and forth across the small room with great pounding footsteps. As he complained, his arms flailed about, nearly breaking many pieces of furniture and barely missing Starfire and Beast Boy where they sat.

"CalmDown," snapped Raven, the dull force of her voice slicing through his tantrum instantly. His arms dropped back to his sides as he stood to listen, so apparently it didn't take psychic vampirism for Raven to cool overheated emotions. In certain circumstances, her "ice" was more than enough.

"We can't get into Jump with the old plan, but we can still get ourselves and these...'allies' of ours out of here and away from the assured destruction marching here as we speak. I'm going to do it; we can think up a new plan after we've reached safety."

"Fine... whatever," mumbled Cyborg in defeat, falling hard onto the oak chair he'd been sitting in, causing serious cracking sounds that probably heralded its eventual destruction under his terrific weight. The quiet in the room after Raven left again was far worse than what had been before.

Defeat, a western peek in the Agony range, about 100 miles from where the temple used to be, roughly the same distance from Jump City.

The transfer had been subtle. From within the waiting room, the three comrades had noticed nothing. If they hadn't all been wrapped up in their own private dilemmas, they probably would have noticed the subtle flickering of shadows along the walls and the minute vibrations that shook the structure, disturbing chandeliers and beverages, but not much else. Raven's exertion was almost totally imperceptible from within the building, though not from without.

On the outside, Slade's skirmishing new model golems, who'd reached the crest of a far hill and gained a view of the distant temple, watched in automated indifference as a great shadow enveloped the enormous structure, black tendrils growing up out of the ground to cover every surface. When all that was left was a single pitch colored monolith, the whole thing wavered mystically, then spread enormous raven's wings and leapt upward into the sky. In a moment the shadow had morphed into a great bird and flew hundreds of feet into the air before vanishing in a swirling vortex of black. With a perfect reversal of this process, the temple reappeared at the same moment on a high crag of the Mountains of Agony, sheer cliffs falling off in every direction, the towers becoming a black cap to a white mountaintop.

As I said, the three heroes in the waiting room were far too occupied with their own problems to notice any of this, each moping in one or another state of misery. Cyborg was depressed over his general failure as de facto leader in Robin's absence, finding himself competing with the indomitable Raven far more often than Robin ever had. Beast Boy still hadn't stopped blaming himself for the misery of that Azar spy and Starfire at Dominic's now disintegrated hands. And Starfire... well... for a while there was that whole thing with Robin and the fact that she felt the need for a month-long hot shower after dealing with Dominic, but as of right now, Caspar was distracting her from all that, not at all an unwelcome happening.

"So boss, I just got another communication from Skye. Apparently he wants to know if you've been feeling any different over the past few moments."

"Why is that?" she asked him out loud, glad to be distracted from her dark thoughts and eager to know of any word from the real world. Her talking went initially unnoticed by the other two mopes.

"Apparently the real world version of Miss Raven just used her healing powers on you, so technically, some kind of obstacle should have been removed or some great power introduced to the world."

"I feel no different..." she trailed off, wondering momentarily about great powers being injected into this world from the sky.

"Incidentally, your scry sphere just reported that we've undergone a massive special transfer, and are now some one hundred miles from where we were a few moments ago. Just FYI."

"Truly?" she burst out, jumping up in excitement and forgetting her half-formed theory about coincidences of power-calling and power-injecting by spirit/real world counterparts of her most magical friend. Her outburst finally attracted the attention of the guys, who she quickly relayed Caspar's insight to. It was unanimously agreed to check out the front door, and they rushed into the antechamber and up to the huge, barred doors that lead to the outside. Cyborg quickly opened it and pushed outward, meeting a wall of icy wind and an endless grey expanse before him, as well as a sudden lack of something beneath the foot he'd hastily stuck out the door.

When Starfire had melted him out of the twenty-foot snow drift he'd sunk into and dragged him through the air up the huge cliff that the door now opened out over, the two of them collapsed back into the warmth, Beast Boy slamming the doors shut behind them and cutting off the bone-chilling wind. When they finally looked up again, a haggard looking Raven stood over them, staring down with a tired exasperation on her usually blank face. Seeing her triumphant friend, Starfire threw off Cyborg's enormous dead weight like he was a huge steel feather and flew into an upright hover in the blink of an eye.

"Friend Raven—you did it!" she shouted, smiling brilliantly and seeking to sweep Raven up into a warm congratulatory embrace. The tired woman found herself completely unable to evade, barely managing to raise an arm as she saw a wave of unwanted affection sweeping toward her, unstoppable as a tsunami and twice as unpleasant (in her eyes anyway). As she endured the rib-cracking pressure (Starfire had had little excuse to hug recently, and was putting a bit more into it than usual), Raven couldn't help but be slightly comforted, especially as the pain and contagious enthusiasm revived her somewhat after her exertions.

"So you did it... great," broke in Cyborg with little enthusiasm. "How much of the power they called down from the goddess is left?" Raven waited to answer until she'd gotten her breath back after the hug, even then silently answering by reaching into the deep sleeve of her robe and pulling out a small black object.

It was a gem, black as obsidian and yet somehow transparent at the same time. The outer shell was a perfect cube, and within was the ghostly white outline of a sphere, also translucent, so that the lines of Raven's palm were visible through it. It seemed to emanate a warm power, comforting to the body much as a blanket and a hot drink, easing the aches of the tired group even as it sat in her hand. All were immediately struck by its similarity to another mysterious gemstone, and Starfire acted to pursue this train of thought before anyone else could even begin to suggest it.

Reaching behind her back, she pulled at her braid for a moment, lifting and fiddling with it until she'd yanked something free of its innards. When she brought her hands back around, they held the wonderful glowing sphere that had appeared in her hand the previous night. No sooner did she hold it out in front of her than the two reacted, each somehow sensing the other's presence and immediately showing the nature of these two energy repositories. With a swirling flash of light from each, an incredible attractive force began between the two palm-sized gems, yanking the one right out of Raven's unprepared grasp and sucking it through the air.

A lighting grab by Starfire covered her own gem before the two could collide, but the other still smacked painfully into her closed hand, causing her to cry out and grab at the hard cube. Despite yanking with all her strength, she could not budge the gem from where it was pinned to her flesh, and the two shapes were quickly crushing her hand even as she ripped at it. Even as Cyborg grabbed Raven's gem and Starfire gripped at her own they could barely manage a single inch of give between them, though this was enough to save Starfire's hand from bloody compression at least.

"Raven... please tell us... what to do with these?" Starfire asked as she leaned back with all the power of her muscle and flight ability behind her pull on her spherical gem.

"And make it quick—urggg!—I can't hold onto this thing all day!" appended Cyborg through clenched teeth, every ounce of his immense weight leaning back on the black cube he'd wrapped his own hand around. Still his hand brushed against Starfire's, and even as they appealed to Raven for help, their knuckles began to press together as their pulling gave way to the fabulous attraction between the black and white-silver stones.

"The inherent natures of the two powerstones must be exactly opposite. The force of their attracting indicates that they're stupendously reactive to one another. I... I don't know... what would happen..." Raven trailed off, eyes wide with unusual fear as she watched the power of her goddess and that of the mysterious Skye grow closer and closer despite what must have been thousands of pounds of force generated by two super-humans pulling them apart.

"How could you not know?" asked a panicky Beast Boy, who knew not how he could help his friends keep the stones apart without unbalancing the equilibrium they'd reached and pulling the whole bunch of them over. "I mean, where did your gem-thingy even come from?"

"It was the leftovers from what the priestesses called down from Raven," answered Raven out of hand, prompting a spectacular panic/confusion flip in Beast Boy's expression.

"They called it down... from you?" he asked stupidly.

"Blasphemer!" snapped Raven, smacking Beast Boy hard enough to put him on his butt. "They called it down from the goddess Raven, greatest aspect of Azar, whom I'm named for."

"HELLOOO? We're in some trouble here!" reminded Cyborg frantically as Starfire began to squeal softly from the sensation of her gem grinding her fist into the hard steel of Cyborg's gauntlet-hands. The sound snapped through Raven's indecision instantly, and she made an extremely fateful choice the next moment.

"Let go!" she shouted, and the two struggling, super-strong warriors gladly complied, each releasing their load at the same instant, their hands pinching together as they barely managed to get them out of the way of the two irresistibly attracted energies. The gems snapped together with a sound like one pain of wet glass striking another, sticking fast in the air end to end and floating freely and serenely for a long moment. The pause was just long enough for everyone to assume that nothing was going to happen.

Even as Raven reached out to grasp the floating gems, they began to change, the two of them wavering and shifting before their very eyes, emitting another series of swirling flashes before beginning to integrate into one another. Like two globs of jelly, the shapes melted together, fitting into one another like a three-dimensional peg-and-slot set. In the next moment, the starburst within the silver sphere was perfectly within the sphere within the black cube, which was perfectly within the outer silver sphere in turn, the resulting compound of inscribed shapes forming a single perfect superstructure. As a last act, the melded colors found the happy medium between the white and black energies, taking on a grey tinge that slowly blanked out everything inside and left only the glass-smooth spherical shell visible. That done, the orb fell calmly to the ground, clinking against the stone floor a few times before rolling to as stop an inch from Raven's feet.

"...Power..." said Raven softly, after a long moment of staring down her robes at the grey ball. The others looked on in confusion, unable to see what she saw, and more than a little worried by the indescribable expression on her face. "So much power... it's... I... wow."

"Are you okay Raven?" asked Cyborg as he pulled himself from the floor. He walked over and gave Starfire a hand too, then Beast Boy a moment later, and all three of them walked up to stand around Raven and try to figure out what was going on with her.

"You guys..." Raven began absently, as she leaned over and got a closer look at the grey orb, "what would you say if I told you we could end the war today? Right now?"

"I'd ask you if they made you smoke something during that magic spell back there, because there's no way in hell we can end the war all by ourselves," said Cyborg in annoyance, waving a hand in front of Raven's eyes and getting no response, her vision locked on the orb. Without warning, she gasped, snapping up the orb and springing to full height again.

"Quickly—the power is dissipating! Everyone grab onto me, this is going to be one hell of a ride!" she shouted, using her powers to draw all the others up next to her before doing something inscrutable to the ball in her hand. The next moment, everyone felt an incredible sensation, then there was only the grey fog.

The Sky, near the dimensional ceiling, an imperceptible fraction of an instant later

Caspar, the moment he felt the infusion of power they all received from the orb, took a moment to try and analyze the energy. Through some disgusting violation of time-space mechanics, his attempt to examine the energy interfered with Raven's hasty (but still expertly done) teleportation, and the next thing he knew, he was staring down at an endless expanse of countryside, everything frozen in a relief of black and white. The world around his perceptions (which had full color detection from years of working with creatures that defined their world by visible light) was cast in a perfect monochrome, everything a perfect white or black, none of that 'shades of gray' stuff you'd get with old TV shows.

As he looked on in idle curiosity at the odd phenomenon he was experiencing, he noticed the world around him was changing slightly every second. Like examining a reel of film one frame at a time, the landscape moved by in huge jerks that must have covered hundreds of feet each. They seemed to be traveling northeast, though for this he had to trust the questionable readout given by Starfire's still active scry sphere. He really didn't know whether or not to believe that they were going .8 times the speed of light, though when trying to calculate instantaneous velocity of teleportation, he really couldn't blame the mystical tool for it's trouble. Of more concern than this in his mind was the fact that the current objective it was pointing toward was changing randomly and wildly with every flash of movement they experienced, as though fate itself was being twisted around and around by the energies they had let loose upon Starfire's soul, and thus this world.

After some time of puzzling over this, the spastic alteration of objectives slowed to a stop, every flash of movement driving them closer to one final point that would not change, apparently located in the exact direction that they were going. Deducing quickly, he figured the point to be the Tower of Jump, and of course, it didn't take a detective to guess what this final objective would be. Finding himself in the sudden position of having succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations of how long it would take to rouse Starfire (he guessed—there was absolutely no correlation of time between this world and the real one, but he could safely assume that a few days here would be much less than a half-month there), Caspar mentally kicked back and enjoyed the rest of his ride.

He didn't concern himself over why it was that he could perceive anything while he was supposed to be instantly appearing at another point in space, nor about why there was such a spectacular reaction between the energy of Skye and Raven. Those were questions for people who cared. All he need know was that his job was almost done, and then he could enjoy some well-deserved hibernation until Skye retrieved him. Of course, it was around then that the signal on the scry sphere began acting a little funny, and Caspar had only just begun to try and figure out that one (it was actually relevant to him, after all) when everything changed again.

Tower of Jump, Top Floor Observation Room, effectively the same moment that they left the Temple

With a flash of gray, the quartet of heroes suddenly found themselves in the covered crown of a huge tower, the view below consumed by an enormous city, what sky they could see tinged orange by crisym-driven magic. Raven, who'd been standing perfectly in the center of the other three, collapsed suddenly into a heap, drawing the attention of her confused comrades away from their sudden displacement. When they bent down to check on her, they were variously stunned and shocked by her condition.

Raven had turned gray. Every inch of her body and robes, rather than their normal color, was instead the same unforgiving and lifeless gray that had embodied the gems after their combination. The coloring was so complete that details of her form were indistinct, the all-encompassing color making every part of her blend into a single gray lump, only the play of shadows from the tower's torchlight giving her any definition at all. As they stared on in shock, she mumbled incoherently about power, about how it had been a limitless as it was uncontrollable, and about how there should have been more. Her rambling voice mumbled on and on, even as Cyborg gently lifted her from the cold stone and held her pristinely monochrome body close to his chest.

With a gasp, Starfire looked down at the mark of Caspar on her arm, seeming to listen to something the others couldn't hear. Nodding slowly, she held her hand out toward Raven, keeping her palm pointing steadily at Cyborg's sad burden for a long quiet moment. Suddenly, she sighed in relief and smiled slightly to the others, relaying to them Caspar's assurances that Raven would recover with time.

"What happened to her? I figure she used that gray orb's power to bring us here, but why did it do this to her?" asked Cyborg as he examined the dull shine her flesh had taken on. After a moment of silence, Starfire nodded a few more times, then answered him.

"Caspar says that bringing us here wasn't supposed to be possible, and that by using 'godly' power to do it, Raven altered all of our fates. He says that the power in the orb was huge, but that all of it was used up in getting here because, for fate to change, thousands of events that we should have experienced and been effected by had to be compensated for with energy. The strain had... 'consequences' he says," and Starfire frowned slightly, ignoring the mystified expressions Beast Boy and Cyborg now wore. There was evidently another exchange between her and her spirit guide, because her next actions had no other possible explanation.

"NO!" she shouted, green fire blazing up in her eyes and hands, "I will not allow that to happen," and she turned from the others without another word, flying over the ledge of the tower and zipping away from her allies without paying them further mind.

(Starfire/Caspar)

"... so you could be out of here in the next five minutes, but we have to hurry. Robin's signature is flickering, the forces of destiny are in spectacular flux after that stunt Raven pulled, and this could still go either way. At least, you'll be out of here any moment no matter what, but if you don't get down there, there's no telling what will happen to Robin before we go."

"He will come to no harm while I still draw breath," Starfire snapped at her passenger as she flew downward in a power dive. The next instant, Caspar directed her to stop, and she vaporized the wall of the tower to gain entrance to the desired floor. Peering into the dark room, she saw nothing but a door and a shabby, full-size mirror. Caspar directed her again, and she flew through the mirror at high speed, never questioning his guidance. The next moment, she was in an even darker room, a similar mirror to the old one behind her, her green fury the only thing to light her way as he directed her through a series of catacombs.

"I didn't expect this to come so soon, but I still have to explain a few things to you," said Caspar as they barreled down a long dark hallway.

"Then do so—quickly."

"First off, when you come to, you're going to feel like no time has passed since you went under. You'll open your eyes expecting to be in downtown Jump, knowing nothing of the time you spent here." Caspar felt Starfire's emotions lurch, but she said nothing, and he continued to direct her through a labyrinth of turns and twists, the green light off her hands casting creeping shadows as she flew as best she could along the tortuous path.

"I know you won't ask, so I'll just answer. At no time in your waking life will you remember the places, friends, enemies, or experiences you have had here as anything more than a shadowy de jeah vou. Before you let this thought get to you--take a left here--know that this is your dream world now, and possibly forever. You'll be back here again, perhaps every night, to a world picked for you at random and tied to your soul until further notice. So chill, it'll all work out." He felt her anxiety loosen somewhat, and he ordered her through one huge wooden door among hundreds that lined either side of the long hall they'd come to. Finding it locked, she incinerated the old wood like so much tissue paper under her hands and flew on.

"Second, I won't be able to talk to you anymore once you come to. As a matter of fact, no one is to know that I am with you. I will be in deep hibernation, invisible to all but the most exacting examination of your soul, waiting to be picked up by Skye. While I won't be jabbering away, my presence will still intensify your powers noticeably. I'm just saying, be careful with all that extra energy, I know you hold back to keep from mutilating and killing with your starbolts, and I wouldn't want you to think you're loosing control of your powers. Heh, listen to me, talking as if you'll remember this—I guess I just hope some flash memory of it will comfort you if you get worried. Hold up... we're here."

They were stopped in front of a door that looked like any of the others: heavy, wooden, and smelling faintly of wet rot. Starfire was still trying to come to terms with loosing her revelation of fully requited love for Robin, not even touching upon all the new/old friends she'd met and fought together with, and only her complete resolve allowed her to pull her mind away from such unpleasant thoughts and look toward this last act of her forced presence in this world (though far from her last act as a dream visitor, which she would be upon her return). Reaching toward the door to blast it away as she had all the others, she found her hand suddenly locked in place, Caspar snapping a warning into her mind at the same time.

"The door is shielded—dangerously so. Hold on while I check it out, if you're killed here, you could still become trapped in spirit limbo, even though Raven cleared the path for your recovery. ... Okay, I've analyzed it, and it's quite impervious to anything we can bring to bear, though our target is definitely just beyond it."

"We must get in, I will have only nightmares here if I return and Robin has suffered some terrible fate," she said, the glow in her eyes flaring as she prepared to take her best shot at the door.

"Boss, please, think a moment. Fantasy worlds like this are so 'inside the box' it's actually kind of funny. The door is shielded to all get out, but the wall around it... well... it's just stone. If you would please?"

"Of course," and Starfire smiled brilliantly as spheres of green energy built up around her palms. "Friend Caspar, I truly admire the way you think," she sincerely complimented as she moved her hands along the wall in the shape of a small arch. In seconds, she'd melted a secure portal through the foot-thick stone, the molten remains pooling on the floor as they hissed and gurgled away. The next moment, Starfire stepped in, ready for anything. She was bathed in heat, and by the faint, all-pervading red glow, she was granted a vision out of nightmares.

All along the walls of this huge, smoky, smelly room were hanging... things. Pale, dirty, softly moaning figures all tied up, strapped to various metal implements, covered alternately with blood, grime, and their own stinking excrement. Starfire's mind reeled, her stomach lurched, and she felt her psyche begin to slip as her eyes struggled to comprehend to abject horror of what they were seeing, even as a soul-chilling voice whispered that any one of the unrecognizable creatures on the walls could be her love. A quick intervention by Caspar prevented her mind from disintegrating at the mere suggestion, and he managed to block out most of her nausea and brain-freezing shock as he assured her that Kitten would want Robin in better condition than what these poor bastards had gotten.

Using that assumption as an anchor, she flew quickly to the end of the room, looking neither right nor left for fear of what was making those pitiful noises all around her. Even this didn't protect her from the smell of burnt meat that came from the metal cages hanging suspended over the pits of hot coals that dominated the center of the room, but at least she could pretended the contents of the cages were dead... they didn't move. She came at last to another door, the first metal door she'd seen since she entered the pit beneath the tower. As she approached, she could hear voices, and she compulsively stopped to eavesdrop.

"So Robie-pooh, I'll ask you one last time," spoke a gratingly familiar voice, and Starfire felt fury displace nausea at the first sugary-sweet lightings of the voice who's very tone was a vicious lie. "There are no guards, no golems, just you (pointed pause) and me. So, tell me that you love me, that you'll be my devoted concubine and attendant for the rest of your days, and you won't have to join all my other little projects out in the gallery room. I know how to bring your exquisite pleasure (sickening pause)... or excruciating agony!" and there was a sharp crack and a grunt of pain from a voice that Starfire recognized as she would her own reflection.

(Robin)

The sting of yet another welt across his bare chest choked a pained sound out of Robin's hoarse throat. Lack of water had cracked his lips and parched his throat; lack of food had emaciated his flesh and forced his taught muscles into sharp relief all over his body as what little fat he'd had was eaten away by starvation. Dripping or dried blood, matted grime a la dungeon (pardon my 'French'), and week-old sweat coated his body, stinging in the plethora of wounds he'd gathered since his arrival in this hell-pit.

His capture had been quick and dirty, a drugged drink, a swirl of blackness, then a slow wake-up to a splitting headache, a lack of anything but some loose pants (not his own) and his mask, and the illustrious Empress Kitten just about rubbing herself all over him. When his persistent evasions of her advances (despite very heavy chains) finally convinced Kitten he wasn't going to be seduced, he was immediately remanded to the home of her less... "public" hobbies. Without the various tools he'd concealed about his combat gear (which they'd stripped him of, probably realizing they'd never find everything he'd hidden) he had precious little chance of escaping, so far hoping that the splinter he'd been relentlessly working out of his chair for the past eight days would finally come loose.

The mahogany chair he was chained to was in turn bolted to the floor, the bonds on his ankles and around his waist keeping him from using his weight to tilt or break the sturdy wood. It also left him with just barely enough room to go to the bathroom in a rusty bead pan with the help of a deaf, hunchback, eunuch, manservant that Kitten kept around down here. Not that there'd been much to that since they'd cut his rations down to two cups of fetid water a day last week. All in all, Robin was floating in a nebulous area somewhere between utter, bone-gnawing exhaustion and a homicidal fury that he could barely contain.

And yet, contain it he did. He'd been silent for ten days straight, nearly the entire period of his stay in the torture pit. After the unceasing stream of stinging back talk he'd given Kitten upon his arrival in her "play room" despite her numerous attempts to silence him (she lacked the strength to break his jaw, and would allow no one else to strike his face) she'd brought in a golem and programmed it to kill Gotham POWs (that Kitten had kept "hanging around" for just such an opportunity) whenever he said anything. Two of his comrades had bought it before he realized just how serious this fucking head-trip of a bitch really was.

The sting finished snapping through his fatigued brain and his reverie was broken, Kitten's eyes flashing lustily from behind the porcelain cat mask she wore. As usual, she wore a skin-tight leather number that was supposed to be titillating, all straps and buckles and holes in just the right places, probably intending it as another form of torture for the (exclusively male) prisoners she kept down here, paradise out of reach or some such. To Robin, it was just a sight that would have made him want to puke if he'd had anything at all in his stomach just then. Big, meaningless, evil lies like the coating of beauty on Kitten's hideous soul always made him sick.

"Well, Robie-pooh, do you have my answer?" she asked in a terminally sugarcoated tone, trying to mimic the sound of an actually innocent girl—and doing a frighteningly good job.

He had her answer all right. It had taken him two days to save up, and at least one of his soldiers would die in retaliation, but they knew the job was dangerous when they took it, and they would be helping him strike a blow for freedom. As she leaned over him so close he could smell the slight difference between her body powder and her perfume scent, Robin sopped up his missile of choice from every corner of his mouth. It was mostly the remains of his last water ration, but there was a good deal of dirt, blood, and good old snot in the mix too, and he took careful aim with his single shot as Kitten waited for his response.

It struck her directly in her freely open cleavage, dripping downward rapidly and getting under the leather of her slut outfit. Her leaping-screaming-flailing flinch of abject disgust/rage was a sight to behold, days of helpless endurance rewarded in one shining instant of victory. As she rushed to wipe it away, he only wished he could see her face under the white mask, sure that her expression would be worth two days on the wrack or a session with thumbscrews. She came back at him suddenly, brandishing her barbed riding crop in speechless fury before finally finding her voice.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT! I will flay the flesh from your ungrateful bones!" The crazy eyes showing through the mask made him believe it, and he braced himself for another long pummeling, still sure that he'd won a round in the battle against his captor. She was just bringing back the crop to make good on her promise when a sudden sound shocked the both of them. It came from the door, and sure enough, a repeat sound prompted the foot thick iron monstrosity of an obstruction to dent deeply and fling open on its cracked hinges. A figure was silhouetted in the light of the coal pit outside, a sinuous profile with glowing green eyes and orbs of crackling energy around its hands.

"You will do no such thing!" shouted a slightly foreign-sounding female voice, menace dripping from every syllable as Robin and Kitten looked on in shock. The green eyes turned to gaze at Robin by the flickering torchlight and a gasp of disbelief and heartbreak sailed from the woman, stopping her rampage before it began. As he looked on in silent shock at this stranger, he realized rather detachedly that he must look quite the mess. He dared not hope of rescue, and watched in confusion as the woman walked slowly toward them, her beautiful features slowly revealed as she approached the light. She was able to come right up next to them before Kitten got over her own surprise.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" she shrieked at the stranger, flicking her crop in anger and preparing to summon guards with a magic communicator in the handle. In a flash of green that Robin's tired mind couldn't hope to follow, Kitten was suddenly not standing where she had been a moment before.

There was a flash, a rush of air, a shattering of porcelain, then a short delay before a dull thump signified Kitten's impact with the far wall of the cell. The stranger's arm was in full extension after a backhand slap that had effectively silenced Kitten more surely than any Robin could have meted out (he would have held back on the girl, no matter how much he hated her evil guts, but the stranger... well... didn't). Robin caught the edge of a predatory glare from the stranger's glowing eyes that seemed to say, "I'll deal with you later," to Kitten's unmoving body, but then she was all over him, and he had little chance to wonder at such concentrated hate in a single glare.

"Robin, please, what is your condition? Are you 'okay?' What did that estrogln bitch-whore do to you?" and the panicked concern in her voice was finally enough to break through the fog on his brain and make him realize that, yes, he was being rescued. First things first then.

"Water..." he managed to croak out of a mouth rougher than sandpaper and fried chicken breading combined. The stranger leapt back and glanced around the room frantically, finally spotting the pitcher of ice water Kitten had brought down to dangle in front of Robin's parched lips. Flying over, she grabbed it up and rushed back. Seeing the heavy chains that bound him to the chair so tightly that they'd dug red pits into his skin, she was sidetracked by outrage, using one glowing hand to shatter the wood of the chair's back and free his chained hands and waist. Robin himself twisted his arms out from behind his back with an impressive demonstration of his double-jointed shoulders, getting his chains up front and finally obtaining enough leverage to break the chair's seat, lifting his chained legs off the still upright legs where they were attached to the floor.

That taken care of, he wasted no time in snatching the water pitcher out of her hand. The first mouth full washed away a half-month of blood and grime, his quick spit into one fetid corner of the cell coming out as a red and black mess. The rest was downed in a series of deep gulps, Robin ignoring the protests of his stomach to the unfamiliar condition of being filled, reveling in the cool sensation running down his throat. When he'd drained the whole tank, he keeled over onto his knees, flinging the crystal container away to its immediate destruction upon the hard stone. Breathing heavily, he looked down at the chains dangling from his wrists and wondered at this completely unexpected set of circumstances.

(Starfire/Robin)

"I'd give it about... one minute till we're out of here." Caspar spoke into her mind as Robin gathered himself on the floor.

"But will I not be back?" she asked him softly, barely hearing him through a veil of concern for Robin. He'd been chewed up further than she'd ever seen him, beaten black, blue, red, orange, purple, and several shades of green (healing bruises and festering cuts can do that). His usually spiky hair was matted and tangled with dried blood and layers of dirt, and there didn't seem to be any inch of his muscle-engraved body not in some way marred with injury.

"Sure, I guess. The thing is, I don't know WHEN you'll be back. The way worlds like this work, it could be a hundred years of time here before you dream your way back again, so you may have to track down the distant grandchildren of everyone you've met so far. Then again, you could be dropped back into the exact moment you leave. These things are weird like that."

"When I leave, I will forget that Robin and I love one another, and will once again be controlled by fear that he will reject me as a friend and a lover should I tell him of my feelings," she whispered to herself, eyes cast down as indecision ate at her.

"Forty five seconds."

A sudden resolve gripped Starfire's heart, a decision made and locked into her chest, and she quickly leaned down next to Robin and lifted his chin to have him look her in the eyes. When his eyes looked back at her from behind his grimy black mask, a connection was made. Sudden and deep, Robin's question of who she was died on his lips as he was drawn irresistibly into two endless pools of sparkling green. His heart fluttered unexpectedly, he broke out in a sweat, and he found himself at a sudden and complete loss for words for the first time in his entire life. Sometimes the soul knows what the mind does not, and Robin's soul (the facsimile in this world was quite perfect) would always know its true match when meeting eyes allowed the mated spirits to touch. They drank in each other's eyes for a long moment of silent ecstasy.

"Twenty seconds," urged Caspar politely, and Starfire took the warning to heart, closing her eyes and leaning forward slowly. Robin felt himself drawn in by a force that far surpassed his caution, his curiosity, and his determination, his own eyes closing as his lips approached those so enticingly offered. They met.

The heat spread quickly from the point of soft contact to every part of their suddenly linked bodies. Instantly something inside each of them melted, a sensation in the pit of the stomach like warm chocolate dripping into a runny mess. A blush crept along Starfire's arms and neck, her heart beating faster and faster as every nerve in her body burned with a passionate heat. Robin felt like two million gold crowns, every ache and pain forgotten in a wash of soothing pleasure that rushed through his body like a summer breeze. The two burned brightly for a long moment of shared heat, pleasure freely flowing between them from their joined lips.

"3, 2, 1...Blastoff," was the last thing Starfire heard before she opened her eyes. There was a fog, and then a light, then she opened her eyes a second time. Her real eyes.

Preview: God, wasn't that great? I know I enjoyed the hell out of writing it, so hopefully you liked it too. I left the plot open for return (much, much shorter) visits to Starfire's dream world, just because I got such a kick out of the bubblegum fantasy/technomancy genre. Anyway, the next chapter will be a descriptive one, with the confessions part of my awakenings and confessions chapter finally coming back after the long hiatus. Skye will speak long and eloquently of many things in his attempt to gain the trust of those his powers draw him to as essential for survival. Everyone else will get more than they bargained for out of the stranger that showed up and pulled their fat out of the fire. In any case, there will be more confessions than just out of Skye, ones interesting for far different reasons, so don't miss: Awakenings and Confessions—Part II