Chapter 4: Findings

(Michael)-

Spell books, ankhs, stone furniture… Not really surprised by her décor, really. Michael took in Raven's room, his emotions bordering on déjà vu and disgust. Reminds me of a worse case of my room before I found the Truth. Lot more organized, though… He lingered at the entrance, where he had phased through the door using his power. Looking further into the room, Michael noticed that Raven was not in fact in her room. Although this meant he didn't have to worry about waking her, he now had to hurry for fear of her coming through the door.

Making his way to the center of the room, Michael first checked the podium standing alone for the book he had seen Raven reading. It turned out to be something else entirely, but it was useful. It was open to a commentary on Cainis, explaining part of his history. Still, it wasn't anything Michael didn't already know. He moved on, continuing his search in the direction of Raven's bed.

(Raven)-

Melding up through the floor, the first thing Raven noticed was that Michael's stereo was still running. Startled, she sank back through almost completely before realizing that Michael wasn't even there. Ascending to her full height, Raven listened to his choice of music. Slow guitar and drums accompanied by a male vocalist singing about being taken higher flowed into her ears. Damn. Even his music reflects those lies…

Raven redirected her attention back to her task. She slowly rotated from the center of the room, taking in the many posters and pictures adorning the room's walls. Some were from anime, while others either proclaimed Christianities values or had some catchy slogan about it. One of the pictures hanging looked hand drawn, and upon closer inspection, bore Michael's signature. An angel adorned the page, colored in a golden light, but with obviously red hair. Strange… Normally angels are portrayed blonde…

Shrugging, Raven moved to Michael's desk. Its surface held nothing except a light and a couple of scuff marks. His dresser held the stand with the Bible, but she didn't even bother to look at that. She walked right past the TV and various game systems, and paid no attention to his bed. She finally stopped at the bookcase. Lying on one of the shelves was a black book labeled in Razic "Journal." It was worn, it's edges somewhat rounded from wear. She picked it up and skimmed past about two hundred pages quickly. Until the more recent dates within the last year, the journal was written almost exclusively in Razic. Opening to a random Razic entry, she silently began to read it.

"There is talk of battle coming, but of the enemy I know nothing. All of the students are undergoing rigorous training, some even withdrawing from their everyday lives to prepare. The elders have withheld all information on our foe. I wish they would tell me why! I know that I will be a great asset in this battle. It has been much too long since I have cut through my enemies with my beloved Cressinal.."

Raven shivered. This definitely didn't sound like Michael at all. From what she had seen of him, he was gentle, kind. Even to her. He was much like Beast Boy in many areas. Also, the blade he talked about in the entry was named Cressinal, which meant "Death bringer" in Razic. But what she had just read convinced her that he had changed a lot in the past year. Flipping through the pages again, Raven began reading an entry in English.

"I will take Cressinal with me, as Milante asked me. I don't know what use that infernal blade can still have after what it and I have done. He seems to think that there is something good within it, a power that must be shown. I don't think anything good can come from a blade designed for slaughter and death, but I'll listen to Milante nonetheless. He is an Archangel, after all."

Confusion was the only reaction Raven could produce to this entry. Not only had Michael's personality seemed to have changed between the entries, but he had also mentioned a being that could not have possibly existed. Not in her belief, anyway.

A faint light suddenly shown in her periphery, but when she looked up to see it, it had disappeared. Suddenly paranoid, Raven sat with her back against the wall and began to read the next entry.

"I never thought that it could have been done, but Cressinal has been cleansed. Its new appearance in glorious, as is the new name, Lissendar. After arriving at a clearing cut in half by a small stream, Milante asked me to hand him the sword. I did, and after he unwrapped the cold blade, I nearly puked from the residual evil flowing from it. But from just one look, Milante quieted my fears and doubts about the blade. Casting it into the water and saying a prayer, a bright light had shown up through the water, blinding me for a moment and making me wonder why people had not seen it for miles around. When the sword was pulled back up, it's black, oily appearance had changed! It was as if only the shape were still the same. The sword shown with a glossy light from within, and the jewel was now emerald colored. Also, the Razic symbol in the jewel had changed to a cross. I can hardly believe this gift that God has given me!"

At the last sentence, Raven's face twisted in disgust. Scratching her left arm, she rose to put the journal back when she saw the faint light again, this time from a different direction. Startled, she turned her entire body to face it. Again, it disappeared before she even had time to turn her eyes.

Now paranoid, Raven placed the book down on the dresser, and then turned to leave. The door whooshed open, allowing her through…

... to bump straight into Michael.

(Michael)-

Michael's eyes widened past their normal wide-open size to comical proportions. Several seconds passed as a horrified Raven looked at a malfunctioning Michael. His brain struggled to assess the situation as his eyes returned to normal.

"What are you doing in my room?" He asked brilliantly, the answer incredibly obvious. His eyes skipped from her, to his room, to his obviously misplaced journal. He buried his face in his hand, the awe-inspiring amount of irony catching up with him. Looking back up, he saw Raven struggling to find an answer. "Eh… Don't worry, it's painfully obvious. What did you read?"

"Read?" She said defensively. "Who said I read anything?" She confronted the withering stare exuding from Michael. Her defenses lasted, but they couldn't hold up to the full intensity of his 'I don't think so' look. Pushing past him, she replied, "I don't need to tell you anything."

Letting her go, Michael stared down the hallway, wondering how one human being could get so pissed off in seconds. Then he remembered his past. "Oh… yeah." He swept the broken lamp off his desk.

Walking to his dresser, he returned the journal to the bookcase. He did a full three-sixty of the room, then seemed to ask no one in particular, "So. What did she read?" A blinking light brought his attention from his left, and he turned to it. "Well?"

The soft yet brilliant light flooded his vision, then seemed to pulse its answer. The Night, and before and after the Renewing. That's definitely a coincidence that she would read those. Lifting his Bible off his dresser, Michael sat down on his bed, waiting for Raven's return.

(Raven)-

Stomping down the corridor to her room, Raven's mind stormed. An irrational anger had welled up inside of her when she had read the diary. How can he believe these lies? This Milante he spoke of had to be fictional, or so she tried to persuade herself. Stopping suddenly to lean against a wall and catch her breath, she drew her mind back again to what she had read. Questions popped up almost instantly. She found herself curious to know more about him. If he had dark secrets, the team had better know about them. I'm not going to let another Terra happen, she thought to herself resolutely.

It took her all of two minutes to reach the door to Michael's room again, and when he told her to come in before she even knocked, she was surprised to see him sitting on his bed reading, almost expecting of her to come back. Her resolve was temporarily replaced with confusion. "Yes?" He inquired gently, still buried within his book, taking a casual glance in her direction.

"It's not true." This one statement brought a smirk to Michael's face.

"It isn't?"

"No. It can't be. If there was a battle like your journal lead up to, we would have noticed it."

"Not necessarily," Michael said, unfazed.

Frustration welled up inside Raven, but she held it at bay. "What do you mean?" Raven said, much too calmly.

"No one outside the building would have seen the battle. It didn't happen here."

The frustration was now ebbing in on her voice. "That makes no sense. You just said that the people in the building were in the fight. Was the building not in this city?"

"It was," Michael said, still reading and only half paying attention to the conversation.

"Will you pay attention!" Raven suddenly burst, swiping the book from his hands. Immediately, the back of her hand burst into an itchy spasm, making her drop the book. She glanced at the back of her hand, which bore an oddly shaped red mark, then looked down at the book. It was a Bible.

Michael picked up his conversation as more blasts of confusion assaulted Raven's mind. "It was completely confined to the combatants' minds. Each one left that building feeling broken and alone. The event was marked by a rise in suicides that following week." His face was completely serious as he stood up. "Many were left broken and lost, not knowing what to do. Those that I knew and didn't kill themselves soon came to me looking for answers. I guess I kind of radiated a calm I didn't know I had, a happiness I hadn't known since I was a kid. They told me what had happened. I wasn't there."

Looking from the book and back to her hand, Raven avoided Michael's gaze. "I don't have to believe you."

"You're right," he replied. "No has to. It's all your choice."

"I thought your God controlled everything. You don't have choice. You have whatever He planned." She said the word 'He' with dripping sarcasm and obvious distaste.

"He knows everything that will happen. We still make our own choices, though."

Her frustration welled up again. "But that just doesn't make sense! He knows what you will do but you still have free will? How does that make sense?"

Michael smiled sadly. "To many, it doesn't." He was silent for several seconds more as he turned to stare at a wall. He seemed lost in memory. Raven glanced up at him, watching as he seemed to look at something a million miles away. His smile wore away. He was obviously remembering something painful. Raven looked directly into his eyes, almost completely forgetting about her frustration. His dark green orbs bore the sadness of loss, depthless and terrifying. Shaking his head quickly, he brought his eyes back to Raven.

"So you read about Lissendar, too?" he asked softly.

"Yes," Raven responded faintly. He turned and pulled the sheathed sword from a long compartment in the silvery steel wall. Drawing the sword, he studied the jewel. Intrigued, Raven's eyes traveled there as well.

"It used to bear an arcane symbol meaning 'power,' but it no longer bears it. Instead, this cross is there." He was holding the sword at a slight angle, yet the cross inside stayed in the upright position.

"How does it do that?" she asked, her attention completely averted to the gem.

"I honestly don't know," Michael replied. "I've kinda just stopped questioning stuff like that."

"Stuff like what?" Her gaze followed the jewel as Michael twisted the sword around slowly. His eyes now held a somewhat childlike glint.

"Like this cross. Frankly, I don't need an explanation for it. Just knowing that God makes it happen is enough for me. Knowing exactly is just like icing on the…"

"There you go again," Raven interrupted crossly. "Everything has to be about Him, doesn't it?"

One eyebrow rose bemusedly. "Yeah, pretty much."

Exasperated, Raven turned around and headed for the door. She stopped when he called her name. "I just thought I should let you know…" he said," that I was in your room, too."

Her anger flashed up, halfway melting the door handle, but it quickly subsided. Instead, Raven turned to look at Michael. Her face mirrored her feelings at her sudden realization. That was ironic…

(Michael)-

The next day, while stooped over several instruction books and several more strewn computer parts, Michael's hearing picked up the alarm klaxon. It wasn't necessarily hard, considering the volume, but it took two blares to break Michael from his concentration. Sighing loudly, Michael sat up and grabbed his black sleeveless vest. He left the front open, displaying his blank t-shirt and black pants. Grabbing Lissendar from where he had set it the night before, he ran out of his room towards the central living room that he knew was shortly to become a briefing area.

As soon as he reached the room, it became almost painfully apparent what was wrong. Just one look out the window and Michael was able to view an oil platform being drained. He sighed in exasperation. Well, at least the first villain I'll fight as a Titan won't be too hard…

Turning from the almost embarrassing sight, Michael found himself staring at a very disgruntled Raven. His only saving grace from her stare of death was the fact that she didn't seem to be angry at him. Instead, she seemed a million miles away while also appearing to be impatient in the now. Odd combination, he thought.

Turning once more to face Robin as he began his briefing, Michael's thoughts turned to the matter at hand.

Grabbing onto a railing just below the main deck of the oil platform, Michael let his flight field dissipate. The air rippled around him as its invisible energy flowed away. His body regained its weight, his arm and foot holding him firmly in place. All around him, the Titans gathered to mount their surprise attack. Robin began counting down from ten as a slightly maniacal voice rang out.

"Once I drain the energy from fifty-thousand barrels of oil, I'll flood the city in never-ending daylight!" As he finished, the Titans vaulted up onto the platform, making themselves known. Robin threw several birdarangs, cutting the cables connecting to the armor-wearing villain in front of them. Jumping up to dodge the razor-sharp edges, Dr. Light, as Robin had called him in the briefing, narrowly avoided a blast from Cyborg's sonic cannon. The blast destroyed the machine Dr. Light had been using. Landing on another platform directly behind the machine, he stood straight and regarded the assembled heroes with contempt.

The Titans, assembled in various poses, returned the glare. Michael stood towards the back, next to Cyborg. Robin was the first to break the short silence. "Y'know, Dr. Light, for a guy so obsessed with illumination, you're not very bright." Unable to help himself, Michael smirked.

"Next time you're looking to steal something, you might want to pick a target we can't see from our living room," Raven stated rather sarcastically. Michael's smirk widened as he looked over his shoulder at the Titan Tower not far behind him. Well, we won't have to worry about brilliant tactics from this guy…

A look of genius level realization crossed the Dr.'s face. "Oh…well…um…" Suddenly, rearing back, the villain hurled bolts of light at the assembled Titans. Caught off guard, Michael barely ducked in time to see a bolt streak past his left temple. He watched as the Titans landed from their various evasive maneuvers. Gotta be faster!

"That's a real pretty light show, but sound packs a bigger punch!" Cyborg's energy cannon roared to life, shattering the air between him and the madman. The blast was caught by a net of yellow energy, though, and thrown back into Cyborg's face. Michael flinched as his teammate flew through the air and landed about twenty yards out into the water. His sword made a metallic rasping sound as he grabbed it rather unceremoniously from its sheathe and dove for cover.

Starfire attacked next, filling the air with her own blasts of energy, casting an emerald light to the battlefield. His sight blocked by the cargo block he hid behind, his only input from the battle was the various traveling sound of Starfire's starbolts. Smoke wafted past him, seeming to punctuate the scream of fury Starfire made. Unfortunately, he found that her blitz had been cut short as she sailed past him and landed hard on the ground.

Peeking around the corner, Michael found that he had not been alone in ducking behind the cargo blocks and boxes. Robin and Beast Boy turned from the crash site of Starfire and immediately brought their attention to Dr. Light. Michael looked up as well, wary for the next attack. His attention was averted, though, by the weird display that Beast Boy had begun.

"Hey dude!" Beast Boy yelled. "Nice pajamas!" He fished around at his waistline, drawing up his own boxers. "Do they glow in the dark?" His face quickly changed from humorous to comical surprise as he dropped down and jumped away as a bat. Robin went as well, leaving Michael to duck back behind his cover. White energy bolts flew past his position, careening with the ocean water farther off. Yikes! Michael then jumped out and ran towards Dr. Light's now bat-assaulted position.

Running between the crates now, Michael caught only brief glimpses of the fight that Robin was putting up. He saw his trusty bow get snapped in half by a glimmering energy whip. This was enough for Michael to see. Jumping up into the air and vaulting himself further by energizing the air, he calculated his trajectory as Dr. Light was knocked away by a gigantic body slam from the now stegosaurus-ed Beast Boy. Landing perfectly on the small of the lunatic's back, Michael pushed down with his feet as hard as he could and trampolined off, sending the Dr. to the ground even faster.

Rolling to a stop several feet away, Dr. Light could do nothing but twitch for a few moments as the Titans regrouped behind him. He scrambled to his feet, turning to face the teen heroes. "No one defeats Dr. Light!" he proclaimed. "NO ONE!... huh?" His attention was now focused on the growing shadow, the rising black depth behind him. It quickly took form as a much-too-tall Raven. Dark shadow tendrils wove their way out of her cloak as her eyes shown sinisterly with a hot white light.

"Remember me?" she asked.

His face the utter embodiment of pure remember fear and terror, Dr. Light quickly turned back around, stating simply with his hand up in the air, "I'd like to go to jail now, please."

The humor portions of Michael's brain were definitely stimulated at this, but another part, a much greater part of him was still looking at Raven. The dark form she possessed at the moment scared him, scared him greater than anything the villain could have thrown at him. It reminded him of his past. Of his darkness.

The rest of the Titans began to haul off the deranged illumination hound, but Michael stayed in place, as did Raven. She was staring off back towards the tower, and he was staring intently at her. After a moment, in which the background conversation switched to doughnuts, pale violet eyes met green ones. They stayed locked that way for several moments, Raven's face a mask of angered determination, Michael's a mask of realization lightly tinged with horror. She's like I was, he thought. Angry… confused… out of control…

She broke contact first, saying to the group, "I'll meet you back at the tower. I want to get inside before tomorrow starts." Before anyone could protest or say a word, she was already on her way back to the Tower.

"What's so special about tomorrow?" Beast Boy asked, now totally confused. Turning away with Cyborg and Starfire, he helped to lead the villain to the jail. Robin, though, stayed behind.

Walking up beside Michael, Robin asked quietly, "What was that all about?"

Staring out over the ocean, Michael replied simply. "She's angry."

A small amused chuckle escaped from Robin. "She gets that way sometimes."

"Not just sometimes. I mean she herself is very angry. At the world, it seems." Michael's face remained stony, emotionless, as he said this.

"Some people have nothing, and just choose to be angry," Robin replied.

Silence fell for several moments.

"Do you go to church?" Michael asked, seemingly out of the blue.

Taken aback, Robin took a second to answer. "Well… no, but I remember going once with my parents. Before they died."

A pang of grief echoed within Michael's heart. Great. Don't need that going again. Shrugging it off, he continued with his tangent. "I'd like it if you came with me tomorrow. I'd like some help explaining what happened, where I've been. I'm not gonna lie. It's going to be hard for me." His glassy eyes echoed the grief in his heart.

A sad smile appeared on Robin's face. "Sure. So we'll see you back at the Tower?"

"Yeah. See you."

Michael stood, holding the railing of the main deck for several more minutes. Memories of his parents assaulted him, nearly drowning him in an ocean of sadness. Closing his eyes, he reached for the calm that he always knew to be there. Just as his mind grasped it, though, he felt it.

It felt evil. As evil as or more so than Cainis. And it was rising. His eyes snapping open, Michael took a quick glance down at the water before staring at the city. His adrenaline subsided with the wave of evil as quickly as it had come a moment later. The feeling was now one of calm again. Whatever it is, it's not ready to fight yet. Staring at the glistening buildings for a few moments longer before heading home, Michael could have sworn he saw Cainis' face laughing back at him in the stars.

This is going to be a long war, he thought sadly.