Teen Titans Half-Life
Chapter 6: The Tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore.
Something monumental was about to happen; possibly the most-monumental thing that had ever happened anywhere, ever. Hunched against the base of the willow tree, her eyes gazed down river towards the city; standing in arrogance upon the horizon underneath the threatening overcast sky. Why wasn't he here? Why wasn't he with her?
She knew the answer. He was unreachable and that was due to the simple hard truth that he didn't much care what happened to her. Then it happened again. A lasso of pain whipped around her hips and slowly began to tighten. She bared her teeth as a sound that seemed utterly alien to her small frame erupted into the night sky. Alone and as scared as she had ever been in her entire life, she started to cry.
Why hadn't she turned back when the pains first started? Why had she continued up river looking for the other half? But now it was too late. The garrote tightened again and again doubling the pain each time. She pushed, grunted, and screamed and just when she thought she couldn't bear the pain any longer, a child forced its way into existence, trailing behind it a neon black umbilical cord. She held the child up and examined it critically. It was a girl
She wiped some of the ooze from its face. She could see it better now.
But wait.
There was something wrong. The child's skin was too pale, its limbs were too short, its forehead too high, and its head – its head was so large. She held it, uncertain what to do. But she was right. The child was going to be abnormal. It wasn't going to be like its mother. It wasn't going to be like its father. It wasn't going to be like anyone.
Anyone ever.
She removed her shirt and wrapped it around the child. Here, in a huge clearing on the northern continent of a place later known as Azarath. She had given birth to the first.
The first was born.
Then it started to rain. For years afterward she would try to explain what she had felt at that brief moment in time. Yet she was never able to find the words; she couldn't understand it herself. But at that moment, when it first began to rain, she knew; something terrible was going to happen to her daughter.
For a few seconds, Raven couldn't recall where she was. An inner voice, her Rage, thick with spite snickered quietly in her head.
"Embrace the moment," it whispered. "Hang on to the amnesia, because this tiny moment of zero recall is the best thing that's going to happen to you for some considerable time." Naturally Raven didn't much care for the newcomer to her mental landscape, and was doing her best to ignore it.
"Whatever you do," it continued, "don't acknowledge reality. Your not going to like it one bit."
She struggled into a sitting position and took in her surroundings. Where was this place? The walls were gray and unmarked. A dull strobe light parted its bleak radiance into the tiny room from overhead and what was that smell; a musty smell, like an old attic and there was dust everywhere. It covered the walls, the floor, even the single bunk bed, built into the side of the room, to which she currently occupied. A look of repugnance marked her face as her arms beat and swung up and down her body, trying to remove as much of the gray powder as possible. She knew this place; yes she had been here before. If she was right she'd turn her head and see bars.
She turned her head.
Next best thing, wire-mesh. She was in some sort of cell. She flung her right leg over the side of the bed followed by it unresponsive partner and clumsily limped her way towards the mesh. Examining the world beyond the mesh, there was a corridor. To her right the corridor ended in a solid dead end while it tapered off into the distance to her left and bordered many more, almost identical, cells. All gray and unmarked, low light, filled with dust, but her cell was unique in a very obvious way.
There was actually someone in it.
In all of the other cells, she could not find a single person anywhere.
Her gaze fell upon a single clock mounted on the dead end wall of the corridor; 6:32 it read. This was good; she knew where she was, she knew the time, now if she could just figure out what the hell she was doing here all would be right with the world.
Inside Titans Tower, there was a level, this level had once served many varying purposes; storage, animal housing, temporary visitors quarters, a prison for criminals or for anyone who needed a time-out, or to enforce quarantine. But no one had used this place in years. Not since the old facilities, on the top floors, had been upgraded to their current layout, and certainly not as a prison, since the new maximum-security penal complex had been built right next to the Jump City slums. For a while Cyborg had made routine visits to check that the facilities were in a workable state, should the Titans ever require their use again.
She closed her eyes and concentrated. She chanted her meditative idiom and summoned her power from the depths of her being. For a moment the black aura surrounded her body flowing and ebbing across her skin and just as suddenly as it had come it departed. Opening her eyes, she scrutinized the mesh. It was still was just as solid and uncross-able as it had been a few moments ago. She had been inhibited. Her power was not working.
It appeared as if Cyborg's diligence had paid off, the facilities were still in proper working order. But why would they want to place her here and forcibly detain her? Just what had she done to deserve this? On the other hand what if Titans Tower had been taken over by some malign force, it wouldn't be the first time, and they had thrown her in here. Raven re- deposited herself onto the bed, sending up a fresh cloud of dust. Her face had the 'no one home' look as she massaged her temples and tried to recall just what had happened.
As she thought, a mad itching sensation in her side broke her silent reverie. Her wound was acting up, probably due to all the dust in the air. There was a single thin and even tear in the fabric of her uniform through which she could see the scab covering her wound and painted in dried blood. She concluded, correctly, that some considerable time had passed since it had been inflicted upon her body.
"The battle with Money," she thought, her interest in solving this mystery reinforced. They had confronted Money in front of the Jump City Central Bank just as he was trying to force open the vault. Then Raven remembered. She remembered everything. Her face went whiter than newly bleached cotton.
"Told you," said the inner voice. "Isn't this the worst situation you've ever been in, in your entire life?"
The inner voice was wrong, but not by much.
Raven gazed out of the metal mesh as she catalogued the series of disasters that led her to this particular point in time and space. She listed the bad decisions, the poor career choices, the unfortunate accidents, the unreliable friendships that had led her here. She let out a sigh, as hopelessness took root in her heart, and quietly wondered where it had all had started to go wrong.
Meanwhile, 8 floors above Raven's head, Robin paced impatiently in front of the huge TV screen that dominated the central room. Starfire and Cyborg were there as well. Starfire sat on the U-shaped couch, her legs to her chest, with a despairing look, while Cyborg sat at the bar and quietly sipped a cola. It had been nearly 3 hours since they had left beast boy at the hands of some stranger. Ever since Starfire had returned with him to Titans Tower she had quickly taken him to the medical room and had done her best to bandaged his cuts and make him feel as comfortable as possible.
The biggest problem cropped, not from the lack of sufficient facilities, but that apart from some basic first aid knowledge no one knew a drop of medical treatment or indeed how to operate most of the machines. Here they had enough medical equipment to make a moderate sized hospital blush with envy and they had not a single soul who knew how to use it. How stupid was that and why had they not thought of it sooner? Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire continued to taunt each other with silence. They feared for Beast Boy's life. At the same time, their thoughts went to Raven, and they began to wonder what exactly had gone wrong.
Something monumental was about to happen; possibly the most-monumental thing that had ever happened anywhere, ever. Hunched against the base of the willow tree, her eyes gazed down river towards the city; standing in arrogance upon the horizon underneath the threatening overcast sky. Why wasn't he here? Why wasn't he with her?
She knew the answer. He was unreachable and that was due to the simple hard truth that he didn't much care what happened to her. Then it happened again. A lasso of pain whipped around her hips and slowly began to tighten. She bared her teeth as a sound that seemed utterly alien to her small frame erupted into the night sky. Alone and as scared as she had ever been in her entire life, she started to cry.
Why hadn't she turned back when the pains first started? Why had she continued up river looking for the other half? But now it was too late. The garrote tightened again and again doubling the pain each time. She pushed, grunted, and screamed and just when she thought she couldn't bear the pain any longer, a child forced its way into existence, trailing behind it a neon black umbilical cord. She held the child up and examined it critically. It was a girl
She wiped some of the ooze from its face. She could see it better now.
But wait.
There was something wrong. The child's skin was too pale, its limbs were too short, its forehead too high, and its head – its head was so large. She held it, uncertain what to do. But she was right. The child was going to be abnormal. It wasn't going to be like its mother. It wasn't going to be like its father. It wasn't going to be like anyone.
Anyone ever.
She removed her shirt and wrapped it around the child. Here, in a huge clearing on the northern continent of a place later known as Azarath. She had given birth to the first.
The first was born.
Then it started to rain. For years afterward she would try to explain what she had felt at that brief moment in time. Yet she was never able to find the words; she couldn't understand it herself. But at that moment, when it first began to rain, she knew; something terrible was going to happen to her daughter.
For a few seconds, Raven couldn't recall where she was. An inner voice, her Rage, thick with spite snickered quietly in her head.
"Embrace the moment," it whispered. "Hang on to the amnesia, because this tiny moment of zero recall is the best thing that's going to happen to you for some considerable time." Naturally Raven didn't much care for the newcomer to her mental landscape, and was doing her best to ignore it.
"Whatever you do," it continued, "don't acknowledge reality. Your not going to like it one bit."
She struggled into a sitting position and took in her surroundings. Where was this place? The walls were gray and unmarked. A dull strobe light parted its bleak radiance into the tiny room from overhead and what was that smell; a musty smell, like an old attic and there was dust everywhere. It covered the walls, the floor, even the single bunk bed, built into the side of the room, to which she currently occupied. A look of repugnance marked her face as her arms beat and swung up and down her body, trying to remove as much of the gray powder as possible. She knew this place; yes she had been here before. If she was right she'd turn her head and see bars.
She turned her head.
Next best thing, wire-mesh. She was in some sort of cell. She flung her right leg over the side of the bed followed by it unresponsive partner and clumsily limped her way towards the mesh. Examining the world beyond the mesh, there was a corridor. To her right the corridor ended in a solid dead end while it tapered off into the distance to her left and bordered many more, almost identical, cells. All gray and unmarked, low light, filled with dust, but her cell was unique in a very obvious way.
There was actually someone in it.
In all of the other cells, she could not find a single person anywhere.
Her gaze fell upon a single clock mounted on the dead end wall of the corridor; 6:32 it read. This was good; she knew where she was, she knew the time, now if she could just figure out what the hell she was doing here all would be right with the world.
Inside Titans Tower, there was a level, this level had once served many varying purposes; storage, animal housing, temporary visitors quarters, a prison for criminals or for anyone who needed a time-out, or to enforce quarantine. But no one had used this place in years. Not since the old facilities, on the top floors, had been upgraded to their current layout, and certainly not as a prison, since the new maximum-security penal complex had been built right next to the Jump City slums. For a while Cyborg had made routine visits to check that the facilities were in a workable state, should the Titans ever require their use again.
She closed her eyes and concentrated. She chanted her meditative idiom and summoned her power from the depths of her being. For a moment the black aura surrounded her body flowing and ebbing across her skin and just as suddenly as it had come it departed. Opening her eyes, she scrutinized the mesh. It was still was just as solid and uncross-able as it had been a few moments ago. She had been inhibited. Her power was not working.
It appeared as if Cyborg's diligence had paid off, the facilities were still in proper working order. But why would they want to place her here and forcibly detain her? Just what had she done to deserve this? On the other hand what if Titans Tower had been taken over by some malign force, it wouldn't be the first time, and they had thrown her in here. Raven re- deposited herself onto the bed, sending up a fresh cloud of dust. Her face had the 'no one home' look as she massaged her temples and tried to recall just what had happened.
As she thought, a mad itching sensation in her side broke her silent reverie. Her wound was acting up, probably due to all the dust in the air. There was a single thin and even tear in the fabric of her uniform through which she could see the scab covering her wound and painted in dried blood. She concluded, correctly, that some considerable time had passed since it had been inflicted upon her body.
"The battle with Money," she thought, her interest in solving this mystery reinforced. They had confronted Money in front of the Jump City Central Bank just as he was trying to force open the vault. Then Raven remembered. She remembered everything. Her face went whiter than newly bleached cotton.
"Told you," said the inner voice. "Isn't this the worst situation you've ever been in, in your entire life?"
The inner voice was wrong, but not by much.
Raven gazed out of the metal mesh as she catalogued the series of disasters that led her to this particular point in time and space. She listed the bad decisions, the poor career choices, the unfortunate accidents, the unreliable friendships that had led her here. She let out a sigh, as hopelessness took root in her heart, and quietly wondered where it had all had started to go wrong.
Meanwhile, 8 floors above Raven's head, Robin paced impatiently in front of the huge TV screen that dominated the central room. Starfire and Cyborg were there as well. Starfire sat on the U-shaped couch, her legs to her chest, with a despairing look, while Cyborg sat at the bar and quietly sipped a cola. It had been nearly 3 hours since they had left beast boy at the hands of some stranger. Ever since Starfire had returned with him to Titans Tower she had quickly taken him to the medical room and had done her best to bandaged his cuts and make him feel as comfortable as possible.
The biggest problem cropped, not from the lack of sufficient facilities, but that apart from some basic first aid knowledge no one knew a drop of medical treatment or indeed how to operate most of the machines. Here they had enough medical equipment to make a moderate sized hospital blush with envy and they had not a single soul who knew how to use it. How stupid was that and why had they not thought of it sooner? Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire continued to taunt each other with silence. They feared for Beast Boy's life. At the same time, their thoughts went to Raven, and they began to wonder what exactly had gone wrong.