Clash of the Titansby CidGregor

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.

Chapter 6

"You won't get away with this, you know."

Malchior, in his true dragon form, twisted his snakelike head, flared his scaly wings, and glared down at the cage at his feet. Contained within it were what looked like a dozen copies of Raven, each wearing a different color cloak. Grey was whimpering in a corner; Red and Green were hammering with all their strength at the bars, trying to break free and pummel the invader into pulp; Yellow was meditating, her thick glasses resting on the tip of her nose; Pink was humming to herself, trying to make the best of a bad situation; and the true Raven, wearing blue, was locking eyes with the dragon, her eyes encased in a deep obsidian that reflected off the black and red nightscape around her…the nightscape of her mind.

"My friends will stop you. And they won't hesitate to kill me in order to do so, if that's what it takes."

"You know as well as I do that is a lie," Malchior hissed. "Perhaps if your friends were more like you, I might be worried. But they are all far too soft to even dream of doing such a deed."

"Wanna bet?" Raven snarled.

"Very much. Let us experiment with the changeling, shall we? He's been fighting us as we speak…observe."

For the first time since the villain had taken control of Raven's body, he allowed the dark girl to see out of her own eyes. Beast Boy stood facing her.

"Ah, changeling…how you must have loved that dear girl of the earth…Terra, was it?" she heard Malchior say.

A chill ran down the dark girl's spine. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Spilling your secrets, of course. What better way to goad him into killing you than to reveal what you've been hiding from him about Terra? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…"

Raven's hands clenched into fists, shaking. " You will pay for doing this to me, Malchior. I swear it."

"Empty threats," he dismissed her. " Now…observe."

Raven and her various emotions watched the exchange between Beast Boy and the dragon as the changeling slowly grew more and more angry. Malchior seemed to be truly enjoying himself, revealing Raven's secrets. And though the dark girl felt bad for him, she did not feel sorry. It was better this way. The more he believed her intentions had been hurtful, the easier it would be for him to get rid of her…even now she could see him pressing down on her collar with lion paws, snarling. She could almost feel it herself…

"Please, Beast Boy…don't worry about me…you have to kill the both of us…trust me…it's better this way…"

"He won't do it," Yellow interrupted her. "You know perfectly well he doesn't have it in him, no matter how angry he might get. I don't think even Robin would be able to kill you if there was a chance of stopping Malchior another way."

"Well, I don't see any 'other way,' do you?" Raven snapped.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Yellow said. She turned her bespectacled eyes on two other figures. "Red! Green!"

The two Ravens in question ceased their assault on the bars and glared back. "WHAT?" they demanded together.

"You want to get out of this cage and kick his ass?"

"Of course!" Green exclaimed. "Oooh, do you have a plan? You always have a plan! Does it involve major ass-kicking?"

"Indeed," Yellow nodded. "Come over here. All of you," she added, sweeping her eyes across the cage at the rainbow of Ravens.

"This better be good," the true Raven growled.

"Listen. You remember Malchior's little speech about the Titans of Greek mythology? He mentioned them for a reason. He intends on reviving them."

"Excuse me?" Raven said.

"R-r-revive…the T-T-Titans?" Grey stuttered.

"Awesome! More butt to kick!" Green shouted.

"No. Not awesome," Yellow said. "Very bad, in fact. As things are now we don't have a chance in hell of stopping one of the Titans, let alone all five of them."

"You're telling me those Titans are real?" Raven exclaimed.

"Yes."

"And Malchior knows how to revive them?"

"Yes. Now that he has control of our body, he has both his magic and ours to draw from. Between the two of us, he has enough magical power to revive the Titans. And that's exactly what he intends to do; use our power in addition to his own to summon the Titans to destroy the world of men."

"Heh-heh-heh…sounds like my kind of guy," Red laughed. "I say we should join him."

"You would say that," Raven muttered, shooting Red a glare, then turning back to Yellow. "Go on."

Yellow opened her mouth, but stopped short as she caught sight of Malchior. "Look…he's starting."

Raven turned and saw that Malchior had indeed taken his attention away from the cage full of Ravens and was chanting in what sounded like Greek.

"Okay, listen up," Yellow said, speaking very fast now. "As you all know, this is a mental prison…the more focus Malchior keeps on it, the stronger it becomes. But summoning the Titans will take his attention away from us. It will take an immense amount of his concentration to summon just one of the Titans, let alone all five, so he probably intends to raise them one by one. By consequence, the strength of our prison will greatly diminish. If we focus our power together we can break free of this cage when his concentration is at its weakest, and put him in the cage in our place."

"Right. Put him in the cage…and how do we do that, exactly?"

"By kicking his big scaly butt!" Green exclaimed.

"Precisely," Yellow nodded.

"And what about this one?" Raven gestured at Red.

"Red, I trust you won't make this difficult for us?" Yellow said, glancing over briefly. "I'm sure you don't like the idea of this dragon controlling us any more than we do. And don't think about trying to overthrow us once we get back in control, because you won't be able to contain Malchior alone, and he'll just take over again."

"I know, fool, I'm not incompetent! Grr…I suppose there will be other opportunities to consume this body…"

"Good…now we just have to-"

"Wait a second!" Raven interrupted. "This doesn't add up…how will we know when he's at his weakest?"

Yellow averted her eyes; and that was all the answer Raven needed.

"We're going to wait until he summons the first Titan, aren't we?"

"We don't have a choice," Yellow said. "That's when he's at his weakest, it's the only way we can get free. But listen, I have a plan for stopping the Titan, too."

"What plan?"

"Malchior is reviving the Earth Titan first…I can tell from the incantations he's chanting. As it is, none of our titans will be able to stop it…so we must fight fire with fire…or in this case…earth with earth."

"Fight earth with earth? What's that supposed to m-" Raven suddenly froze, the answer coming to her in one massive flash. "No way…"

"It's the only way, Raven," Yellow insisted. "Forget about your personal feelings. It's the only way."

"I…"

"There's no time! The incantation is almost complete!" Yellow shouted. "Everybody, get ready…on my mark, we focus all our power together and break this cage…"

"And then make mincemeat of dragon boy! Woo-hoo! Let's DO IT!" Green shouted.

"Speak to me, great Titans of old…" they heard the villain saying. "I, Malchior, summon you…I, Malchior, grant you the power to break free of those chains that have bound you these many centuries!"

Yellow locked eyes with Raven one last time. "It's the only way, Raven…I hope you can keep that in mind…"

"Rise, ancient beings, and reclaim this world that is rightfully yours! RISE, TITANS, AND DESTROY THOSE WHO DARE DEFILE YOUR NAME!"

"NOW!" Yellow urged. Together, a mass of eyes flared obsidian, and the bars of the cage glowed the same. They warped and groaned under the combined mental assault; Malchior's summoning was taking his concentration away from the mental prison almost entirely, and with hardly much effort at all, the bars broke.

"NOW, CHARGE HIM!"

The Ravens soared upward (Grey lagging in the rear, trembling) toward Malchior's serpent-like head. He was so focused on the Earth Titan that was climbing its way out of the ground out in the real world that he was completely oblivious to the assault. He was too busy gloating at the other titans to notice as Green positioned herself at the back of Malchior's head and drew back her fist…

"It is the Earth Titan, you fools…" he was growling at the four titans below him. "And it is what will rid this world of you once and for all…urk!"

His speech was cut off as Green plowed her fist as hard as she could into the back of Malchior's head. As soon as it twisted around to face her she delivered a second punch to his snout, causing him to roar in pain. Red fired a blast of red energy from her eyes and struck him in the stomach; Yellow cast a handful of spells that disoriented the dragon; Grey held back, casting protective magic on her fellow Ravens and too fearful of the dragon to get close and fight. Green meanwhile had encased Malchior's tail in black energy and was swinging it back and forth, smacking him across the face with it.

"Stop hittin' yourself, stop hittin' yourself, stop hittin' yourself, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Pink giggled at the sight.

The true Raven hovered above the dragon, eyes closed and hands clenched. Both were filled to bursting with her dark energy, and it was crackling around her like lightning. Malchior, entirely consumed by the assault of the other Ravens, noticed nothing as Raven summoned more and more power into one massive spell.

"Hey, Romeo!" she called to him at last. "Let's see how you like being crammed into a cage!"

Right on cue the other Ravens scattered, clearing the way for the final attack. They formed a circle around the battered dragon, raised their own hands to the sky, and chanted together:

"AZARATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!"

A dozen chains of black energy streamed from the hands of Raven's emotions, granting their power to the true Raven above them and effectively preventing Malchior from going anywhere.

"Now, Malchior, if you'd be so kind…GIVE ME MY DAMN BODY BACK!"

Raven fired her combined energies straight down, where it ripped into the villain effortlessly and caused him to shriek in agony.

"AAAAUUGH! NO! THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE! HOW ARE YOU…YOU CAN'T…YOU…NO…AAAAHH!"

The dragon suddenly and rapidly began shrinking, down and down to the ground until he was no bigger than any of the Ravens surrounding him, gasping in pain. Green stepped forward, grabbed the miniature lizard by the neck, and lifted him off the ground, smirking.

"Guess what, dragon-dude? WE TOTALLY KICKED YOUR ASS!"

And with a huge grin she spun around and hurled the beast through the gaping hole in the cage they had made. He slammed hard against the bars on the opposite side, and before he could even begin to recover, the broken bars bent and warped back into their original positions and sealed seamlessly, locking the villain inside at last.

The moment he was within, Raven felt her mind…expanding, she supposed was the right word…expanding out from her head and filling in the emptiness of her body. She was going back...she was in control again...

She closed her eyes momentarily…and when she opened them again, she could see the real world once more. The warehouse had been demolished during the summoning, so that the setting sun warmed her back. Her friends were there, looking terrified as they glanced back and forth between her and the Earth Titan below her. She wanted to call out to them, to assure them she was finally free…but between the stolen energy Malchior had spent and the energy she herself had spent to break free of him, she was beat, and a wave of utter exhaustion hit her at last. She plummeted from the sky like a rock, her mind and body going blissfully blank and numb…and the last thing she could hear before she blacked out was the titans collectively screaming her name…

"RAVEN!"