Clash of the Titans by CidGregor

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.

Chapter 18

"Unnh…"

"Hey, she's coming around…" a deep voice said through the haze.

"She is?" a higher-pitched squeak responded. "Let me see her!"

"Chill, dude, she's fine…"

"Yes, friend," a new, feminine voice said. "She seems undamaged."

Terra heard the jumbled voices around her, slowly growing clearer as she climbed out of the groggy haze in her head. Her eyes opened in a squint, blinded by the sunlight. Her hands slowly came up to block the light so her eyes could adjust to the sights around her. She saw Cyborg on her left, supporting a wounded, unconscious Robin over one shoulder. Starfire hovered behind the blonde girl, her hands clasped together in a pose of worry. And Beast Boy was crouched down beside her head, gripping her free hand in both of his.

Terra sat up, shaking the haze out of her head, and glanced into the distance; she could just barely see a brewing storm at the edge of the city, where most of the fighting had occurred. Malchior, still in his massive dragon form, stood directly beneath the storm, and Raven hovered just above him. Black, red, green, and purple energy was flowing from the two bodies, gathering in the storm above, and Terra immediately knew what was happening; Malchior had started the summoning. The Earth Titan had also returned to its master's side, and stood silently, motionless, as its master raised its brethren.

"Hey, Terra…you all right?"

"Y…yeah…" she muttered back to the changeling. "How long was I out?"

"Maybe half an hour after Raven blasted you…" Beast Boy said, sneering on that last bit.

"BB, what's wrong?" Terra asked.

"What wrong?.!" The changeling exclaimed. "Raven tried to kill you, that's what's wrong! And now she's over there helping Malchior raise the rest of those nasty Titan dudes!"

"Don't be mad at her, Beast Boy," Terra said as she shakily got to her feet. "She didn't really try to hurt me, it was just an act…it's all part of her plan…"

"What plan?" Cyborg asked.

"I don't have time to explain right now…I have to get back to the Tower! You guys have to get over there and stall Malchior as long as you can until I get back!"

"What are you going to do?" Cyborg demanded.

"I told you, I can't explain, you just have to trust me-"

Terra cut herself off then and winced…she knew that wasn't going to go over well, coming from her. And sure enough…

"Terra, Robin's out of commission for the moment. That leaves me in charge. And I say we need everyone right here, holding back Malchior. Including you."

"Cyborg, that's not the right move!" Terra said. "I know it seems that way, but you have to believe me, I know how we can stop him and the other Titans, AND get Raven back, and if we're going to do that, I need to get back to the Tower!"

She glanced at Beast Boy and Starfire, hoping for some sign of where they stood, but both were looking intently at Cyborg, knowing full well that the decision was his.

"Terra…" Cyborg started.

"You have to trust me, Cyborg!" Terra begged. "I know I'm the last person in the world to deserve it, but I'm telling you, it's our only chance! Raven has a plan, and I need to do everything I can to make sure it works. You have to let me go!"

Cyborg's fists clenched momentarily…but then relaxed. "Unnhh…well…if Raven's trusting you…"

A relieved grin broke out on the blonde girl's face. Thank you, Cyborg…"

"Here," the titanium teen said, handing Robin's limp form over to the earth maiden. "Take him with you. He'll just be dead weight if he stays here…at least at the Tower he'll be a little safer."

"Okay…and don't worry, I promise I'll be back as fast as I can!"

"What are you waiting for, then? Get going!" Cyborg ordered.

Terra nodded. She stole a quick glance at Beast Boy, then ripped a chunk of earth from the street, laid Robin on the platform, and hopped on next to him.

"Just hold Malchior off as best you can, and don't get yourselves killed!" Terra called to the team.

"Watch yourself, Terra!" Beast Boy called back.

"Yes…be safe, friend!" Starfire echoed. "And be mindful that Robin does not fall!"

"All right Titans, let's go kick some dragon butt!" Cyborg shouted. The three remaining teens ran the opposite direction to where Malchior's massive dragon form and the smaller figure of Raven's mindless body were engaged in the summoning. Terra watched them go for a moment, her eyes on the smallest of the three.

Beast Boy…

She shook her head to clear it, and her eyes hardened. Beast Boy was doing his job…it was time for her to do hers.

She glanced down at Robin's limp, burned form, making sure he was secure on the rock platform, then summoned her thermal energy, lifted the rock into the air, and sped off toward Titans Tower.

She arrived in a matter of minutes, and easily picked out which window was Raven's; it was little more than a hole in the wall now after Malchior shattered it for the second time. She held her rock ledge at the windowsill so she could haul Robin inside and lay him down on Raven's bed. She saw the Boy Wonder beginning to stir, but ignored him for the time being as she went in search of Raven's magic mirror. She had no idea how she was going to find it, though…the room was a total mess…Malchior's doing, Terra remembered from Beast Boy's explanation.

It should be lying on top of my dresser, Terra heard Yellow Raven guide her. The blonde followed the directions, but saw nothing there except a framed photograph of the original five titans. With a pang of guilt she found herself wondering if she would have had a place in that photo, had she not turned on them…

Focus, Terra, came Yellow Raven's voice. The mirror probably got blown off somewhere…look on the floor around the dresser.

"Right," she muttered, tearing her eyes from the photo. She knelt down and searched around the floor for the mirror, but all she succeeded at doing was encountering another framed picture…and this one, to Terra's shock, was of her.

With a fleeting memory she remembered exactly when this picture had been taken…the team had gone out to pizza the day after she had joined them, and Beast Boy had insisted on taking a few pictures to commemorate the occasion. Terra, never a very photogenic person, had tried to politely refuse on the grounds that they didn't have a camera, but of course Cyborg had a camera built into his non-human optic, so Beast Boy had managed to get a shot of her smiling in an amused sort of way, as well as a few others, before she'd grown too embarrassed to keep it up.

Terra gazed at the photo in utter confusion, tracing one finger along the crack in the glass frame. Why did Raven of all people keep a picture of her still…?

We don't have time for this, Terra, Yellow Raven said. You can get lost on memory lane some other time, when giant dragons and ancient monsters AREN'T threatening our very existence.

Terra's eyes remained glued to the photo for perhaps another few seconds, but eventually she nodded and laid the picture down next to the dresser, and resumed her search. Not two minutes later, she found it, half-buried in a pile of Raven's spare robes. It was lying mirror-side down, and as Terra picked it up she instinctively began to turn it over…

NO! Yellow Raven barked. Do NOT look into it directly! We don't want you getting sucked in there…not yet.

Terra quickly turned it back so the mirror side was facing away from her.

Now, Robin sounds like he's waking up…start with him. Tell him to look into the mirror…its magic will take care of things from there.

Terra nodded to the invisible voice, and brought the mirror over to the Boy Wonder. "Hey, Robin…you awake?"

"Uunnhh…" Robin muttered. "Where am I…?"

"The Tower. I brought you here after you passed out, so you'd be safe."

Robin rubbed his hand over his face...and let out a sudden gasp as he covered his face. "M-my mask! What...where is it?"

"Oh, that...it got burned off."

"Burned off? How?"

"That would be when you got yourself scorched by a dragon," Terra simpered.

Terra's words triggered Robin's memory a moment later, because he suddenly snapped up, blue eyes wide. "Starfire! Is she-"

"She's fine, Robin, don't worry…now listen, I need you to-"

"I have to get back there! They need my help!" he grunted, climbing to his feet, but almost immediately his legs gave out and he fell back down on the bed.

"Robin, you aren't going to do anyone any good like this. But trust me, Raven has a plan. I don't have time to explain, but I promise you it's our only chance."

"Whatever it is, it better involve me getting out there and kicking that dragon's sorry ass…" Robin insisted as he tried to get up again.

Terra held him down with her free hand. "Even better." She held up the mirror with her other hand. "Look at this."

Robin glanced into the mirror, unsure of why he was being told to…and then it occurred to him what he was looking at.

"Hey, isn't this-"

Before he said another word, the mirror flashed, and what looked like a breath of fog escaped Robin's lips and flew into the mirror. The Boy Wonder then collapsed, his whole body limp and numb.

Perfect…his subconscious mind has entered my mindscape…now for the rest of them…Malchior and his Titans aren't going to come willingly, but I have just the spell for that…let's go, Terra.

"On it," she said. She leapt back on her rock and flew as fast as she could go back toward the growing storm.

And as she left, it suddenly occurred to her that she'd seen Robin's face, unmasked. And the face she'd seen...it was one she knew. One she'd seen in the papers more than a few times. The heir to the multi-millionare Bruce Wayne.

It had been the face of Dick Grayson.

You must keep his secret, Terra, came Raven's voice again. He hides his identity for a reason.

"R-right..." Terra muttered. Her mind back on the task at hand, she sped onward once more.

"The summoning is nearing completion, master," Raven's voice droned. "The ancient seal on the Titans' prisons are broken, and the portal into this world is almost open."

"GOOD, MY SLAVE…YOU ARE PERFORMING ADMIRABLY…" Malchior hissed. "JUST A FEW MORE MINUTES, AND THE REST OF THE TITANS SHALL WALK THE EARTH ONCE MORE…"

"Not if we have anything to say about it!"

Malchior twisted his snakelike head toward the small voice, and sneered as he saw the remaining three of the Teen Titans standing before him.

"Give it up, Malchior!" Beast Boy went on. "You should know by now the good guys always kick the bad guys' butts!"

"RRAAUGH! INSOLENT PESTS!.!" Malchior snarled. "SLAVE! GET RID OF THESE FOOLS ONCE AND FOR ALL! I WILL COMPLETE THE SUMMONING MYSELF!"

"Yes, master," Raven droned. She turned her eyes upon her friends…and now they were blank. Cold. Uncaring. 'Raven' was gone. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

A black bolt of energy lanced at the three titans, forcing them to scatter. Beast Boy morphed into a Pterodactyl and clutched Cyborg's shoulders, lifting him off the ground and into striking distance of Malchior. He aimed his one good sonic cannon at the blackened wound in the dragon's back, praying the cannon was not too damaged to work. Fortunately it had at least one blast left in it; blue lightning shot with perfect accuracy at the wound…

…and was halted ten feet before it could strike by a wall of black.

"You shall not interfere with my master," Raven droned from where she hovered at Cyborg's left flank.

"Dammit, Raven, snap out of it! What is wrong with you?.!" Cyborg shouted.

Raven did not respond. She threw one pale hand forward and blasted Cyborg and Beast Boy out of the air with a shockwave of telekinesis. The two boys went sprawling to the broken street, and Cyborg, to his misfortune, landed on top of his working sonic cannon; the screeching of metal against concrete told him that the cannon was definitely not going to be working anymore.

Raven glanced to her other side and realized Starfire was hovering there beside her. The mindless dark girl turned her blank eyes fully upon the Tamaranian.

"Raven, you must fight Malchior's control!" Starfire begged. "He is an evil being! He will cause nothing but pain and suffering!"

"I must obey my master," Raven's lifeless voice answered. The blank eyes flashed, and Starfire too was hurled roughly to the ground beside Cyborg and Beast Boy.

"I got nothing left," Cyborg muttered. "My weapons are shot."

"Ditto…" Beast Boy said. "Ow…I can't even move without something hurting…"

Starfire struggled to her feet, clutching her wounded shoulder in ever-increasing pain. "Then…we have no hope but to pray that this plan concocted by Raven and Terra succeeds," she said.

And so the Titans could do nothing but watch as Malchior fed the last bits of energy needed to complete the summoning…

"YES! YES!.!.! RISE, TITANS, AND RECLAIM THE WORLD THAT IS RIGHTLY YOURS TO RULE! RISE!.!.!.!.!.!"

The storm overhead seemed to explode with a rainbow of light. It raged uncontrollably, raining bolts of lightning at everything around and demolishing more than a few buildings long since abandoned.

And then, at the core of the raging storm, a gaping hole of blackness opened wide, and a great, bloated, meaty body dropped from it. Its skin was a very human shade of peach, and its figure seemed generally human right down to the tattered loincloth around its waist; but the resemblance stopped there, for it gazed out at the world with one enormous eye in the center of its face.

"The Cyclops…" Cyborg muttered. "Dammit…it's starting…"

"Dudes…did somebody just turn up the thermostat…?" Beast Boy groaned. "It's so hot…"

Beast Boy wasn't imagining it; for the next Titan that emerged from within the core of the storm appeared to be a living blob of molten Earth. Flames leapt and danced across its nearly shapeless body, and red-hot magma dripped from its gooey arms, scorching everything it touched and melting the asphalt beneath it into a stinking puddle of rock and tar.

"The Titan of Fire…" Cyborg continued.

A wind then picked up, not only cooling the air but blowing around everything that wasn't bolted down; the teens had to struggle to not get blown away themselves. The source of the wind then emerged from the black portal; a living tornado with great bulbous eyes, arms that whipped about in the monster's own wind, and a great gaping maw that could only be its mouth, blowing hurricane gales across the landscape.

"The Titan of Wind…"

And lastly, a chill fell over the landscape as a tall, spindly pair of frozen legs, a stick-figure body, long, sharp, wicked claws for hands, and an, empty-eyed, dragon-like head emerged from the portal. Every inch of its body pulsed with a freezing-cold aura as it stood taller than any of the others, taller than even Malchior, and roared mightily.

"The Titan of Ice…" Cyborg finished his commentary.

At last…the five Titans had been raised. And now, Malchior was directing them straight for the three battered teammates.

Cyborg watched the looming monsters sadly, feeling all but helpless. "How…how can we hope to beat this…?"

"Is there…no hope?" Starfire whispered.

"Just…just one…" Beast Boy said. "…Terra…"

"You called?"

And right on cue, a slab of rock swept into view, carrying the earth maiden on top of it and planting itself directly between the two teams of Titans.

"Terra! You're back!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"So? What's this big plan of yours?" Cyborg demanded.

"I've got it right here," Terra said, raising the mirror in her hands.

Beast Boy's and Cyborg's eyes bulged. "THE MIRROR?.!" they exclaimed together.

"Yeah…hold onto your butts…this is going to be a weird ride."

Terra raised the mirror high overhead, barely noticing the tiny "Eep!" from Starfire as she took the blonde's words literally.

"Okay, Raven…do your stuff…" she muttered.

Terra closed her eyes, and let go of herself. And the instant she did, she felt the other consciousness within her, that of Raven's rational mind, draw forward and take the control offered her by the earth maiden.

Terra's eyes opened again…but they were no longer her own sky blue, but Raven's deep purple…and when she spoke, it was Raven's, not Terra's, voice that came from her mouth.

"Nor-Tallomor, Sephris, Hezberek, Malakai, Necronom! Be lost within the warpings of the mindscape, foul demons! AZARATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!.!.!.!"

Black lightning crackled from the mirror, arcing outward from its glass surface. Each bolt found its way to one of the Titans, both the teens and the monsters. The last three bolts launched respectively at Malchior, Raven…and Terra herself. And with hardly a chance to register surprise, one by one a wisp of…something…escaped their bodies and flew into the magic mirror. One by one, as those wisps escaped them, their bodies became rag-dolls, flopping lifelessly to the ground…very destructively, in the case of Malchior and his oversized Titans.

Terra herself was the last one affected. As the magic worked on her, she felt her mind, as well as Raven's Intelligence, being pulled inexplicably toward the mirror.

It's time, Terra, Yellow Raven said. Here is where we face Malchior for the final time. In my mindscape, where those freaks can't harm the innocent any longer. You and the titans, take care of Malchior's Titans. I…that is…Raven…we'll take care of Malchior himself.

Okay…good luck, Raven… Terra answered.

The last thing she was aware of in her own body was her legs giving out…but her mind was gone before her body had hit the ground…and suddenly Terra found herself in a very, very different world…