Chapter 2

Meanwhile, on a hillside not so far away, two figures struggled up the lonely hill. Upon reaching the top of the hill, the figures stopped and took in the view, "Tell you what man, that climb fucks you over properly but damm the view is good. Oz, OZZY, you listening to me?" the first figure turned round only to find that the hillside lacked his companion. The reason for this is that he had collapsed. "You lazy cunt, get up off the ground. If I can make it and not collapse so can you, we are meant to be messengers of the lord; we can't just lie down on the ground, dickhead."

From his recumbent position, the one called Ozzy opened one eye and looked at his friend in disgust "Piss off, Riley, I'll lie down all I fucking want to, you scum. Anyway I don't see you leaping up to continue the walk." He said in a voice loaded with sarcasm.

Realising that Ozzy wasn't going anywhere; Riley sat down next to his friend, and pulled out a cigarette case. Opening it up he selected one of the many pre-rolled reefers that he had made for the journey, and lit it with relish, took a couple of tokes and passed it to Ozzy. "Two toke pass, Oz two toke pass"

"I know, I know, I'm not retarded you know."

Let us as unseen watchers, take a few moments to study these two strange wanderers. The one called Ozzy is about six foot 4 and quite big. Not fat, but he had a heavy build, like the end product of shaving a bear. His short and curly blond hair is covered by a Metallica beanie and he is clad in baggy hooded top and baggy jeans, which are a bit the worse for wear. He has an air of stubborn belligerence about him, and an arrogant face. He had the sleeves rolled up, exposing a complex collection of tribal tattoos which covered his forearms and upper body. He is also wearing a set of black, German looking glasses

His companion, Riley is shorter by a couple of inches, and of a slighter build than Ozzy, but still quite a thickset man. His brown hair is coated in hair wax and grease, set into a fringe that just covers his right eyebrow. Although not as tattooed as his friend, the legend 'Carpe Diem' covers his right forearm in black gothic lettering, whilst a large collection of lighter burns etch out a patchwork of scars on the left. With his clothing of dark blue and somewhat worn jeans, plain black T-shirt and black zip up sweatshirt, Riley looks like some one who you wouldn't even look twice at in the street, unless you met his eye and then you would be taken in instantly by a set of beautiful baby blue eyes. Even with these, he seems to give off a kind of inner rage, like he was angry at the gods for not giving him a chance to run things better. Where as his compatriot is practically vibrating with suppressed anger, Ozzy seems to exude a kind of sleazy sexuality, like the only reason that nearby women still have clothes due to the existence of the police.

"Riley, what the fuck are we doing"

"At the moment? Sitting on top of a hill having a smoke."

"You are so stupid some times; I mean what are we doing this for, why are we in the middle of America trying to find a bunch of dicks in spandex?"

Riley paused in between tokes and thought about the question. Turning to Oz, he replied, "Well the way I see it, if that conversation with God was real and not just because of the acid, then we, my fine friend are on a mission to…to…um…shit, I can't remember. No wait I know now, God told us that some evil matey made a deal with the devil to take over the world, and we have to find the…. Crap, what are they called….the…the…the…Teen Titans, that's it. We have to find the Teen Titans and do something. Can't remember what though."

"Why?"

"Cos dickhead, the world will end if we don't, that includes the bit that you happen to be standing on. Come on lets go, I need a drink."

Riley clambered unsteadily to his feet and after helping Ozzy, up started the slow decent down the hill, towards the Titans tower.

Still ensconced in the quiet blackness of his room, Beast Boy lay on his bed, back to the door, reflecting on his fate and his past. He could still see the light from the burning houses of the village on that horrific day. Every night brought back the screams of pain and panic that he had unknowingly wrought upon his fellow man. He knew that he should have enlightened his team-mates as to the brutal nature of his past but, like anyone else; when the moment came, the words deserted him, like rats from a sinking ship. He had tried everything drugs, drink, he had even tried to lose the stains of his past with women, but nothing worked. Then when he was considering how to end his life, Raven had come along and offered him another way, join the Titans, save the world, it had to be worth some kind of karmic brownie points. It even worked for a while. But now with Slade out of the way and every other villain either six feet under or in jail, there was nothing to do but sit, staring at the walls and remembering sins past.

As they crossed the grassy tundra that led to the Titans home, Ozzy tapped Riley on the shoulder.

"Dude, that speed isn't working, pass me the acid."

"What do you mean it isn't working, you only did that line a minute ago?"

"Shut your mouth hole and give me the fucking acid."

"Fine then, there you go, ya grumpy bastard you"

Ozzy took the small bag of tabs from Riley's hand, extracted one and passed the bag back. "You got any water in that?" passing his friend a small bottle of water, Riley watched impassively as Ozzy necked the LSD and handed the water over. "How long have I got?"

"Well when I bought them Sketchy Dave said they take about half an hour.

"How long till we get to the tower"

"15 Minutes"

Deciding not to let his colleague have all the fun, Riley opened his black leather briefcase and extracted a couple of random pills from a large sandwich bag, and knocked them back with a swig of water. "Right, let's go boy." He said, striding boldly across the grass and knocking on the door of the tower.

The knock came as four of the titans were in the common room were debating on the recent turn of events with the appearance of the Lord and Beast Boy's breakdown. "It seems that friend Beast Boy, has a troubled past. He may be on the verge of a breakdown." Mused Star, over a cup of coffee.

Robin seemed deep in thought for a while, then like some famous oracle who speaks but once a century, he slowly said, "Maybe, in light of this, thing… maybe we should get Beast Boy some professional help, you know like a psychiatrist, or a shrink or something."

"What? You serious, man? That's going a bit far isn't it? I mean he may have gone a bit crazy but we all have our moments of madness don't we? He's not insane is he?" spluttered Cyborg incredulously.

"I don't know. I think that it might be best if we got Beast Boy some help… professional help." Said Robin hesitantly.

Then the knock at the door came. "I'll get it shall I?" asked Raven rhetorically when none of the other volunteered to answer it.

"Dude I think that the acid is kicking in. either that or that robot rabbi is real. OH SHIT, THEY ARE COMING FOR US" Ozzy started to babble

"Look what are you talking about man. Ignore that shit, its all in your head. Come on man calm the fuck down! They are gonna answer the door in a sec. what the fuck are they going to think if they see you on the ground screaming about robots coming to kill you? Get up you fuckwit!

The scene of pandemonium that greeted Raven when she opened the front door is difficult to describe in writing. She looked at Riley, who had pinned Ozzy to the ground and was screaming at him to calm down, and then at Ozzy who was wild eyed and shrieking about robots attempting to kill him. Before she could speak Riley had jumped to his feet and was attempting to explain the scene.

"Hi, you must be Raven, heard a lot about you and the other titans, only good things mind you. Anyway about my friend, he's in the middle of having a psychotic fit. War wound you see, not his fault" stuttered Riley nervously

"We are the prophets that might have been mentioned to you in a conversation with a major deity, in the near past maybe? He questioned, altering his tone to sound somewhat more certain.

After he had spoken, Raven took a second to digest the information, then slammed the door shut and went to tell the others.

"They say that they are what?" exclaimed Robin stunned with incredulity

"They say that they are the prophets that god told us about, he even mentioned the conversation. How else could he have known about that?"

While outside

" There, you happy now? Look what you did, you imbecile, what the shit is wrong with you. They answer the door and all that they can see is you writhing around on the goddamm floor screaming about killer robots. Your lucky that I'm here to sort these things out."

"No, get away from me, leave me alone. Its not my fault." Muttered Ozzy.

" You are gonna get such a kicking, ya little bastard, you have personally fucked the future of the world through having a fit and freaking out the saviours of the world. Dickhead." Scowled Riley, looking at his counterpart with distain.

" Alright I'm sorry. Look lets go and explain things to them. They seem like understanding people, I'm sure that we will be able to sort things out." Said Ozzy in an attempt to pacify his irate companion.

"No Oz, we can't just explain things to them, remember what God said, we cannot tell them about us, about what we do for God, else we return to… that place." Uttered Riley despairingly.

Then salvation dawned on the two drug addled messengers. Raven opened the door again, backed by the other three titans.

"Right, I want to know all about why the pair of you are here, come on explain!" stated Robin in anger, striding up to Riley and jabbing him in the chest with his index finger a few times.

"Well, can we come in?" asked Ozzy

"If you agree to be handcuffed, then yes, yes you can. "Replied Cyborg.

A few moments later, inside the common room of the tower, bound about the wrists, Riley and Ozzy sat, informing the titans as to their mission.

"I'm going to have to be honest with you, we don't know exactly what Slade plans to do. We are here for other reasons, to help all of you to mature and gain experience in your role before the showdown. The location of the final battle is fairly nearby." Explained Ozzy "what I do know is that you are all the first set of guardians, that god personally ordained to protect the world and to keep the portal safe from demonic corruption."

"Hang on just a sec, what do you mean the portal, and what do you mean by the first guardians" questioned Cyborg. "I mean I've never heard of this portal and you claim that we are the original guardians of this portal thingy? What's the deal here?" he exclaimed

"As usual Ozzy has neglected to tell you certain things, the reincarnation system is but one of them." Stated Riley in bored tone "when god created the human race there were only 50,000 of them that were made by god, the rest were made by hopping on the good foot and doing the bad thing. However this meant that those fifty thousand had special qualities and powers, where as the naturally bred humans didn't. So when those 50,000 died, their souls were put into other people. Sort of like a timeshare condo, but with a sad lack of money. Anyway, these people are all over the world, a few in each country. They were created by the Lord to protect humanity from the creatures that lurk on the other side.

"The other side of what?" asked Starfire nervously, looking all round her as if to detect some unseen threat.

"The portal to hell." Said Ozzy in a matter of fact tone.

"That's the other thing, what portal to hell?" asked Robin "I mean if we are meant to defend the city from these things then we need to know where they are and where they are coming from."

"Why? All you need to do is kill the bastards, not explore their life story." Uttered Riley, fear lacing his voice, like bitter icing on a cake of horror.

"Because it could give us a clue as to how we should best fight these 'creatures' as you call them." Intoned Raven

" Hang on a second, me and Ozzy, need to discuss this, it is a dangerous place after all, and you ain't ready yet. By the way isn't there a green one as well, one with animal powers and shit?" asked Riley looking around for Beast Boy.

"Never mind that." Said Robin briskly " are you going to show us this portal?"

With a sigh, Riley replied " do I have a choice?"

"No"

" Alright then, I guess we've gotta show you the Helldoor, in all of its malevolent glory." Said Ozzy.

After a long and winding route through some nearby hills the four titans were led to an unimpressive looking and rather small stone circle in the midst of a small clearing. Turning dramatically Riley spoke in hushed tones.

"Behold the Helldoor!" he said gesturing dramatically towards the miniature monoliths.

The titans looked for a few seconds, the Robin spoke up " is that it?"

"what do you mean is that it? It's the portal to hell you dolt, you think that they really want to advertise to passers by? Anyway it looks better when its in use, there's flames and brimstone and all sorts of shit, looks very, very scary." Muttered Riley. " Anyway, you have seen the damm thing now, can we go?" he asked

" No" stated Raven bluntly " I need to have a look around for anything that might be helpful."

"Like what? An instruction manual?" retorted Ozzy sarcastically " what do you honestly expect to find that could be of any help to you?"

Raven sighed in defeat. "Come on then lets go back"

After the group had left on the track to the tower, the stones in the circle began to change colour from a weathered grey to a bright crimson, and started to levitate a couple of feet from the ground. Then they grew in both height and area, till they resembled a satanic Stonehenge. The ground vibrated in an unhealthy fashion and in the middle of the circle the ground vanished to reveal a vertical tunnel lit by a hellish and unnatural glow.

Out of the middle of this a large stone disk started its upwards climb to the surface, when it surfaced there was a single figure clothed all in black with a metallic S on his left breast. A mist of sulphur emerged as the figure exhaled and took in a lungful of air.

Its good to be back, thought Slade, basking in his new freedom from Hell.

They had been sent back, that was all Riley could remember, they had been sent back and he had no idea why. But there was no time for logical thought, in his minds eye he could already hear the demons as they ran up the pathway after him.

He fled, dodging through the gore covered houses, in and out of the alley ways, covered in slaughtered human effluence, like an explosion in a morgue.

Riley fled through the ravaged town and up onto the Cliffside, fatigued and tired, he could feel his body giving up the fight on him already. Pleading with god for a little more time, Riley scraped together the last scraps of energy for one last burst. However the mix of terror, lack of energy and sleep deprivation formed a mist in front of his eyes so that he couldn't see the cliff edge until he was already past it. Then falling, falling, falling.

Riley sat up with a jolt as a foreign hand touched his shoulder. The titans were crowded around his bed in their sleeping attire; the hand was Starfire's.

"You were moving around and screaming, are you alright?" she asked with concern.

Shrugging off her hand, Riley took a few breaths to calm himself and sighed "Yes, I'm fine. It was just a nightmare." He said it as if to reassure himself more than anyone else.

"Very well" said Starfire "we shall leave"

As if acting on a cue from Starfire, she and the rest of the titans left the room. Riley slumped back on his bed. What was going on now was bad enough, but having past life flashbacks was more than he could handle at the moment.

Climbing out of bed and getting dressed, he donned his coat and picked up his stash tin. He checked the corridor and then ascended to the roof. He chose the side of the tower that was facing the city. Sitting down on the ledge, he extracted a pre-made reefer from the tin and sparked it up. He gazed over the still vibrant city that was neon lit before him.