Okay, first of all I am thoroughly aware that I have not updated and..I'M SORRY! As a special present to you I have spent strenuous amounts of time creating this extra extra long chappie!
ENJOY….
Chapter 5: True Weakness
Deep within the folds of night walked the shadow on a Robin. He found himself walking down the halls of quarters located in the immensely sizable homestead, brimming over a bantam island, visible to most citizens occupying Jump City.
Robin walked silently down the corridors. He rounded corners and rushed past hallways until he rested upon a single door. He eyed the door as if it were an enemy he was going to attack. His gaze lay over the label, towards the upper part of the metallic frame. The slab of steel read the name "Raven." Just the sight of her name created a blackened cloud over his heart. Raven, the mistress of darkness, the misunderstood Azarathian, a Teen Titan. He had formed his rag-tag group into formidable opponents. His titans always had the will to fight. What was so different about this battle? Why was Raven so afraid of it? Robin was determined to find the answer.
He rose his hand and pressed his fingers on the door. The coldness sunk through his gloves and into his veins, making his spine tingle. Before another thought could race through his mind he balled his hands up and knocked softly, but audibly on his teammates door.
He listened intently but only heard the rustling of a cloak and the pulpous steps becoming more apparent as they ascended towards the door.
The door opened to reveal Robin's target, Raven. She had recently usual paler skin and ,also as of late, deep bags that protruded from her tired lavender eyes and hung down to her cheek bones.
"R-Raven, we need to talk." Robin said, in the best authoritative voice he could vocalize. He stared at her, uncertain if she was dead or alive.
She didn't reply, but merely moved to the side of her door, welcoming Robin into her unexplored chamber.
Slowly, he commenced forward on shaking legs. He had only been inside her room when she was in danger, and she had never let anyone else in otherwise.
"I know what happened with you and Starfire last week." Robin started abruptly.
She only gave him an emotionless glance.
"And as your leader and your friend you need to tell me what's going on." Robin continued, commencing with an authoritative tone once again.
She was silent for sometime, staring at her floor.
"Well are you going to answer me?" Robin asked, getting rather annoyed at her inability to answer his questions.
Suddenly, as if Robin had insulted her, she looked up from the floor and glared at him. In turn, he gave her a puzzled look.
"Raven?" He questioned, walking towards her with his arm outstretched. He stopped abruptly when Raven's two peaceful violet eyes turned into four angry red ones.
"You don't think I can handle it by myself, do you?" She growled angrily.
"No it's just…" Robin trailed off as her backed away from his enraged team mate.
"Just what?" She fumed, her body grew taller and her cloak reached towards the ceiling as she grew more choleric. "It's just that we're friends and you care about me?" She finished in a mocking voice.
"Yes." Robin answered with what little courage remained within him.
"Well Raven doesn't need you or anyone!" She yelled as ancient antiques in her room were engulfed in black energy and exploded.
"Your not Raven!" Robin yelled to her, thoroughly aware of her third person usage.
Raven curled her lips into an evil smile.
"Who are you!" Robin demanded, feeling his cowardice being corrupted by the fury of anger.
This possessed evil inside of Raven continued to smile at his rather idiotic remark. It raised Raven's hand and summoned her powers to hurtle a shelf of her most prized books at Robin.
He easily dodged it, and many other flying projectiles, with the grace of a martial arts expert. From his belt he whipped out two exploding discs. He was ready to chuck them at Raven, knowing it would disable her. He held the discs over his head, but her didn't throw them. 'Raven wasn't doing this on purpose, the thing inside of her is!' He thought. Before he could debate the subject further, his two discs in-between his fingers were engrossed in dark matter and forcefully pried from his grasp. Raven mentally threw the discs at her ceiling, above where Robin was standing, and set them off. They created a deafening explosion that sent pieces of rubble plummeting toward Robin.
Robin, frozen in fear, barely had time to react as he leapt out of the way, but not before a hunk of sheet rock crashed on top of his foot, sending him face first onto the floor. He attempted to pull his foot out from underneath the mass of sheet rock but ceased when he felt a sharp pain and heard his ankle bones crack. He groaned as he pushed himself off the floor and turned on his back. There towering above him was Raven, with her fists clenched. Her hand began to glow black and Robin was surrounded by her energy field and flung at her door.
He crashed through it and was it not for the wall opposite the door, Robin would've kept going. His back hit this wall with a sickening thud.
Raven crept out of her room and closer to her fallen target. She rose her hands once again. The wall Robin was leaning against became detached from the frame of the building and began to sway to and fro. Robin looked up to see the piece of wall above come crashing down to meet his demise. He closed his eyes waiting for the moment to end.
Suddenly it felt as if Raven had yanked him back from the wall. He opened his eyes to a puzzling sight. He was safe within the accumulation of sheets and blankets piled on his bed.
"It was all a dream?" Robin asked himself, still in a daze. He kicked off his blankets and untwisted his sheets from his body, they cowered at the end of his bed as Robin examined himself. He found it peculiar that his once tattered clothes were unscathed and he could fully move his ankle without pain. He ran his fingers through his mussed hair in a futile attempt to smooth it out. Thoughts of his nightmare were pulsing through his mind as he swung his legs over the side of his bed and pushed himself up. He stood on quaking legs as he walked with a fresh towel over his shoulder to the shower, all the while thinking about his disturbing dream. 'Why was Raven trying to kill me?' He thought to himself as he strode down the noiseless hallway. 'No, not Raven, what ever was controlling her.'
All thoughts of the nightmare were washed away when he suddenly remembered that they had a training session early this morning.
Although he wasn't feeling up to train at the moment, he headed down to the living room to assemble his team.
The metallic door to the room swiveled open and Robin began to walk forward. He saw a baron room with the giant t.v. left of the game over screen, compliments of Cyborg and Beastboy.
"I guess everyone forgot about out morning training." Robin said to himself aloud, scratching the back of his head.
"You think?" A sarcastic voice replied.
Robin searched for where the voice radiated from and found it was an exhausted-looking Raven, reading a book as she levitated a few feet above him.
"Oh, hey Raven." Robin replied as she gently levitated herself to the ground and snapped her book shut. Robin glanced at her livid, cadaverous skin. She was always pale, but never this lifeless. Her eyes once pools of shimmering violet, now seemed clouded with the dew of despair. Her whole aura was weak, walking past her gave you the slightest scent of quietus.
"Hey, I've been meaning to talk to you." Robin said, jerking himself out of his thoughts.
"What about?" Raven replied in a naïve tone.
"Well it's just lately you've been-" Robin started but was interrupted by Cyborgs thundering voice.
"Mornin' y'all, I'm makin' waffles!" He screamed in enjoyment as he sped off towards the kitchen.
"Hey Cyborg, did you know we have a training session this morning?" Robin asked, to distracted by Cyborg's incompetence to remember things to finish his and Raven's conversation. Raven hardly seemed to notice as she sat herself on the couch and reopened her book.
Cyborg and already made the waffle batter, poured it into a bowl and had it tucked under his arm, beating it with a spoon. He stopped and looked at Robin first in shock, then sheepishly guilty. "We did?" Cyborg asked, setting the bowl on the countertop.
"Apparently you guys had a long night, I'll go get the others." Robin stated. "And I'll remind them to be less forgetful." He finished with a smile. He headed out towards the hall to wake the others, hearing the fading whistling of Cyborg as he merrily prepared breakfast for his friends.
"Okay team, who's going first." Robin shouted from atop the battle simulator to his friends below.
"It's my tech, so I'll go first." Cyborg boasted, leaving the other's to cower in his wake.
"Countdown initiated, good luck Cyborg." Robin encouraged, vigorously pressing buttons to simulate an attack.
Cyborg engaged himself in battle with stone-disguised laser guns and unbreakable walls of steel. Through a hoard of laser beams and a barrage of punches Cyborg, unbelievably crossed the finish line with an astonishing time of 1:29.
"Go Cyborg!" Beastboy yelled, raising his fist in the air.
"Yes! You kicked the butt!" Starfire motivated, smiling hugely.
"'Yeah, good job Cyborg." Robin concluded their cheers of encouragement/ "So who's next?" He said rather shortly, eager to allow himself a good workout.
Beastboy and Starfire looked frightened at the advanced level course that Cyborg had easily overcome.
"How about Raven goes?" Beastboy said nervously. Shifting the spotlight to Raven.
Starfire immediately shot Robin a look of warning. Robin understood, but her couldn't make the rest of the team go and not Raven, Beastboy would be hysterical.
Raven, however, walked towards the starting line, not even glaring at Beastboy's cowardice.
"Okay, are you ready Raven?" Robin asked uncertainly. Raven simply turned and stared at Robin, waiting for him to start the timer. He understood her bluntness and began the countdown. "Countdown initiated, Good luck." Robin repeated as the timer ticked down to zero.
As soon as Raven heard the buzzer she sprang into action, dodging anamatronic hands and levitating over shifting grounds.
'Okay Raven, your almost done." She thought to herself. "Just a couple more-'
Her thoughts were interrupted as a laser shot her in her back making her tumble to the ground. She groaned as she began to lift her injured body from the dirt. She turned her head to look upwards just in time to see the anamatronic hand that has been stalking her throughout the course about to smack her flat on the ground. Frozen in dear, all Raven could do was stare in horror as her life flashed before her.
Robin, who had been watching intently for any hesitation, had seen her falter early on and had already pressed the stop button.
Raven, who now lay on her back gazed wide-eyed at the metal hand which lay only inches away from her face. It recoiled almost immediately via Robin.
"Raven are you okay?" Robin's voice came over on the loudspeaker instantly.
"I'm fine." Raven replied with unnecessary harshness. She pushed herself up, remounted her fallen hood atop her head and started for the tower, leaving the rest of the team in a puzzled and concerned stupor.
"You guys wait here." Robin commanded whilst running into Titans Tower after his dark friend. 'Okay, now's not really the best time to bring this up, but I gotta do it sometime, and no time like the present, right?" Robin reassured himself. "Raven stop!" Robin demanded as he caught up to the fleeing Raven in the living room. She halted, but dare not turn around.
"Look, I know what happened on the roof with you and Starfire." Robin said shortly, awaiting a response from his team mate.
If not for Raven's back facing him, Robin would've seen her eyes grow as huge as saucers. Instead he witnessed her emotional shock as the couch he was leaning on erupted with a dark aura and instantly showered them with wool and metal springs.
As always the alarm blared over the towers P.A. system, saving Raven, temporarily, from an uncomfortable explanation. Robin ran over to the computers and punched a few keys to reveal a map with Slade's emblem located on a street.
"Titan's, trouble, report back to the tower." Robin commanded over the P.A. system.
Within minutes the rest of the team had assembled in the living room. While all of them, save Raven and Robin, had questions of why their beloved couch lay in shambles, they abandoned them to hear about Slade's recent sinister activities.
Slade was currently wreaking havoc at a local warehouse off of The Pier. The Titans had received the gist of Slade's plans from their leader and were off.
They arrived minutes later at the half destroyed warehouse only to see it alight with Slade's mysterious new fire power. A few frightened workers fleeing from the smoldering building could be seen as the Titans attempted to put it out.
Starfire and Cyborg ripped two giant water tanks from their holders nearby and dumped them on the charred building. Beastboy morphed into and elephant and ran over to the docks, inhaled a mass amount of water, aimed his trunk at the scorched building, emptied it, and repeated this process.
However, it was Raven's final effort that successfully put out the fire singed warehouse. Using her powers, she summoned a wave from the ocean to wash over it, assuring the team of the fire's destruction.
However, this was not the end of this battle, they still had Slade to deal with.
Robin led them into the smoky warehouse on a vigorous pursuit for his nemesis. The rest of the team cautiously followed behind. The warehouse was filled to the brim with wooden crates. While some of them were burned and useless, most of the, were still fully intact. The team rounded a corner to reveal a two story room, again, full of crates and forklifts. The second floor was more like a deck, hung in the shadows, overlooking the first floor.
"He's not here." Robin replied, giving the place a quick skim.
Raven, however, with her empathic abilities, sensed an evil greater than any, Slade. "Wait," the team halted and looked at Robin. "He's in here, I can sense him."
"And I thought you just didn't want to see me." A mysteriously evil voice replied from the second floor, making the Titans snap their heads upwards. Slade was hid safely within the shadows, leaning against a wooden frame supporting the floor.
"Slade." Robin spat in utter disgust. He never wasted his cheesy insults on him.
"Robin, how nice to see you again." Slade replied in a phony delicate tone. Before anything else could be said Slade's hands lit up in flames. He aimed his fists at the group of heroes and released a fury of embers.
"Titan's go!" Robin cried. All five of the teens jumped out of the path of destruction just in time as it's unbearable heat began to melt the floor.
Robin, as always, jumped up to attack his enemy first. He extended his bo staff, twirled it around, and ran in a fury towards Slade. His attempt to take him down was in vain , however, as Slade's burning fist collided with Robin's face, sending him sprawling into a mass of crates, where he lay unconscious.
Starfire was the next to attack, sending a barrage of Starbolts at Slade. He simply dodged them, tore off the wooden beam he was recently leaning against and batted her to the ground like a baseball.
Cyborg was the first to actually hit Slade. In the midst of Starfire and Robin's attempted attacks, Cyborg had maneuvered his way up the stair case, aimed his sonic cannon at Slade, and fired. "Boo-yah!" He said to himself quietly and attempted to use Slade's plan of attack against him. He ripped up a piece of scaffolding and righted himself for battle. Unfortunately, Cyborg ripped up a beam that was key in the support of the section of floor he was standing on. With his added weight the section collapsed and Cyborg felt himself falling towards the first floor, a sizable distance. The last thing he saw was the massive forklift under him before he blacked-out.
Beastboy was an easy take out as well. He changed into a triceratops and tried to bash into Slade, In turn, Slade easily sent a river of fire into the cracks of the cement below. It sent the changeling hurtling into a wall.
Slade then advanced on his target. He jumped down to the floor below. Raven stood firmly, ready to attack.
"Don't you think if you ever could've defeated me, you would've already done it?" Slade asked, enducing Raven in realization. Her once glowing hands became normal as she was listening to Slade's truthful words. "My dear Raven, you've gotten soft." Slade commented in glee. "Could it be your friends have broken you down?" Raven could only stand and listen with an angered expression. "You better be careful. You wouldn't want anything to happen to them." Slade threatened.
Slade had struck a nerve, "Don't you even think about touching them!" She fumed as her eyes turned white and her palms glowed black. The section of floor that still remained was enveloped in dark matter. The wood supporting it was snapped and the whole second floor collapsed right on top of Slade.
The rest of the team reassembled a couple minutes after. All together they riffled through the rubble, but were unable to find Slade.
"What have you to report?" Boomed a thundering voice.
"I have found her true weakness." Slade replied to the evil four-eyed creature known as Trigon.
Okay so there ya go!I hope to have another one coming soon since im on summer break now!It's weird but it's been going by really fast!It's making me mad!by the way…did I over use the word "however" in this chapter? Just wondering…well anywho, my apologies again for the non-updation, I hope this made up for it!REVIEW IF YOU WANT MORE!