I've received several complaints implying that I might be prejudiced against foreign games. But… it's not true. I was simply giving some background on the game DARK FALL, and it just happens to be a game from England, okay? No more flames involving the game! I'm sensitive…! (weep) .--. Oh, and by the way? The words that go with the symbols have no meaning, just in case you were wondering. I had this one dude say that Lussa sounded like the Chinese for 'wreck.' Oo I was a little wierded out, but know this. They're just incantation words. They don't really have a translation. I don't own Teen Titans!­

Raven's Game

Part 3: Kars

Raven's breathing became quick and uneven. The mist was gathering around her feet, and rising like water. She clenched her teeth, jumping up on Beast Boy's bed. What was it? Where was it coming from? Raven tried using her powers to seal the vent, but her fear held her back. She couldn't control her powers, and the mist kept pouring in. There were binding symbols all over the walls, but obviously Beast Boy hadn't put one on the vent itself.

Her heart pounding, she watched helplessly as the room started filling with the unholy fog. It was ice cold, like the doors had been. Raven began to hyper ventilate when it was past her ankles, standing on the bed as she was. Her mind was going at a million miles an hour. If her powers weren't working, she couldn't phase through the wall and get away, or even make it to the door. She thought she felt something graze her ankle and she jumped, climbing onto the top bunk. What was she going to do –! The entire room was becoming hazy and… oh no… the whispers were returning.

The invisible whispering shadow was coming back for her! Raven looked on fearfully as the terrible black, smoky substance started rising. It was taking shape. Oh God, it was taking shape. The smoke started forming into huge, clawed hand. It was big enough to crush a person like a twig. Raven let out a terrified scream, and a blazing white light made itself known on the back of her hand. She looked at it desperately as the hand started reaching for her. Unable to get enough air in her lungs from hyperventilating, she began to feel light-headed. The hand was coming closer, formed from smoke but still somehow solid. Raven looked from her hand to the giant hand, and the light faded from her hand to reveal something unexpected. The symbol for Lussa was on her hand, glittering with an inner light all its own.

The fingers began to make a cage around her, and terrified tears were pouring from her eyes. Suddenly, in a last-ditch effort, Raven screamed, "LUSSA!" The symbol on her hand flashed with a brilliant, holy light!

The hand, the smoke, and the haze vanished.

Raven lay there on Beast Boy's top bunk, sweating and breathing in quick, fretful gasps. She looked carefully at the vent, and it looked as innocent as ever. She looked down at herself, wiping the sweat from her brow. That had been way too close. It had almost taken her. Clutching at her chest and trying to calm down enough to retain her powers, Raven dangled her legs off of the bed. She clutched a pillow to her chest, inhaling Beast Boy's scent. After a few minutes of chanting her three words, she stood on the floor again. Her knees wobbled just a little, and she fully realized how scared she had been. Swallowing and steadying herself like the goth that she was, Raven looked at the symbol on the wall. Lussa had saved her life. She looked at the one on her hand. It glittered softly, but just barely, as through it were dormant. "Thanks Beast Boy…" she whispered. "Thanks for making the first one easy…" Raven knew, however, that it was only going to get harder.

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Cyborg opened the door to the basement, his shoulder light flipping up and turning on. "Raven?" he called into the darkness. Robin, Beast Boy and Starfire stood just behind him, peering past his broad shoulders. They slowly descended the stairs, on the lookout for their fifth team member. "Raven, you down here?" There was no response, and they reached the bottom without getting a reply. He shined his light this way and that.

Robin, Beast Boy and Starfire looked in all directions. "Where has our friend gone to?" Starfire whispered. "She is not in this morbid place, and Beast Boy thinks she would not brave the storm… then where would she be?"

Robin flipped open his T-communicator. "Raven, come in." he waited for a few moments. "Raven." He said a little more insistently. "Raven, answer now! Where are you?" He got no response. "She couldn't be out of range… these things go for like fifteen miles…" he mumbled, looking uncertain. He suddenly looked to the alien princess. "Where would you go if you were Raven, you know her better than any of us." He asked, putting his T-communicator away. The purple-skirted girl thought for a long time, but could come up with nothing. "Then, we'll regroup in the common room and think of a plan. If she's gone missing, we have to find her right away." The other three nodded, and it was so. They trooped back up the stairs, and Robin cast on last glance around the room before following. He'd helped build the tower, but somehow the basement never ceased to freak him out.

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Raven was in the common room, or the living room, or whatever one might call it. But, not the same one her friends were in. She'd decided to stop for a moment and recount what had happened so far. She sat on the sofa, and it groaned in protest. The wood must've been ready to give out. So… the tower was now haunted, the others were gone, and there were eleven more symbols to be found to stop this darkness from spreading. It's influence was strong in the dark, it looked like. Raven remembered that it hadn't come near her until all the lights were out in the hall. And then, it was waiting for the mist to gather in Beast Boy's room. That meant she'd have to get the power back on. There was a switch-box in the basement, but she doubted that would do much good. It wasn't a technical problem that knocked the power out, so going down to look wouldn't be very wise.

Raven looked out the huge window-wall of the common room as she thought. The angry fog swirled outside, blocking off Jump City from view. If it was even there anymore… who knew how far the shadow had spread itself in the time it had been awake. What was the next best thing to getting the lights all back on…? She stood, going over to the kitchen area with an idea. Wasn't there usually a – yes! Raven discovered a large flashlight in one of the junk drawers, and flicked the switch up to turn it on. The beam of light pierced the darkness, stopping on the ceiling. She aimed it around the room, making sure it was a good, strong light. When she was satisfied, she nodded and turned it off. She didn't want the battery dying on her at the worst possible time, like in the movies. Remembering she was carrying a purse for useful items, she stuffed it inside. The broad end where the lightbulb was stuck out, but it stayed in there. Nodding to herself, Raven leaned against the counter.

Where was she supposed to go now? Beast Boy had told her where the first one was, but hadn't left any other clues that she'd seen. She recalled what she'd seen in his diary, though. He'd hidden them all in good hiding places, so… where would Beast Boy hide something he didn't want found? Then, she remembered the vellum, or animal skin, that the original symbols were written on. He'd torn that up and hidden it as well. The words were strong enough, but it would be nice to find at least one piece… to examine how old it was.

Licking her dry lips, she sat in deep thought for a while. Cyborg and Beast Boy had set it free, and Beast Boy's diary spoke of Cyborg doing research… Starfire as well. Maybe their rooms would give her some new information… and a symbol or two along the way. Raven frowned after a moment, though. Even if there was a symbol in each Titan's respectable rooms, that would still leave seven that needed to be found. Thinking of things in the long run wasn't helping, so Raven pushed it from her mind.

Deciding to go to Cyborg's room next, she took the stairs since the elevator was dead. The hall was long and poorly lit with emergency lights. But… Raven heard no whisperings, so she felt a little better. She found the door marked with his name, and pushed it open. The room was full of things foreign to the metal man's way of life, and she carefully surveyed the whole thing before stepping in. There were mountains of elderly books everywhere. Drawings, schematics of the tower with red X's on them… pens and loads of scribbled on paper was all over the place. His desk was strewn with notes and symbol scribblings, just like Beast Boy's was. a few books lay closed here and there, and his charging table/bed lay in the horizontal position. It acted as another desk, bits and pieces of information everywhere. Raven sifted through it all, trying to read his handwriting. Didn't anyone she lived with have readable penmenship! All the technical equipment was off, she noticed, save one computer monitor. That caught Raven's interest, and she went to it. It was blank, and labeled with a sticky note that said 'Broken – needs basic repair' on it. She frowned in disappointment. Of course it wouldn't be that easy… the glass of the monitor was dusty, but wait… if the power was out why was it on? Raven knew nothing about computers, but followed the wires to look for an electrical outlet. She found none, so… maybe it had some kind of internal battery? She didn't know, but sat on the swiveling chair in front of the monitor instead.

Leaning on the desk and resting her head on her hand, supporting it with an elbow, she sighed. This was going to be harder than she thought. There might not be any symbols in the room, and searching would be a waste of time… but no, Cyborg was Beast Boy's best friend. Surely he would've trusted at least part of their saving grace with the metal man? Rubbing her chakra gem out of habit, she stood again. Putting her hood down so she could see better, she slowly and carefully searched the room. Careful to put everything she touched back exactly the way she found it… she came up with nothing. She checked behind one of Cyborg's wall posters, but found nothing. Even Beast Boy wouldn't allow a repeat like that, she knew. Grunting in frustration, she leaned against the wall to think. There was a soft, barely audible whirring sound. Cyborg's computer popped out of the wall, startling her. But, what was even more startling… it was on. Coming closer since she'd accidentally tripped the mechanism to bring it into view, she studied the screen. It was on some sort of simple word processor. The message on it was brief:

(320X, 670Y)

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Raven puzzled over it for a long time, staring at it. Was it a coordinance to a location? She doubted it, since the tower seemed to be the only area she had access to at the moment. X and Y were usually in math for variables, but that train of thought was a dead end as well. Beast Boy had flunked math his whole life, she was willing to bet. He wouldn't base a hiding place on a math problem, even if he'd given the symbol to Cyborg. They could be mechanical parts to a machine, like when you read the instructions to a model car or… THE CAR! Raven's eyes widened in realization. If Cyborg had a symbol in his possession, he would've hidden it in his baby, the T-car!

Raven had helped him build it from scratch and although she knew very little about it anymore, she knew for certain that was where she would find the second symbol. Heaving a sigh and puffing her cheeks to expel it from her lungs, she exited Cyborg's room. She pondered what the numbers were for, and stopped. Going back inside, she got a piece of paper and one of the many writing utensils strewn everywhere. She wrote down the numbers on the screen, big and bold, along with a small drawing of Lussa and its symbol. Glad she was a little more organized, she stuffed the pen and a few more sheets of paper into the purse she had picked up. Once again, it seemed to be losing its pink. Raven thought nothing of it, and exited the room, bound for the garage.

Taking the stairs down, down, down, to the floor just above the basement… the garage. Cyborg's shrine to all things involving cars and machinery. It was his workshop, his santuary… and maybe his tomb. Raven shook her head to get the thought out, arriving and pushing the double doors open. She was surprised to see that there were several lights on. They were electrical lanterns, the powerful kind that the military used. Raven inspected on, finding it plugged in to a silent power generator. 250,000 Candle Power, it said on the side. Raven didn't know if that was a lot or not, but with half a dozen or so of those lanterns in the big room… it was pretty well lit. (A/N: Just in case you were wondering, that kind of lantern has the power to blind someone for several minutes if they look directly into it when it comes on... Oo)

But… the T-car looked pathetic. If Cyborg had seen it in this state, he would've had a system crash and a heart attack all at once. The paint was faded and the shine was gone, sacrificed to the dust that covered it. The left side-view mirror was cracked, a few pieces on the floor next to it. The tires looked okay, but Raven knew she wasn't driving it anywhere. Licking her lips, she approached it and peered inside. Shading her eyes and pressing herself against one of the windows, she took a quick sweep to…… to what? Make sure there were no dead bodies inside?

Raven smiled, trying a nervous laugh at such a silly thought. She failed miserably, and tried the driver's side door. It opened, and she sat inside. "Okay Cyborg, here I am…" she whispered, drawing the piece of paper out of the purse. She unfolded it and studied the numbers again. "Three-hundred and twenty X… and six-hundred and seventy Y…?" What did it mean? Raven saw the huge array of buttons, knobs and dials in the T-car. She'd never even tried to understand what any of them were for… how was she supposed to figure any of it out without any help from Cyborg himself? Heaving a sigh but knowing she had to be in the right place, Raven looked at a lot of buttons in turn. Some of them had labels like 'oil slick,' 'rockets,' 'sonic cannon,' 'mini turbo,' 'hi-beams,' and 'tire spikes.' Others had no labels at all, and were placed in groups according to color. Raven didn't even want to know how Cyborg remembered what the panel of maybe thirty little yellow buttons was for. She rolled her eyes, but she had to admire his dedication to his own hobby. Raven was much the same in her meditation and book-reading… Beast Boy and his video games… she trailed off in her own mind and went back to searching. "Hmm?" Something new caught her eye, and she looked at it closely. The label read 'Long-Range Camera Mode.' She'd never seen Cyborg use that… she reached and, hoping the car's gadgets worked while the engine was off… pressed the little silver button.

Something dropped from the car's ceiling, right onto Raven's face. She yelped in surprise, batting it away like it was a large bug. It wasn't a camera at all… the button had been a fake! A little panel had dropped down, and there was a pair of photographs in them. One was of Cyborg and Jynx, of all people… at the Hive academy dance. They were posed happily, and Raven noticed they seemed to be pointing. Their fingers were interlocked, save their pointer-fingers… and they were pointing to… Raven followed their fingers with her eyes, tracing a line in thin air. She gasped. A tiny little button, practically hidden within another button was along the line. It was like one of those re-setter buttons that you could only press with a paperclip or a needle. The button itself was labeled…. 320X. Raven fumbled, keeping her right pointer finger on the button without pressing it or any others.

The second photograph, she found, was of Cyborg and Bumblebee. Cyborg was giving a thumbs up, and Bumblebee was giving a mock-salute. They weren't pointing to anything… were they? Thumbs up… Raven looked up, inside the panel itself. Sure enough, there was a little pinprick of a button there as well. It was labeled… you guessed it, 670Y. Feeling victorious, Raven took the paper clips that were holding both photographs, unbending them into straight lines. She placed the first one gently in the first button's hole, then the second one. She quickly realized she would have to stretch out since her arms weren't as long as Cyborg's. Holding her breath, Raven pressed both hard.

The car whirred to life, startling Raven and making her instinctively grab the steering wheel. The front lights were on high and.……… and they were projecting something on the wall ahead. Raven squinted, and saw what she'd been looking for. She corrected herself, seeing that only one of the headlights had come on. It was like a spotlight, showing the image of what she'd come for. It was a symbol all right.

It was an equilateral triangle, by the looks of it. And, on the right side, there was what looked kind of like a fishing hook sticking out. The second symbol. "Clever, Cyborg." She mumbled, allowing herself a smile. "Now…where's the lyric?" Almost automatically, she reached up and turned over both photographs. She nodded, looking satisfied with her detective work. There on the back of the picture of Cyborg with Jynx, in big bold letters… was the word:

KARS (Kar-suh)

"Heh… Kars…" she actually smiled at the irony. It was only one letter off of what she was sitting in. "No wonder Cyborg hid it here…" Raven's left hand suddenly started glowing, and she held it out to keep the light out of her eyes. It burned a little, then the light faded. She drew it back… the symbol for Kars was on her hand! It glittered gently, almost soberly. "I hope these symbols don't start appearing in embarrassing places…" Raven murmured. She inspected the backs of her hands, Lussa and Kars in her view. "If a symbol shows up on my chest, I'm gonna be pissed…" she found humor in that and snorted, shaking her head as she got out of the car. The headlight had faded, and she knew she would learn no more from the garage. "That's two down… and ten to go." Raven winced when she said that. It sounded corny, and made her goal sound far away. Shaking her head and exiting the garage, she made her way back up to the common room so she could plan her next move. Starfire's room would probably be next…

No, Trigon is not the bad guy in this fic. Raven's getting the symbols on her body as she gathers them, but they're not like the one's from the series. These are alchemy symbols. So, don't expect a Trigon appearance, okay? I just thought it would be good to have the symbols in Raven's view at all times… and maybe put one or two in an embarrassing place. ; Don't flame me for saying that, I'm sensitive! .--. But… review if you would, please! I enjoy the attention and the ego boost! They fuel my want to update more quickly! Thankies!