Here I am again for Raven's Game! Is everyone enjoying the show? Nice and scary? Good! To recap, there will be no Trigon appearance in this one. Frankly, I think he's overused in fan fictions involving Raven nowadays. My shadow… creature… thingy… doesn't have a name. So there. Keep reading, because now we're going to search Robin's room!

Raven's Game

Part 6: Morcana

"Cyborg, what rooms are left?" Robin said warily. The tower was large, but they were running out of places to look for any signs of their gothic friend.

"Uhm…" Cyborg thought for a moment. "None man. The only room we haven't turned upside down is–"

"The basement." Beast Boy said, arriving at last to the common room. The others turned and looked at him. He looked… different. His eyes looked as though he'd just overcome tears with anger, and it was fresh in his mind. "We went down there to see if she was there earlier, but we didn't search it all like we did the other rooms." Beast Boy pointed to the basement on the schematic. "There's all kinds of ventilation shafts that only open during certain times of day down there, right?" Cyborg nodded, having built them himself. "Maybe she got caught in one of them, and is down there waiting for us."

Robin nodded, but Starfire looked a little scared. "Okay, Titans. We're going to the basement again." They got up and took the elevator down… down… down… the doors opened and they stepped into the hallway. "Careful, you guys. There's a lot of stairs." Robin opened the large basement door. It whined loudly, and they started down the stairs…

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Raven stood in front of Robin's room. Heaving a sigh and ready to speak the word Frenic at the slightest sign of movement… she stepped in. Flicking the flashlight on, she saw that there wasn't much to Robin's room at all. It seemed to be strictly functional. A bed, a closet, and a window. It was pretty much bare. Raven went and opened the closet. She found a row of old, moth-eaten uniforms dangling from ancient hangers. Pushing the mirrored sliding door all the way open, Raven saw the row of masks… the rows of his gadgets, all of them the same.

One of Raven's eyebrows quirked. Robin carried weapons… She reached with her free hand and pulled a utility belt out. It was bright yellow… but it probably had some useful things in it. "I've got quite a collection going…" Raven murmured, a small smile coming to her face. She reached and slowly pulled her decorative gem belt off. She placed it in the place where she'd taken Robin's belt, feeling as though it were an even trade. "This thing is so old, though… wonder if it works." Raven gently put it around her waist, clicking it closed. "Mmm…" she reached and pushed a button at random. Robin's bow-stick jumped into view. She held it out in front of herself, quirking an eyebrow. "I don't know how to use this thing…" she muttered, closing it up again and shoving it back to where it had popped out.

She tried another button, and a series of pellets dropped into her hand like marbles. "Those I can use…" Raven actually smiled. She didn't dare throw one since they exploded on a violent impact, but stored them back in the belt itself. She sat there for a long time, going through the gizmos that Robin carried with him. The teenage girl deposited the ones she couldn't use or didn't have the skill to use on his bed, leaving the belt much lighter than when it had started. "There." She murmured, looking satisfied. "My powers don't work… but I'm armed now." She glared at nothing from under her eyebrows, a dark grin coming to her face.

She thoroughly searched Robin's room for any symbols… but found none. She even moved the bed and dresser with great difficulty so she could see the walls behind them. Robin didn't have one. Which made sense, Raven supposed. He didn't believe the others were telling the truth about the shadow-thing, so they wouldn't have trusted him with a part of their salvation. "Well…" Raven murmured. "At least I won't leave the room empty-handed." She looked down at the utility belt, a small smile on her face. Picking up the flashlight from the bed, she turned to leave. "I better–" Raven stopped for a moment, holding her abdomen. She blushed slightly. "Use the bathroom…" she murmured. Even if the water didn't work, Raven had to relieve herself sooner or later. She had to pee, right then.

Raven walked quickly to the nearest bathroom to Robin's room. Closing the door out of pure habit, she lowered the seat of the toilet and sat down. She hummed quietly to herself as she… uhm… (A/N: I'm not gonna go into huge detail on this, so just use your imagination on that. I just needed a way to take her into the bathroom for the story... so at least ATTEMPT to keep your mind out the gutter, okay?) When she was done she stood again, standing in front of the mirror to wash her hands. "Oh yeah… no water…" Raven muttered, a little annoyed. She leaned forward, her forehead on the mirror and her hands on the sink. "This is getting annoying…" she said. "No power, no water, and a phone that's possessed. What the hell's next…?" She sighed, her breath steaming the mirror. "Why don't I just march down into the basement right now and fix the… huh?" Raven looked at where her breath had caught on the mirror. "Was that…?" She squinted, leaning forward and intentionally breathing on the mirror. A little cloud of steam stuck to the mirror, but parts of the mirror didn't steam up! "What the…?" she licked her lips, then breathed on the mirror several times to steam up a large area. Raven stared at what she had discovered, then saw the open stick of deodorant on the sink. She picked up the deodorant, then looked at the mirror. "Clever, Beast Boy." She was shocked to hear herself say 'clever' and 'Beast Boy' in the same sentence, but her words were true. She breathed on the mirror again… exposing the fifth symbol. Beast Boy must've drawn it there with deodorant, making it completely invisible. Until the mirror steamed up, that is.

The symbol looked like the number two with a line traveling downward through its tail. That made it look a little like a fancy number four with a little twist on the end. Raven looked at it, watching the steam fade again. "Let me guess…" she murmured, looking down at herself. She waited a long time, but nothing happened. She looked herself up and down, wondering why. No symbol had appeared… "Oh wait, I need the lyric." She said. "And if Beast Boy hid this one too…" she reached and opened the medicine cabinet that the symbol's mirror was on. "Yep." Raven said, looking at the inside of the door of the cabinet. There, scratched down in black crayons, was the word:

MORCANA (More-cahn-uh)

"Morcana…" Raven whispered, waiting for the glowing light somewhere on her body. Her cloak was suddenly slashed down the middle in the back! She cried out, spinning around. No one was there. A beam of light, however, was shining off of her back. "What the…?" Raven saw it bounce off the mirror and project itself to the ceiling. The symbol for Morcana had appeared on her lower back, right along her spinal chord. "Well… it could've been tattooed on my butt." Raven shrugged, still not happy her cloak had been torn. Looking at herself in the mirror, she shook her head and frowned. The makeshift V-neck and torn cloak made her look… bad. "I'm gonna be naked by the time this is over if I'm not careful." She made a stab at a joke, but got no laughs from herself. Beast Boy would've laughed at that… she shook her head. She had to worry about herself right now.

Raven removed her cloak, ripping it the rest of the way. Now, whenever she ran, it would look as though she had two dark blue wings. Fitting for a raven, she thought as she refastened her garment. Reslinging the purse on her shoulder and the clicking utility belt around her waist, she braved out into the hallway. Looking both ways and listening for trouble, Raven made her way back to the common room. Why? She didn't know. Inspiration seemed to strike her when she sat there, even if it was dark and dusty right then.

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"Man, there ain't nothin' here either." Cyborg grumped, sitting on a crate. He rested his chin on a fist, looking around at the ransacked basement. Heaving a sigh, he looked over just in time to see Beast Boy emerge from an aisle of shelves. His hair was more mussed than usual, and there were little bags under his eyes. "Hey BB… you okay…?"

"Uhn…" Beast Boy sat on a nearby crate, massaging his eyes. "Yeah dude. I'm just…" he fought a yawn, scratching the back of his head. "A little… tired…"

They'd been searching for Raven for almost twelve hours, and it was nearly three in the morning. Starfire came to join them from where she'd been searching. "Friends… I am… quite tired." She looked wilted like a flower that had received no water. Barely able to hover in the air she sat on the floor, leaning against a crate. "Friend Raven has effectively eluded us, I am afraid." She murmured, leaning back to rest her eyes. "Friend Robin has only a bit more of his assigned area to search, then he should join us as well." She murmured, looking halfway asleep already.

Sure enough, Robin came around just then and joined them. "Any luck, team?" he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose to suppress the headache that had been plaguing him. Because they'd been searching everywhere, Robin had been going through all the Slade artifacts that had been recovered over time. That had left him in a rather sour mood, but he didn't have energy to show it.

"We would have more luck with the 'hay in the needle stack,' I believe." Starfire moaned, not even bothering to move. Robin surveyed his team, weighing the odds of reactions if he pushed them any further. "Friend Robin, we should rest and continue our search tomorrow…" she whispered, sighing with fatigue.

There was a short silence, and Robin made his decision. "Okay. Cyborg? You and Beast Boy search a little longer. Starfire, you go on to bed. I'm gonna grab something to eat, and I'll bring it back to share with you guys, okay?" The team groaned collectively. "Search for one more hour, and we'll take a nine hour break, okay?" he gave them the best offer he thought he could afford. "Starfire…" he said her name, but the poor pooped redhead was already curled to sleep on the cold concrete. Robin sighed, gathering her into his arms. He carried her up the basement stairs and out of sight.

Cyborg and Beast Boy looked at each other. "Oh sure, his girlfriend gets the break,." Cyborg grumbled.

"Don't start, dude." Beast Boy said in a monotone that reminded Cyborg of Raven. That made his frown deepen. "We've searched the entire tower except for the timed vents below the basement, what more does he want all in one day…?"

Robin carried Starfire as gently as he could, all the way to her room. Pushing the door slowly open with his foot, he crossed the room to her bed. "There we go…" he set her down for a moment, pausing to pull the covers of the bed back. Then, he slowly lifted her into bed. Pulling the covers to her chin, he looked at her. She was so… peaceful while she was sleeping. The seemingly boundless energy of the Tameranian had reached its end, though. She needed rest, just like the others. He'd only pushed the other two for more because he thought they could take it. They'd be sour with him for letting Starfire rest, but they'd get over it faster…

Robin looked at Starfire's peaceful expression, his heart softening. Well… maybe he wouldn't make the others search anymore tonight. They'd all been looking for most of the day, stopping only briefly every few hours to recap, eat, shower, and whatever other bodily needs had to be seen to. "Robin… ohhh…." Starfire moaned his name in her sleep. She curled to one side, a light blush on her cheeks. Robin felt himself redden, pushing a strand of hair back behind her ear. She was so beautiful… Another soft moan escaped her, and she curled tighter into the covers. He touched her face, stroking her cheek only once before withdrawing. Now wasn't the time for stuff like that… Standing straight up, he quietly closed the door and walked down the hall. Flipping open his communicator, he called Cyborg and Beast Boy. "Guys, why don't we stop for the–"

"Robin!" it was Beast Boy shouting on the other end of the line. "There's someone down there! Inside Cyborg's timed vents!" The boy wonder ran as fast as his tired body would let him, and arrived at the basement with all speed. "It's over here…" Beast Boy pointed.

Cyborg had his ultra-ear deployed, and had it pressed to the wall near one of the vents. "I can't really make anything out, man. It's too far away." He stood at last, and Robin closed the distance so he might hear something too. "I thought we could try to listen through the walls for activity, but all we heard were these…" he thought for a moment, trying to find the right word. "We heard whispers." He said gravely. "There's someone in there, but I don't think its Raven."

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Raven sat in the common room, resting for the moment. She didn't dare let herself sleep, for fear the darkness would consume her without warning. So, she passed the time to rest herself by doing what she did best. Reading. She sat on the dusty old love seat in the usual Indian-style position, Beast Boy's diary in her lap. She'd started at the beginning, and read more than thirty pages so far. "Mmm…" she said, turning the page.

The book went into greater detail as to the adventures that the Titans had shared, ones that Raven remembered. She learned of his distress when Cyborg had quit the Titans. She saw through his eyes the day that Robin had been revealed to be red X. Raven experienced the world through Beast Boy's eyes, reading as though she were listening to him speak. His voice appeared in the back of her head, reading along as she went. She began to notice, little by little, his growing affection for… well… herself. His mindless jokes and quirks aimed at her had all been stabs at affection, only to be turned away each time. There were even several pages labeled 'plans to make Raven smile.' Each plan was more outrageous than the last, and Raven knew from personal experience that each and every one had been tried. Did he really spend so much time thinking about her…? Her violet eyes raced back and forth across the page, pausing now and then to mentally correct his horrible spelling… or reading his odd handwriting. Now and then there would be a string of words sort of mashed together, and she would take a few moments to seperate them all.

She suddenly came to an oddly scrawled entry in the diary, and she read that one more slowly than the others. It seemed to tell about when all the stuff that had happened started…

Dear Diary, Raven went missing today! We gotta find her! Me and the others spent like twelve hours turning the tower upside down today… but we couldn't find her. It's like four in the morning, but I don't care. I can't sleep with her gone. Did she leave us? Why? I don't think she would, dude. We searched the basement extra-long, turning out all the boxes and junk. I dunno why Robin wanted us to do that. It was nothing but dust, Christmas decorations, and Slade stuff… then we heard something in one of Cyborg's timed vents. I asked him why it was called a timed vent, and he said it was because they only open twice a day. I forgot when he said, but it's like once every twelve hours. They open up to ventilate old air out of the tower, and let new in. I guess its like opening the windows in spring for fresh air, except this is year round.

Timed valves? Raven had never known about them. But then again, she hadn't been around when the tower was being built. Raven bit her lip, wondering how safe it was to stay in one place for very long. She hadn't heard the whispering anywhere, so… she was safe for the moment. Pulling her hood down so she could see better, Raven went on with the same entry.

Anyway, Starfire got tired out and Robin went and tucked her in bed. They should move in together or something, as obvious as they are… I wonder if she really fell asleep on the floor, or if she was just doing that so he'd carry her? Well, she did look pretty tired… Cyborg and me stayed in the basement, and we heard something in the wall. Near the shafts of the timed vents,Cyborg said. We listened real hard to be sure before we called Robin. It sounded almost like… whispers.

Raven shuddered, shutting the book with a snap. She'd rested long enough. It was time to move again. Whatever had happened at the tower, Raven knew it was up to her to stop it. If she ever wanted to see the others… Beast Boy… again…

Well, it looks like Beast Boy's diary is telling events as they happen in the real world while Raven struggles against the darkness in the game world! I had no idea this fic would get so much praise from others, so thank you all for following this so far… (smile) Raven has recovered five symbols, and there are seven to go! Plus, what happened to the vellum Beast Boy's diary spoke of? Will Raven find it? I suppose we'll have to find out later! Please review if you have the time, and let me know any ideas you have to make this fic nice and scary! I know I kind of strayed into romance for a moment… sorry… let's get back to the horror!