Here I am again! Thanks for stopping by! I love all my fans who keep coming back for more storytime… even if its scary stuff! Anyway, I don't own Teen Titans, the story's gone on for two full days and Raven's had no sleep… will she be able to stay awake long enough to finish her quest? This time around, Raven faces the challenges of fatigue, trying to stay awake to fight the darkness. But, she has seven of the symbols at her command, one of which she can still use for the smaller attacks the darkness is waging on her… (WARNING: Upcoming fan-service for Raven-lovers! Unnecessary, but still kinda fun! Flame me if you want on that subject, and I'll use the flames to cook marshmallows! Yummy!)

Raven's Game

Part 9: Larsus

Raven yawned, rubbing her eyes and then slapping herself. She couldn't fall asleep…. She couldn't fall asleep! Shaking herself thoroughly, she decided to go on and start searching for the next symbol. As far as she knew, no room had been used twice. So, she'd have to search a new room or area. Where to go, though…? Raven looked around the common room for inspiration, but she'd already turned it upside down. Licking her dry lips and then wiping them dry again with her right hand, she swallowed. Her thirst was growing wearisome and there was nothing nourishing around the old, torn building. "As soon as I get out of here I'm getting a huge, tall glass of water…" she promised herself the reward of a lifetime. Her stomach groaned at her, and she quickly went on. "And then I'm gonna raid the fridge." She realized very suddenly how unlike herself she sounded. She stopped, running those two sentences through her head over and over… Had this whole experience changed her somehow? She looked herself over for anything unusual besides the symbols. Wait… where had Malus appeared on her body?

Raven looked up and down her bare legs, and felt around her breasts and torso. No sign of it… frowning and wondering where… she went over to the elevator doors, rubbing the dust off of them with the end of her cloak. They were like mirrors if you stood right in front of them. Looking around as though someone might be watching her, she removed her cloak, purse, and utility belt. Setting them aside she peered down her shirt, looking for the answer. When she received none, she unzipped her leotard from the back. Gingerly peeling the torn garment away, she revealed a dainty white bra and slender panties. Starfire's locket hung daintily between her breasts, glittering in the light that the flashlight provided from the floor where it lay. Her pale gray skin was soft and smooth, though. She quite honestly blushed at her reflection. She was in the common room in her panties! Shaking the perverted thought from her mind, she swallowed again to keep her throat from getting raw. She inspected herself in the shine of the doors, looking herself over as though it were a full-length mirror. Seeing the symbols on her hands, feet, and turning around to see the ones on her back… there! Up between her slender shoulder blades, was the symbol for Malus. "Mmm…" Raven said, reaching with some difficulty to stroke it. It hadn't pierced her cloak with its light like the others… why? Muttering to herself but glad for the little tidbit, she redressed and tightened her clothes.

Raven pulled her main outfit back on, casting her reflection one last glance. She reached for her cloak. It was torn down the middle in the back, so she knotted each half and put little tears along the inside of the main tear. They looked even more like wings now, she mused. She strapped the utility belt on tight, making sure it wouldn't shift on her. Adjusting Starfire's locket and picking up the purse of useful items, she stood dynamically. "Ready again." She whispered. She ran different rooms through her mind that she hadn't searched yet, and came up with the one she wanted. She was heading to –

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'll show them." Beast Boy muttered angrily, standing at the desk in his room. He had a small flashlight, some duct tape, and a hard hat. "I'll show them all…" he grunted as he bit the tape to cut off how much he wanted. Taping the flashlight to the hard hat, he flicked it on and off to be double sure that it worked. Tossing the duct tape over his shoulder and out of sight, he slammed his new invention on his head. "Whatever that thing is, it has Raven. I know it!" He pulled at his gloves, making sure they were on good and tight. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out into the hallway.

"Friend, you have emerged!" Starfire, who just happened to be passing by, greeted him. Like any teenager in his situation, Beast Boy held a slight grudge and said nothing. "You are still upset with me, yes?" she asked. Still he said nothing, and started towards the elevator. She followed him, determined to make up so he would smile again. "Why have you attached a small light-making device to that protective headgear, Beast Boy?" she asked, trying get him to say anything at all. "You are going somewhere dark that might hurt your head?" Normally, Beast Boy would've laughed at a statement like that. But right at the moment, the green teen was in no mood for jokes. He stood in the elevator and she joined him, eager to know where he was going. He punched the button marked ' B1' and it lit up. "You are returning to the unpleasant room? Why?"

There was a long silence, and suddenly the doors opened. Beast Boy stepped out and turned around. The gesture meant that she was not to follow. She stood there in the elevator, tilting her head in confusion. As the doors were closing, Beast Boy spoke. "I'm going to find Raven. And the shadow-thing." He said. The doors hissed shut, leaving Starfire alone and confused as the elevator went back up the shaft.

Beast Boy turned around, clicking his flashlight helmet on. Going down the hall, he started towards the door of the basement. Heaving a sigh and praying for greater courage, he opened the door. It was dark and scary down there… but he couldn't let that stop him. The whispering shadow was down there, but so was she. He gulped once, puffing his chest out and starting down the stairs. The rather large basement made some things echo, including his footsteps on the steel stairs. When he reached the concrete floor at the bottom, he looked around. Everything was right where they'd left it. Oops… he'd forgotten to turn the light on. He quickly went over to the big switch and pushed it down. …Nothing. Slightly disturbed but writing it off as coincidence, he decided to make an echo in the large room to ease himself. "RAAAAAY-VEN!" He shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth. He fell silent, a cold chill going down his spine. Beast Boy's voice had been swallowed into shadow.

There had been no echo.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raven walked down, down, down the stairwell, to the bottom floor. The basement was at the other end of the hall, behind just one door… Taking a few deep breaths, Raven stepped out into the hallway. A light was coming out of a certain place, and that was Raven's destination. "The elevator car…" she whispered, starting forward. She shut the door behind her… finding a huge binding symbol drawn on it. "Beast Boy…" Raven whispered, touching it. She got out the flashlight, holding it steady and sweeping the hall with it. She gasped softly, her eyes widening.

The walls were covered with binding symbols, the entire hallway.

Deeply disturbed but actually feeling a little safer, Raven made her way down the hall. Her ears pricked for any whispers, but she only heard the sound of her own nervous breathing. Licking her lips, she cautiously peered into the brightly lit elevator car. One of Cyborg's '250,000 candle-power' lanterns was sitting in the elevator, pointed straight up. It lit the entire thing quite nicely, and Raven stepped in. She felt safer in the light? That was a change on her part, since she'd grown so used to the dark in her lifetime… forcing the past from her mind and focusing on the present, she steadied herself.

Unable to help it, Raven leaned out and looked at the door to the basement. The biggest binding symbol she'd ever seen was on the door itself, and dozens of smaller ones were all around it. All of them in crayon. All of them black. Pursing her lips and forcing down a shudder, she went back to what she was doing. Carefully searching the elevator and knowing she had to be right, Raven looked for the eighth symbol. She checked the paneling of the elevator car, wondering if Beast Boy had hidden a symbol in one of them. Getting the screwdriver out, Raven prepared to open one. Accidentally bumping into the wall as she squatted to do so, she was hit on the head with a coin.

Raven gave a start, standing straight up and ready to shout Malus… she saw nothing. She knelt down to see what had hit her. An elevator button? Her brow furrowed and she turned to look at the set of buttons. The one that had hit her lay in the palm of her hand, leaving one of the holes empty. The hole usually labeled B1. She came closer, getting a better look. The elevator was lit, but she used her flashlight anyway. She peered closer into it with one eye.

Raven was suddenly blinded, and she went reeling with a cry! Rubbing the spots out of her eyes and sprawled on the floor, she recoiled and held the flashlight like a club with both hands. Looking around for any sign of trouble, she peered into the hole again. Again the light flared, but she was ready and held her hand out in front of it. Angling her hand, she saw what it was from the projected image it made.

The eighth symbol!

It looked like an equals sign with a line drawn down the middle. At the end of each line was a small circle, and the whole thing was tilted diagonally. "Simple symbols… but powerful…" she murmured. "Let me pick this one, eh?" Raven turned to where the symbol shone on her upper arm like a tattoo made of light. "C'mon." she said tersely, as though ordering it onto her skin. Raven felt a sharp burning sensation and she yelped. Clutching her arm, she waited a few moments before she could look. Blazed there like an old scar, was the symbol. Raven sighed softly, stating her obvious wish. "I hope these come off when this is all over…" She accidentally bumped into the lantern, making it tumble out of the elevator into the hall. She sighed, wondering if it would be wise to take it with her… oh wait, it had a small power generator with it, connected by an orange electric cable. Sighing, she stood to pull it back into the elevator.

The elevator doors slammed shut as though springloaded!

Raven cried out as the elevator jerked into motion, moving upward. The cord of the lantern snapped, leaving her with a stub of a cord and a flashlight. She waited for a moment, frozen in fear. She waited… and waited… there weren't this many floors in the tower! She glanced down and saw that the floor had become glass. She gasped, a bead of sweat working its way down her face. She was so high… high above the tower in some kind of freakish elevator ride! A Hellevator was more like it. She looked desperately at the buttons, and found them all to have question marks on them! "What the hell…?" Completely forgetting about Malus, she desperately searched for the lyric. Whipping out the screwdriver, she saw she had four maintenance panels to choose from. Each with four screws. The elevator came to a halt, way up in the sky. She dove at the panel, desperately unscrewing the first screw. It came away and she started on the second… it came out too. Her hands were shaking in terror, wondering just how long the elevator would be way up there.

Suddenly the whole thing dropped. Raven screamed, getting a gut-wrenching stomach rushand hitting the ceiling. She grunted on impact, and thrashed to fight her way back to the panel. She had to get to the word before it was destroyed when she hit the ground. She found and clawed her way back down quickly, seeing the ground coming up at her. Titan's Tower was coming back into view… instead of unscrewing she began prying at the panel with the screwdriver. The flashlight was tumbling aimlessly in freefall, flashing her with its beam of light now and then. She moaned in fatigue, the stomach rush making her feel ill. The panel suddenly popped open and flipped over right in her face! Raven grabbed it and flipped it over as the ground started rushing up to meet her. "LARSUS!" she cried in agony.

Raven was thrown from the elevator into the common room. The double doors stayed open and she heard the screaming metal all the way down until – CRASH. She flinched, and saw the cloud of dust and smoke come up to meet her. Sprawled out as oddly as she was, she coughed heavily as it engulfed her for a moment. She staggered to her feet, groaning and falling onto the love seat again. "I hate this." She whispered, ready to throw up anything that was left in her hungry stomach. She suddenly remembered that she still had Malus, and mentally kicked herself. Pounding her fists and swearing at the top of her lungs, new tears came to her eyes. "I hate this…" she whispered again, her voice sounding hurt.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beast Boy was a gorilla, in the larger ventilation shaft. He didn't have time to wait for it to open again. Raising a ham-sized fist, be bashed the metal until it gave. Bending it back until it was almost folded in half, he turned human again. The helmet and flashlight reappeared as well, and he was on his way. Looking carefully around and listening for his enemy, he descended into darkness.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you guys are still enjoying the story! Now that school has started up again, the number of reviewers seems to have greatly diminished… (weep) So, even if you just put you liked it or hated it, I would greatly appreciate the review! Thankies, and I'll be back soon! Promise!