Back to bring you more scary stuff is ME! Will-the-Titan! Yay! I now bring you the eleventh part of my latest and greatest story, Raven's Game! Sorry about the long pause between updates. I HATE making people wait to read the next part of my stories. So, here's the next part of the story. I don't own Teen Titans!

Raven's Game

Part 11: Mortym

Starfire flipped feverishly through one of Raven's books. She sat cross-legged amongst a disaster area of research, a pencil behind her ear and notes scribbled in Tameranian. "Surely there is something in this book…" she murmured, glancing around the room again. She'd been thoroughly shaken after the run-in with the shadow-creature, and wasn't about to let it sneak up on her again. Satisfied that there was nothing in the room with her, she looked back to the book. Murmuring in her home language, she tried to decipher the book's odd alphabet. Most of Raven's books were in Azar, the language of her homeland.

But, the book Starfire was looking at right now was handwritten. It was quite old and dog-eared, but written in perfect English. Since she could read that, Starfire had taken particular interest in it. Glancing over at the copy of the vellum Cyborg had made for each of them, she mumbled to herself as she compared one of the symbols with the one being explained on the page. No good. It was close, but not the same symbol. She'd found one by lucky chance and her spirits had lifted… but she hadn't found any others and it had been hours. Sighing in depression, the alien princess closed the book with a sigh. Needing to stretch her legs, she stood and placed the book on a stack she'd made.

She went down one hall and up another, to Beast Boy's room. The door was wide open, and she let out a little shriek when she saw what he was doing. "Friend! Why are you scrawling a symbol so large on your wall?" she cried.

Beast Boy gave a start, staring at her. A binding symbol was on the wall, made with black crayon. "I found it in one of the books I took while you were researching." He said. "Its some kinda warding symbol. Its supposed to keep evil spirits away…" he trailed off, but quickly spoke again. "Did you find anything?"

"I have located one of the twelve oddities we have decided to decipher." Starfire nodded, showing him her notes. "It is called 'Mortym.'" She emphasized the word. "It was used to help place things in a state of absolute dormancy. I think that perhaps you were right in your accusation, friend Beast Boy. It is a spell to reseal the beast, whatever it may be."

Beast Boy nodded warily, then spotted Cyborg in the doorway. "What's up, ya'll?" he said, not looking very cheerful. "I found one of the symbols on the net, but it took for freakin' ever to track it down." He made wide hand gestures to make sure they understood. "These symbols are really old, man. I'm not sure they're all from Earth."

"I found one of them in one of Raven's books. Perhaps they are of Azar origin?" Starfire tilted her head, wondering.

"Well, whatever they are, there's still more to do. We gotta keep going." Beast Boy said firmly. The other two nodded, and it was back to work.

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Raven was working very delicately. She'd gathered up all the red shards of the glass she'd broken on accident, and taken them to the common room. Having calmed down to use her powers for only a few moments, she mashed the glass together and melted it into one solid piece. Licking her dry lips, she shaped it with her mind to look like a red eye-patch. Working quickly with some thread from Starfire's sewing kit, she put a braided string through it. She let the whole thing cool and harden. "Perfect." Raven praised her invention, picking it up. It was a red-vision glass. Tying it around her head, she slid the red glass over one eye like an odd eye-patch. Disoriented with the color for only a few moments, she stopped to adjust to it. Looking like a pirate with a glass eye-patch, she looked around the room. Feeling proud of herself, Raven made double-sure that it was secure enough that it wouldn't fall off when she moved her head or something. Sure enough, it stayed tied.

The dark Titan looked down at herself very suddenly. She had something from every Titan now. With a wry smile, she took stock of what she'd gathered from the others. She had Robin's utility belt, Starfire's locket, Beast Boy's diary and, in a sense… Cyborg's eye. Raven suddenly wondered if perhaps the last symbol's solution meant for her to gain 'red-vision.' Would her new sight tell her anything as to the location of the next symbol? Very suddenly her question was answered. On the cabinets in the kitchen area, written in huge lettering, was –

If you can read this, good for you. Train hard and be the best super hero there is!

Following the sentence was a sloppily drawn heart-shape. Raven smirked at Beast Boy's "prank". She'd been right. The next symbol would clearly need the aid of 'red-vision.' She snorted at the stupid name for it, but it wasn't like there was anything better. "Leading me along, piece by piece…" Raven murmured, fingering her new tool. "Good job, Beast Boy. I–" she cut herself short. She was standing on a huge, red arrow. Shutting her 'red vision' eye, Raven couldn't see it anymore. Opening it again and closing the regular eye, she saw the arrow again as plain as day. It was pointing towards the stairwell. Raven made her way over and pushed the door open. She saw a line of the special ink/paint Beast Boy had made trailing downward. She followed it, keeping her guard up just in case.

She followed the red line and stepped out of the stairwell on a new floor. The sentences that had been invisible on the common room cabinets suddenly made sense. The line stopped at the doorway to the training room. Heaving a sigh and opening her uncovered eye as well, Raven pushed the door open. It was dark inside, that was for sure. Taking out the flashlight she flicked it on and looked around.

Raven saw Cyborg's weight set had long broken the bench-pressing bar in two. The table was bent severely and the weights had been scattered everywhere. Robin's punching dummy was slumped to one side, rotting with age. There wasn't enough of it left for it to come to life, Raven sarcastically knew. Her eyes traveled over to Starfire's droid machine. The little things were meant for target practice, flying around and shooting at her with stun lasers. They were old and absolutely caked with dust. Beast Boy's running treadmill was in equally bad shape, too. The conveyer belt was ripped, the speed indicator cracked, and the dials hanging loose.

Raven traveled to where she herself usually trained. Her cylinders, heavy and meant to be moved with her powers, were completely missing. Where had they gone? Had Beast Boy moved them to make room for something. She searched the room for whatever might leave a hint for her. But no, they were gone altogether.

Raven scanned the rather bare walls with her red vision, but found no hidden words. Had Beast Boy simply led her here to train? What for? Her opponent wasn't exactly a physical fighter. It was an evil shadow… spirit…thing? Sighing, she went to examine Cyborg's weight set more carefully. Maybe there was something more deeply hidden. There were maybe twenty different weights available for the bench-pressing table, ten for each side. She looked at each one in turn, checking them with her normal and red vision. They seemed normal enough – wait! One of them had a spattering of Beast Boy's special ink on it. Was that meant to draw her eyes? Was there something on the other side? "Oh goody…" Raven muttered. The weight she wanted to flip over was labeled '60 lbs.' How the hell was she supposed to flip that over? Annoyed but not wanting to overlook something potentially important, Raven squatted down and heaved at it.

Groaning in effort, she tensed all the muscles in her body. "Guuuuuuuuu-AH!" he fingers slipped off of the heavy weight and she flew backward. Landing on her butt with a grunt she swore under her breathe. Getting up and wiping her sweaty palms on her cloak, she tried again. Her face turned as red as a cherry and she puffed air out at odd intervals. Letting go at last, she leaned on her knees with her hands, huffing and puffing. "I'm not made for this…" she murmured. "Cyborg's the weight-lifter, not me." Staring at the taunting clue, she grumbled to no one that was there. Sweat had gathered on her forehead, and she finally stood and wiped it away. Thinking hard, she grabbed the two halves of the bar that was meant to hold the weights. Sticking one in the middle where the bar usually was, she pushed on it hard. Grunting and moaning and pushing as hard as she could, she finally tumped it over! Using the other half of the bar as a brake, she stopped it from rolling away. "Got it…" she inspected her prize. "Eh…?" she frowned.

M-6 was painted in Beast Boy's invisble 'red vision' ink.

"Another button in the T-car?" Raven whispered. "No… he wouldn't put two symbols in the same spot, would he?" Beast Boy had been rather clever about hiding the symbol in separate places so far, so he wouldn't stop then. "M-6, though? What is that?" Raven licked her dry lips with concern. There were other weights… Reaching for one of the small ten-pound ones, she turned it over. O-2 greeted her. "Eh…?" she flipped over some of the smaller weights. T-4. M-1. R-3. Y-5. She couldn't find anymore. "What the hell is this, Beast Boy?" she grumbled at the newest puzzle she'd come across.

It had been effectively hidden on Cyborg's bench-pressing weights. Altogether, the weight was about 300 pounds, but that didn't seem to help at all. Raven sighed, looking at each one in turn… Coordinances? A code of some kind? Raven suppressed an exhausted yawn. She hadn't slept in Azar knew how long, and it was seriously taking its toll on her. She would have to figure this out and solve the rest… or she could fall asleep accidentally and be consumed by she shadows… The letters and numbers seemed to swim around before her, and she rather harshly slapped herself. Feeling the sting revived her greatly, and she glared intently at her problem.

Then, not only that, but she found the rather simple solution. "It's in numerical order." She pointed to the weight with the number one painted on it. Accompanying it was the letter 'M.' Raven noted this, and spied that number two had an 'O' with it. Repeating the pattern, she spoke the newest word! "Mortym!"

MORTYM (more-tim)

Cyborg's bench-press suddenly fell apart, scaring her silly. It had finally rotted too much, and had collapsed. Turning itself over in its fall, she saw the symbol itself. It looked almost exactly like the Egyptian sign for rebirth, akha. Raven wondered for a moment if each symbol had a country or religon of origin. Christian, Egyptian. Greek. Roman. Mesopotamian… Had alchemists from all over the Earth contributed to this spell…? But then again, some of the symbols reminded Raven of the ancient Azar scrolls she'd seen… was there a connection?

"Eeeeesssssseeeeeeaaaaaaanaaaaa…." Raven went pale and whirled around. Her flashligth lanced towards the doorway. The whispers were back. That thing was coming. It's nonsense whispers continued as it drew closer. The doorway grew dark with its impending presence. Raven stood at guard, trembling visibly. She wasn't ready. She wasn't ready for it yet! "Raaaaaaanaaaaakaaaaa…." It was so close. God, it was almost there. Raven's pupils were tiny with fear, and the beam of the flashlight magnified her shaking with its unsteady light. "Eeeeeeenoooooosssss…" A whispering mist flowed carefully into the room. Raven recoiled, getting away from the door as it poured in.

Raven's flashlight went out.

She looked down at it in disbelief. "NO!" she cried. "No! Not now!" she smacked it with her hand a few times, making the light flicker on and off. The mist was drawing closer, the whispers multiplying and growing louder. There were so many voices… who were they? It's past victims? Were her friends amongst those voices? "C'mon, work!" she was hitting the flashlight repeatedly as the mists drew ever closer. The room was growing cold and stale. Too cold to survive.

More and more whispers joined the crowd and a vaguely head-like shape emerged from the mists. It was enormous. Too big to fit in the room. Mother of God… those eyes… tears poured down Raven's cheeks as the terror mounted. Her heart was threatening to break her tiny ribcage and threatening to simply give out at the same time. Striking the flashlight harder and harder, twisting to make the batteries give one final burst of light to drive the shadows away… Raven shouted one of her lyrics! "OLKAS!" she cried into the shadows. It roared and withdrew a few feet. Writhing and twisting in magic-induced agony, it folded into itself several times. Watching it do so made Raven feel ill, as though it were made of putty and misty-shadow at the same time.

It kept coming.

Raven stared in horrified disbelief. It hadn't left her alone. The symbol hadn't worked! Wasn't it powerful enough! Raven's back was against the wall, and she slowly slid down into a huddled position. God… it was going to take her. Drag her into darkness and feed on her soul. Raven whimpered as the shadows drew closer. "Oh Beast Boy…" she whispered, weeping softly. She drew her legs up to her chest as she crouched in the corner. "I tried…"

Raven dropped the flashlight.

Dun Dun DUUUUUHN! I hope you enjoyed this part of Raven's Game! How the hell is Raven gonna get out of this one! With no light and only one lyric left in her arsenal, she can't stand against the shapeless, whispering darkness. And, how are the others doing in the real world? Have they found the other symbols' lyrics yet? Well find out soon I hope, because I'm kinda making this up as I go along! Next up is part eleven, Ixiam! Please review if you have time, and I'll update really soon, n'kay? N'kay!