A/N: Sorry for taking so long I had finals last week. Suffice it to say that I was a little busy. Anyway on with the tale which my dark imagination has spawned.

Chapter 9: The Nightmare Beast

Gar suddenly found himself in the common room of the tower. He didn't remember going there but knew he must have. He was simply holding a controller as pictures flickered on the screen of the television, he couldn't feel his thumbs moving, but could see they were.

"Feeling better, my love," a familiar voice floated into his mind. Somehow such a show of emotion for Raven did not seem abnormal. Garfield tried to speak but found he could not even feel his lips. None of this alarmed him. He felt his head nod however. She sat next to him and wrapped her arms around him.

Then it all went wrong, very wrong. Raven's vague shape melted a way, and then, very vivid, it was replaced. Short white hair, alabaster skin, and crimson eyes now burned into his mind. Cold, sharp metal twisted around his throat. "Good, I was hoping I didn't have to wait for you to get better before I made you suffer." Sebastian's eyes seemed to move like flames dancing in a ring with a cancerous black seeping through them. Gar was having trouble breathing.

The world was melting away as pain coursed through the green shape shifter's body. "Make no mistake heathen, SHE IS MINE, and nothing you can do will change it." Gar could feel heat and smelt sulfur as he spoke. "And I will make sure she makes you suffer when I have made her my bride, MY QUEEN!"

Gar woke up screaming, or rather he would have if there had not been a hand squeezing his neck. Raven stood over him, bright red eyes glaring into his.

Gar reached up and hit a button he had, that day, finished installing. Essentially it was a panic button, and that's exactly what he was doing. Alarms rang through the tower to alert the rest of the team of danger.

Nightwing, Starfire, and Cyborg ran to the common room to see what the problem was. The main monitor was showing that a security breach had occurred in Gar's room. Smaller screens where next to it on either side showing security footage of Changeling's room. Raven was strangling Gar, but what alarmed them more was that her eyes were glowing red. "Titans, GO!" Nightwing yelled as they rushed to their friend's aide.

As the door opened they heard a crash. They saw a Raven shaped hole in the wall and Changeling on the opposite side of the room with a large spiked tail. They moved in and saw that Raven was unconscious on the floor of Starfire's room.

"STOP ME," Changeling growled at them. Gar, no longer human in mind or body, lunged at them, knocking Nightwing down.

He had already widened the hole, made by Raven, and was heading straight for her. Just as he had gotten to her an unbearable shriek blasted through his ears. At the same time he felt the surge of electricity from one of Nightwing's disks, and the burn of one of Starfire's starbolts.

He turned to look at them, rage boiling in his eyes. "Any other bright ideas, bird boy?" Cyborg said sarcastically.

"Stop child, end your nightmare," a dark voice demand from behind him. Gar stopped and turned and looked at the newcomer, his thoughts beginning to be heard once more. "Sleep…," the tall figure said comfortingly as it walked towards him, "Dream…" Gar's scaled body grew weak as the man touched his face as one would to calm a panicked animal, which was exactly what he was. "All will be well when you wake." Gar collapsed.

Apprehensive and cautious, the remaining Titans prepared to battle this being. However, as he revived Raven and helped her to her feet, it became apparent that he was benign. Raven, though, did not appear entirely up to the task of standing at the moment.

"Uh… thanks?" Nightwing said confused. "Who are you?"

"He's the King of Dreams. Don't worry about him, he's a friend," she said as she clutched Dream's shoulder for support.

"I will repair the damage to your home. In the meantime, perhaps it would be more comfortable to retreat to a larger room?" It was not really a question; more like a polite demand.

"So… um… how do you know Kla'nar?" Starfire asked in the awkward silence. Everyone, save Dream, looked at her strangely. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, they simply do not know that name for me."

Raven, who was not as confused as the others, to say the least, turned to answer question from the couch she sat on; she had Gar's unconscious head on her lap. "He informed me of an impending threat," she said. She didn't want to say the next part, "that wants to make me into a weapon of some sort."

Morpheus turned his head only slightly in the direction of the couch, "You can stop pretending to sleep now, Garfield Logan." The boy in question sat up and looked at him.

"Hello, Dream," he said as he opened his eyes. He didn't know why he was only pretending to sleep, he just felt he didn't want to be there, but knew he had to hear it.

"You know my true name?" he asked in surprise. This was only a technicality as Kla'nar and Morpheus were as true as any other name he had, but Dream wasn't just who he was, it was what he was. "I sense you know many things you should not, the walls of your dreamscape have corroded. Your dreams are indistinguishable from the rest of the Dreaming."

Nightwing, Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven all had confused looks on there faces. However Changeling did not, and nodded in understanding, he also knew that the Dream King had no intention of fixing it, at least not yet.

Raven found herself absentmindedly running her fingers through his long shaggy hair. Strangely, even though it was messy and disheveled, her hand had no trouble combing through it. She was startled when he grabbed her hand and placed it on his cheek, and pressed firmly against it. It was strange, they both noted, that it seemed to have calming affect as serenity spread through them.

Dream looked at them with a feeling of pity; no one should have to go through what they have. 'Their suffering will mean that the rest of the universe will not have to,' he thought to himself. He knew well he would have a lot to answer for when this was over, he owed them answers: but that could wait.

"I'm sorry but I must be leaving," he told them and turned away. "Try not to kill Sebastian," he added before leaving, "I intend to punish him personally."

On the edge of town, there stood a man upon the top of a building. He was covered in holy symbols: crosses, sutras, septagrams, and much more. Perhaps his most distinguishing feature, was his mask, on one side it was pitch black, and the other an orange colour; there was only one eye hole.

"I promise you Sebastian, your head shall adorn my mantle," the man said in a dark and sinister voice.

"Don't worry daddy," a girl beside him said. Her costume, aside from the v-neck to the breastplate, exposing her cleavage, and two ten inch blades hanging on her waist, was identical to her fathers. Her mask however was very different; the orange and eyehole were on the opposite side, it left her mouth open, and it let her silver hair fall free. "The Ravager won't let you down."

"Thank you, for coming with me, Rose."

"What are you talking about; I'm your apprentice aren't I?"

"Good girl. Now let's go hunting."

A/N: I completely made up Kla'nar, but hey most of what she says, sounds like gibberish anyway. I edited the encounter with Dream, I'm not going to explain my self, if I want enigma, I'll write enigma.