First, a note or two:

This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else.

KEY:

'Blah' thought

"Blah" speech

I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Switch must be set to 115 Volts to avoid risk of damage to internal components. Do not invert. Use only unleaded gasoline

Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews.

I don't consider a dead mother and a demon father a family, so, um, yeah... And no namby-pamby what-about-those-good-ol-team-members-who-are-like-her-family stuff.

Again, I'm using something from the Ender series by Orson Scott Card here.

And now, on with the show.

The girl who had no family awoke, and her head spun. She knew something had been forgotten, and sat straight up, feeling numerous small electrodes rip away from her scalp. Suddenly a wave of pain crashed upon her, blinding her in a sensation so white-hot that she felt as if she'd explode. She felt dizzy, and wanted to leave. The pain ... she couldn't ... too much...

Raven vomited explosively, splattering the hospital-white sheets with the sharp smell of gastric acid. She panted heavily, trying to clear her head. Finally, the world stopped spinning, and she was able to focus on the machines standing beside her bed. A electrocardiograph sat on the top of two other phosphorescent green screens that Raven presumed had been recording her brain function. As the leads for the ECG machine had been pulled loose during the sorceress' projectile regurgitating, that top machine showed only a single, flat line, and made a continuous, annoyingly steady beeping sound.

'Oh, damn,' thought Raven bemusedly, 'I seem to have died. Oh well.' She yanked the remaining electrodes from her body and stood up on shaky feet. She looked at herself in the mirror. The sight that greeted her wasn't as bad as she felt. A large gash ran from the top of her forehead down to her left cheek, fortunately just missing her left eye. She had numerous bruises on different parts of her body, giving her skin a slightly mottled appearance .

Then Raven realized something. She wasn't wearing the usual black leotard and purple cloak that were her trademark. She was wearing a set of striped blue and white pajamas that were at least one size too large for her. She realized that the others must have changed her clothes while she was unconscious. She was a little angry; they shouldn't have done that. It wasn't cool.

'Unless it was the green one,' thought Raven suddenly. To her utter surprise, she heard herself giggle. 'Oh dear,' she thought. 'I must really be sick to be giggling.' She decided she needed a glass of water and made her way slowly down to the kitchen.

She walked over to the sink, and stood in front of it. Raven focused her mind on the cupboard behind her that held the glasses, imagining the texture and color of the metal paneling, the cold feel and silvery gleam of the metal, and the plaintive creak of the old hinges. She imagined this, and then imagined the cupboard opening, trying to feel her mind pulling at the handle and pushing at the door, guiding the door open.

As soon as she did this, Raven knew something was wrong. She heard no creak, and knew the door hadn't opened. She tried again, this time trying to search the door with her mind. All she could see, however, was the same image that she had imagined before, playing back like a broken record.

Raven frowned, confused. She tried again, attempting to focus her energies on the one simple task of opening the cupboard. Then, out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed something. The room, when she had entered, had been almost entirely dark, save for a bit of light coming in from the moon outside. The sink before her was shrouded in shadow as the rays of the moon missed it entirely. What Raven noticed was that, as she focused her powers, the sink stayed shrouded in shadow. The glow from the sorceress' eyes should have cast at least a little light.

That was when Raven realized something shocking and devastating: something was blocking her powers.

The small ship landed with a puff on the small, rocky planet, and four of the Teen Titans hopped out. The sight that greeted them was horrible. Two huge armies were clashing violently with each other in the valley before the four teens. One of the armies consisted of Starfire's people, each shooting multicolored balls of energy at the opposition. They flew up and down, always staying fairly close to the ground, zipping in and out of the battle like swifts from hell.

The other army was something that none of those present had yet seen. Its members were insectoid in appearance, looking like large, mutated bees or wasps or something. They were armed with ferocious dagger like appendages, which they swung at the Tamaranians with deadly accuracy. Worse still, the bugs seemed to be moving in complete unison with one another. It seemed more like one giant amorphous blob fighting than individual bugs. The entire army moved as one thought, twisting and bending itself to fit every open nook and cranny.

Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy looked intently at Starfire, as if waiting for a reaction. The young alien girl's eyes were glowing with more power than any of the other three had seen before. Brilliant orbs of blinding green energy began to glow at the edge of her fists, and she fixed her gaze coldly on the nearest bug. She was about to pour her energy into obliterating the life of this foul invader when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait, Star," said Robin gently. "I think we should find out where these things are from before we just start attacking them."

"They have deliberately attacked my planet, my home, and my people, and thus are not deserving of such hospitalities," responded Starfire with a tone of completely uncharacteristic hatred in her voice. She turned back to fire on the nearest bug.

Cyborg suddenly jumped in front of Starfire, blocking her path. Starfire looked at him, shocked, the light fading slowly from her fists and eyes. "Why do you not allow me to avenge my dead fellows, Friend Cyborg? Do I not have the right to defend those who have died at the hands of these fiends? I am not afraid to die, friends. If it is me that you wish to protect, remember this: I am nothing without my people and my planet. I am sworn to protect Tameran at all costs."

"I – we – understand that, Star," replied Robin softly. "But I just don't think that this is a mere battle. I think these creatures before us are so linked, so not individual, that they will have no concept of retreat. They will fight to the very last, I think, and will never fear defeat. We need to come at them from another angle. Find out what it is that commands them, and take it out."

Just then, Robin's communicator beeped, and Raven appeared on the small screen, still wearing the oversized pajamas that Starfire had lent her. "Morning," she said, dryly. "Where are you? I'd love to help out, but my powers aren't working for some reason. Seems like something's controlling them, and is preventing me from focus... Ooo, damn, I need an aspirin." Raven put her hand to her head, groaned painfully, and shuffled out of view. She said, "Oh, shit" about five seconds later and shuffled back into view. "Goodbye then," she said absent-mindedly. The communicator beeped, and the screen went blank.