"Feral." Raven floated from her spot and flew toward the couple. She watched as Armstrong and Feral got back up and then as Armstrong attacked. He was summarily defeated. Feral was speaking to him again. She was just close enough to hear him shout the words, living room.
She floated in the air as he started to walk away. In the end, she couldn't help herself.
Feral felt a pair of arms encircle his body. He turned around and looked at the person who remained latched onto him. "Please don't go, you left back then, I don't want to lose you again." Raven felt his arm shift. Her grip was broken as she was easily flung to the side.
The chill that came from his voice was greater than anything Raven had ever managed. "Never touch me. If any Titan touches me, I will rip them limb from limb."
"She cares for you, idiot. Why can't you see that?" Armstrong slammed his fist into the ground that Feral had jumped from the moment before. He looked up to see the black cloak part on the way down. The outfit underneath seemed evil in and of itself, most of it was black, but a red belt held the fabric to him. More red climbed up his sides and three red slashes cut from Feral's right shoulder all the way down his left leg. The part that made the most ominous statement was the design the claw like marks cut across.
The emblem of the Titans colored in gray.
Armstrong focused energy into his arm and held it up to block the heavy boot that was heading straight for him. He landed on the young man's arm and fell backwards. His left foot came up and slammed into Armstrong's face on the way down.
Meanwhile, his right leg took his weight and he somersaulted away from the other fighter. He stood calmly waiting for the younger man to recover. "The Titans were always good at manipulating emotions. I will not fall for that again." His head jerked toward the crying girl on the ground. For just a second he seemed to hesitate.
This gave Armstrong an idea. "That's right, look at her! Look what you've done to her. Look what you've done to your friends."
This, as it turned out, was exactly the wrong thing to say.
Feral attacked with incredible ferocity. His right leg swung straight into Armstrong's ribs. Feral smiled as he heard the satisfying crack of breaking bones.
Armstrong backed up, he refused to go down from the hit. He felt too enraged to let the man who stood before him win the battle. He ignored the pain as he rushed forward and went for a massive upper cut.
Feral merely bent backwards and kicked upward into the joint that connected the arm to the torso. The arm was wrenched from it's socket and fell back down into limp sumission. The pain shot through the joint causing Armstrong to drop to one knee.
Feral walked over and kicked it out from beneath him.
Armstrong fell and landed on the arm that had been injured just seconds previously.
Feral started to walk away.
"What, aren't you going to bring your A game? Afraid I can't handle a gorilla? Or do you think you're being some tough guy by not fighting at full strength?"
Feral turned to him. "Don't speak of things you don't understand. I can't change, I haven't been able to for the last ten years, but I don't need to. I'm stronger than I ever was back then. And it's all thanks to Wilson. He taught me everything he knew. He is the only person that I could trust."
"I thought you couldn't trust anyone. What about that?" Armstrong watched the one time changeling through his slitted eyes.
"I said he was the one person I could trust. He's dead now. A month ago he fell off a cliff while he was training. So I left, Now I'm back to make sure the Titans can never hurt anyone else."
"What are you insane? The Titans don't hurt people, we help them. It's what the Titans have always done."
"Yeah, well that's my job now."
He turned to stare at Raven. "It's hard to believe that I used to think of you as strong. I see the truth now. You're weak. You were weak when you gave Trigon a path into our world, and you're still weak now." He stepped toward her. "You said you didn't want to lose me again." His voice once again took on icy tones. His voice came out as barely a whisper. "What makes you think you ever had me." He reached up and removed his mask.
Then for the first time. He opened his left eye.