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Thank you all for reviewing, I think I got more for the last chapter than any before it.
( ) author's notes
... - dreamscape/mindscape
'' - telepathy
The Titan
Chapter 6
Cowritten by Nate and Felicia
"So, where do we go from here?"
The sentence went around and around inside Raven's head, no answers coming. Where did they go from here? Where was there to go? She knew that he knew what she was thinking about, and was probably working his own mind to figure out an answer for her. That thought was pushed from her mind instantly; he promised her that he would give her time to think about it, he promised to not peer into her thoughts unless she gave permission.
"But he sees everything I think, as I think it," she looked up at the sky, having a clear view from her perch atop the tower. "Is he capable of turning it off?"
A few hours had passed since the incident in the kitchen, making it late afternoon now, around four PM. The tea had not helped her sleep, if anything she was more awake now than she had ever been in her entire life. She had vowed to herself that she wouldn't sleep until she had an answer for him. Meditation was her only means of concentrating hard enough to find said answersm and that;s what she had been trying to do for the past four hours.
'What I'd give for one of Starfire's distractions right about now,' she sighed inwardly, her thoughts once again turning to him; where he was, what he was doing. 'He and Terra are probably training again, I hope I have an answer when they're done.'
Sunfire was indeed training with Terra, as Beast Boy sat on the sidelines and watched his methods. He was starting to see similarities between them, far deeper than just the blonde hair, or slightly aloof personalities. The fact that they had both been created artificially, both granted amazing powers, and both coming together to become quite an efficient team. This made him slightly jealous of Sunfire, he was spending so much time with Terra, that he barely had time to see her. But, at the same time, he knew it was for the best, the Tamaranean could easily help Terra more than he ever could.
"Find your center, the pebble is your center," Sunfire said as a small pebble was lifted from the ground and held before Terra. "From the center all power radiates, that power wishes to flow at maximum capacity, you must put a stopper on that flow. Slow it to a trickle, keep it in check."
Terra concentrated on the pebble in front of her, keeping it aloft. It was strange, this was taking all her willpower, since her powers wanted to throw the pebble as far as possible. She had to keep those powers in check, lest they take control of her again. Concentrating a bit harder, she began lifting the grains of sand around her, bonding them to the pebble.
"Good, keep it up, as the center becomes bigger, you will feel the amount of will you need begin to lessen," he continued as he walked around her. "Can you feel it?"
"Yes," she said, it sounded strained, like it took all her remaining concentration just to speak.
"Now, begin adding other small rocks, with the sand," he stopped walking when he was directly in front of her. "Don't just break larger rocks, lift all the pebbles you can find."
The blonde's brow furrowed deeper as her powers were stretched again, but then the strain began to lessen again. Her powers were becoming accustomed to the extra load almost instantaneously. Never before had she thought of an exercise like this, mostly it was just grab a rock and fling it as hard as she could. This was different, this was challenging her mind to accommodate the extra load of controlling multiple objects. Size had no real say in anything, it all depended on how many rocks she had under her control.
'Raven, what could you be thinking about?' Sunfire thought as he looked up at the silhouette of the girl atop the tower.
A grunt pulled his attention back to Terra, who was shaking as she added more and more rocks and sand. The "center" was now almost the size of a beach ball, and the surface was beginning to move as water. Rippling and flowing over the silicate beneath it; pebbled occasionally making an appearance. It was beginning to lose consistency, grains of sand falling from it to form a pile on the ground. Terra's face was contorted as she tried not to move, to raise her hands and grasp the control she needed.
"Let it fall, Terra, you've reached your limit for now," he said and the sand and rocks fell into a large pile, but the original pebble remained floating. "Good, care to try again, or do you want to rest?"
"Rest."
"Very well, we can continue tomorrow, how does that sound?"
"That sounds great," Terra got up from her sitting position, her breathing returning to normal from the harsh breaths she had been taking in. "It's getting easier every time."
"Yeah, it tends to do that," he grinned a little, looking from her to Raven, and then back again. "So go on, have fun; he's waiting for you."
With that he started for the door of the tower, knowing that Terra was noticing Beast Boy for the first time that day. She walked over to him and grasped his hand in hers, dragging him from the rock he was sitting on, lifting them off the ground on a boulder and flew off to places unknown. Sunfire's smile faded a little, wondering if he had ever been like that in his previous life. There had been flashes of who he had been, most of them were in battle, but that had been a long, long time ago.
"I wonder if Starfire would have some answers for me," he said to himself as he entered the tower. "It's worth a shot."
He stepped into the elevator, crossing his arms as it began its ascent. The dark presence he had fended off in the HIVE was still there, constantly whispering in his mind, but he paid it no mind. If he even for once decided to know what it was saying, it would most likely take control of him. He had already lost one perfectly good shirt to his lost control, he didn't want to risk the tower bursting into flames.
'All this power, but where did I get it?' he thought, trying to remember as far back as he could. The beginning of his life had been in space, with another, that looked like him.
The elevator stopped and he stepped into the common room, Robin and Cyborg were playing some racing game, and Starfire was watching. He knew she took notice of his entrance, even if her head did not move, he always knew she followed him with her eyes. This time was a little different, as he walked right up to her and tapped her shoulder. Turning she saw his green eyes looking intently down at her.
"May I speak with you alone?" he asked her quietly, then added, even more quietly, "Princess?"
Starfire nodded slightly and followed him out of the room, walking down several flights of stairs to the basement. She looked nervous, as if she were ready to scream at any moment, alert the others to her predicament. But he simply stood there, his back to her, arms dropped limply to his sides.
"If I were going to kill you, I would have done so," he turned to her, eyes flaring something that looked as if her were hurt. "I need answers, will you give me them?"
"What kind of answers?"
"Answers about who I was, what I am, why I'm here," he took a step towards her, grasping her shoulders. "I believe you have the information I seek."
Starfire looked at his eyes, the determination set in his face, and the light grip he had on her. Her head dropped to stare at the ground, she couldn't tell him what she knew, what if she was wrong? The knowledge she had was somewhat biased, having been given by the ones who said they made him. They had never shown her, nor told her, of the process they used, only assuring the naive princess they had done it.
"I am sorry, but I do not have your answers," she kept her eyes on the ground, not wanting to the confusion she knew was evident on his face. "I am afraid the knowledge I have is incorrect."
"I understand, thank you for your time," he let go of her shoulders, and started back up the stairs, but stopped. "Why are you afraid of me?"
She turned and looked at him, the curious expression on his face, the question was strange to her. Yes, she was afraid, but why, why was she afraid of him. He had not done anything to harm her, or any of her friends, perhaps there was no need to fear him. Yet, she still was, could it have been the amount of power he had? It had to be that, since there was no other plausible reason.
"Y-you're so powerful," she said with a hint of hesitation, not knowing exactly how to word it.
"That is no reason to fear me," he said as he sat down on the bottom stair. "Do you fear Raven, she has so much power as well."
"I do not fear her, she has control of her powers."
"She does not have total control, where as I do," he stated simply, looking at the confusion on her face. "What can you tell me about one called Moonfire?"
"I do not know anyone by that name," she said sitting down on a crate behind her. "But there were rumors that he had destroyed a Tamaranean colony at the outskirts of our territories."
"He did, and I had helped him," he dropped his gaze from the princess to the floor. "It was strange though, I was there, but I was not in control of my body. I could see everything that had happened, bound within my own mind."
"So you did not destroy all those planets of your own volition?"
"No, I was being manipulated, a voice in my head constantly telling me to kill and destroy, until everything was gone," he lifted his eyes back to her, red forming at the corners. "I am sorry for all I have done, and for making you afraid, it was not my intention to do so."
"But the colony was destroyed almost thirteen cycles ago, how could it have been you? They said you where only created twenty cycles ago."
"I was not created on Tamaran, I am unsure where I was created, but it was in the vicinity of a black hole. There are many things I do not understand, but I know now where to get my answers," he stood and started back up the stairs, wiping the red tears from the corners of his eyes.
A few wisps of golden hair rose up through Raven's shadow, followed by Sunfire's head, then the rest of him. After making sure she didn't know he was there, he wrapped his arms around the floating sorceress, placing his chin on her shoulder.
"Hey," he said, smiling.
"Hey," she replied, allowing a small smile to grace her lips.
"You've been doing quite a bit of thinking," his chin moved off her shoulder, his face now right next to hers. "What about?"
"Don't you know?"
"Nope, I figured I should give you some privacy."
'So he can block it out," she thought, glad that he hadn't read her thoughts. "Thanks, I thought you would have been listening in."
"You should know me better than that by now," he kissed her cheek before letting her go, he initial blush from being grabbed now even redder.
Raven was suddenly very aware of what was happening around her. The blinking light, the kind to alert planes of the tower, exploded, and was pulled back together. The roof access door began to shake, but stopped a moment later.
"I'm never gonna get used to that," she sighed with a shy smile.
"Don't worry, you may not have to," he winked at her, allowing his feet to leave the ground as he floated beside her.
He stayed like that for a little while, his eyes closed in thought. Despite what Raven believed, he could not turn off the thoughts in his head, he could only choose to ignore them. But they were still there, still swimming around inside his mind. Most of them were discarded, mainly the ones of her past; he did not wish to know of that before Unity.
But, with the deafening of his thoughts in his head, one word ripped him from it.
"Sunfire?"
His head whipped around, looking deep into the violet eyes that met his. The expression in them held his gaze in check; he was unable to move, at all.
"Yes?"
"What do you require for Unity?"
"Besides you, nothing."
"I had assumed..."
"...That it would require arcane symbols and seals; sorry, but it's much simpler than that."
He chuckled lightly, Azar really had not told her anything of Unity. Given that the old woman did have a bit of a flare for candles and symbols, none were actually needed. The feeling of a glare on him stopped his chuckled and he burst out laughing, lowering to the ground. He stopped, not meaning to insult Raven with such a gesture, but feeling that look...he couldn't help it.
Raven followed suit, lowering herself to the roof beside him. Her glare had softened as she almost laughed with him; instead she made a sound like something between a laugh and a 'hmph.' There was something wrong with his laugh though, she had heard him laugh before, and this wasn't quite right. Either it was a feeling, or his memories leaking into her head again, but she knew it was Starfire.
"When can we do this?" she looked openly curious, her emotions showing more and more around him.
"Anytime you want, now, later, whenever," he shrugged, as if to signify they had all the time in the world.
"What happens if we...break Unity?"
"Unless our minds are so intertwined that I believe I'm you and you believe you are me, nothing. Azar was very specific in the method she taught me, nothing will go wrong," he smiled reassuringly, knowing exactly what he was doing. "When would you like?"
"Can we do it now?"
"Of course," he turned his body towards hers, raising himself onto his knees. "Get in the same position as me."
She did, wincing slightly as her bare knees scraped the roof. Once that was done, Sunfire reached out, placing his hands on either side of her face, his index, middle, and ring fingers on her temples, while his thumb rested below her eye, his pinky pointing towards the back of her head. Without needing to be told, she placed her hands on his head in the same manner. With that done, he began to lean forward, and she followed suit, until their foreheads were pressed together.
The strangest feeling Raven had ever felt entered her system, it was as if Sunfire was passing through her, and she was passing through him. Everything in his mind began to open, like a veil being lifted from her sight. She knew the same thing was happening to him, could feel his mind now consciously inside her own. Her eyes had been closed the entire time, and now opened.
...
What she saw startled her, having gotten used to the darkness of her own mind, she was unprepared for this. She stood on a path, running through a green field, a golden sun shining up above. So many Sunfire's walked about, chatting with each other, once in a while one would point to her, then continue chatting. She looked at all of them, green, red, gray, yellow, pink (yes, pink), orange, purple, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
"Not all minds look like yours," she turned around and saw the golden Sunfire she knew. "But the emotions are the same."
"I've never ventured so far into someone's mind before to actually see them, but I had always known they were there," she said as she made a full turn, taking in everything.
Two children ran between them, laughing and playing a game that looked similar to tag. More followed, until the group was five-strong, and was soon gone, over a hill. Raven turned questioning eyes to him, but she already knew what they were. The life essences of some of the people he had killed while under Moonfire's control. It was all he could do to save a small piece of the species he'd annihilated.
"So, where do we go from here?" she asked with a smirk.
"Come with me," he grabbed her hand and began walking down the path, her next to him. "I wish to show you something."
He led her along the path, and, after a few minutes of walking, they reached the end. The path, and everything else, just ended at a massive white expanse. It stretched on forever, from the impossibly thick forest on the left, to infinity on the right. There was no end to it, just blank whiteness, with nothing marring it but a small, black dot that seemed to be billions of miles away. She squinted her eyes to try and get a better look at it, but it was too far.
"What is this?" she looked left and right, wondering exactly what was supposed to be here.
"This is where my mind ends, and his is supposed to begin," he kept his gaze trained ahead, no looking down at the confused magus beside him. "But it's not here."
"Who do you mean, Moonfire?" she looked up at him, his furrowed brow, the muscles in his arm and shoulder seemed to go taught at the mention of that name.
"Yes, him, why the path does not continue into his realm is what has me worried," he turned his eyes to look at the concern held within hers. "One thing that I remember is this path continuing."
"Where are the memories of your previous life?" she asked, her position not moving. "I can't seem to find them."
He turned from her and pointed to the woods, the tangle of branches and vines were so thick that it was impossible to see anything beyond the first line of trees. There appeared to be a few scattered holes in them, holes that allowed memories to be viewed. She released his hand and began walking towards the forest, but, as soon as she left the path, two figured stepped in front of her, the red Sunfire and the green Sunfire, both with arms crossed over their chests.
"It's alright, let her pass," Sunfire said from back on the path, and they stepped aside, the orange Sunfire keeping a close eye on her. "Caution, it's okay."
Orange Sunfire looked over at him and then turned to walk away. Sunfire shook his head; sometimes his emotions were too suspicious of others entering his mind. At the very beginning they had attempted to destroy both Raven and Terra's memories as soon as they entered his mind. He turned his gaze upward, seeing the dark star, Raven, and a yellow star, Terra. Circling around both of them, like an electron cloud, were the docile emotions of both girls.
Raven let a smile cross her face as she continued to the woods, making her way for the largest hole. She remembered the time when Beast Boy and Cyborg entered her mind, and met with her emotions one at a time. It was a good thing they met Happy first, instead of one her more dangerous emotions. But there was something about this place that seemed wrong, Rage and Brave were two of the strongest emotions, yet he had complete control over both of them. It was also strange that the emotions were not vanishing into himself while he was here. Was the path some sort of safe zone that kept the emotions away? There weren't any on the path, and she hadn't seen any enter it either.
"Raven, I believe you already know the answers to your own questions," she heard him yell from the path. "Now please, now more questions."
"I forgot for a second that our minds are joined," she yelled back as she reached the forest.
Placing her hands on either side of the hole, she looked inside. What she saw was seen through the eyes of whoever's memory this was. She saw a red, mangled hand raise and launch a silver/blue starbolt at a ship. It then turned and launched another starbolt, both ships being completely obliterated in a matter of seconds. The vision then turned around, she could tell this by the movement of the stars in the background, and she could see several others.
The Tamaraneans she was seeing were different from any she'd seen before, given that her knowledge was limited to Starfire and Blackfire. They were all dressed exactly the same as Sunfire, tank top and baggy pants, only their tank tops were differently colored. One was green, another red, and one more was orange, and they all had wings, the color corresponding with their tanks. Their hair was styled different for each one, two had long hair while the last had it cropped short, around his shoulders. The others were female, their hair long, lustrous, very well kept, and sparkled in the sunlight of a distant star. One had straight hair, right down to her waist, while the other had it almost to her ankles, the style like that of Yue (from CCS). Once the turn was fully complete, the image went blank.
As the memory ended, she pulled away from the hole, turning back to look at Sunfire. He looked unconcerned with what she had found, and was distracted by the children running around him. The expression on his face was a happy, carefree one as he grabbed the ball they threw and tossed it behind him. They all ran after it, leaving him alone to look at Raven, smiling, to which she smiled as well. He stepped off the path, the emotions around him disappearing, and made his way over to her and the hole. Taking one look at it, he returned his gaze to her, knowing exactly what she was thinking.
"Do you know who they are?" she asked, referring to the other Tamaraneans.
"No, I was hoping you might," he shrugged, the disappointment evident in his thoughts. "The look on their faces was a joyous one, like they had just won, but who they are is a mystery to me."
They both looked at the ground, Sunfire kicking at the grass a little, but it didn't give. Raven tilted her head up and place a hand on his shoulder, wanting to assure him in some way she would help him in any way possible. His hand was placed atop hers, giving it a light squeeze before looking up at her.
"Would you like to check the other holes?" he inquired quickly, as if wanting to break the contact with her.
"Maybe later, right now I think we should be getting back to our duties," she released his shoulder, understanding his need for the loss in contact. "Tonight, come to my room, and I will show you my mind."
"Alright," he said as a blinding light radiated from behind him.
...
Their foreheads lost contact with each other, and they both leaned back, breathing heavier than normal. So far Raven had gained only a little bit of knowledge into the enigma that was Sunfire. While, on the other hand, Sunfire had learned much, much more about Raven, and her father and mother. While he was showing her around his mind, he had taken a self-guided tour through hers. The emotions within it were all too happy to allow him access, though Brave had only let him in after he beat her.
"It's gotten late," he looked up at the stars sparkling above them. "Time flies outside the mind, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," she stood from her kneeling position, wincing again as her stiff legs were forced straight.
He stood as well, moving towards the door, but stopped briefly as an alarm went off. Turning towards Raven, they nodded as one and slid down through the roof, and out through the ceiling in the common room. Everyone else was there, standing around the main viewer, which was showing seismic activity. Terra was standing right there, so there was no chance of it being her, so only one thought came to everyone's mind.
"Slade," Robin hissed as he turned off the screen and turned to everyone else. "We've got to stop him before he can destroy the city. Titans...GO!"
'/Will he ever get tired of saying that?/' Sunfire asked Raven as they headed for the door.
'/Probably not./' she smirked.
The giant mechanical worm seemed impervious to all their attacks, even when Robin tossed several explosives straight into its mouth. Sunfire was getting frustrated, why weren't his starbolts working. Every time one struck, it was absorbed by a red glow, and vanished. Figuring this wasn't working, he unsheathed his sword (thought I'd forgotten about that, didn'cha), charging the metal behemoth.
"Sunfire, WAIT!" Robin yelled as the worm began burrowing into the ground again.
He stopped mid-slash, and looked at Robin with very disgruntled eyes. Why did he want to let it go, surely it would have made more sense to destroy it. Nothing could have been gained from this course of action, but, as he had sworn to Starfire that he would follow Robin's orders, he sheathed his sword, and dropped to the ground. When his feet touched, a few cracks formed in the road.
"We're going to let it show use where Slade is," Robin grinned at his own cleverness.
"A wise plan, but while we do that, he's going to send more to attack the city," the powerful Tamaranean cautioned.
"Good point," he placed a hand on his chin. "Cyborg, you, Starfire and Beast Boy stay up here, make sure none of those things get through."
"You got it," he nodded and then looked at Starfire and Beast Boy. "Come on, let's get going."
"No way, I'm going with Terra," Beast Boy protested.
"While we stand here and bicker, Slade's plan is most likely moving further towards fruition," Sunfire snarled at the changeling. "Terra will be fine without you, now just follow orders and get going!"
He turned on his heel and began moving down into the hole, not even caring if Beast Boy responded. Tonight was not going to be good, he had a feeling deep down in his bones that something bad was going to happen. And the young boy was not making it any easier on his nerves, constantly grating them until he snapped. He had trained Terra himself, he knew what she was capable of, far better than Beast Boy did. Deciding that it had gotten too dark for those behind him, he lit up a starbolt.
"You didn't have to fly off the handle like that," Terra said, even though he couldn't see her, he knew she was pouting.
"He is too protective of someone with far greater power than his own, it is not logical to do so," he quipped as he kept walking.
Moving up next to him, she whispered, "Raven seems protective of you in some ways, any idea why?"
He remained silent after that, she had caught him with his own words. If there was anything Sunfire hated, it was having what he said turned around on him. To be honest, it wasn't that Beast Boy was too protective, it was that he would most likely be running at the mouth right now, or cracking some stupid joke; each one driving Sunfire closer and closer to driving his fist through the green teen's skull.
"There's a chamber about three-hundred meters ahead," Robin said as he watched his communicator's screen. "It's pretty big."
"Thanks for the info, chief," Sunfire mumbled as he expanded his starbolt's light.
There was indeed a chamber ahead, and the literal "light at the end of the tunnel" was proof of that. Given that the alien did not know of such a saying, the fact did not fail to dawn on the other three. The path was getting somewhat treacherous, as Raven's foot connected with a rock, almost causing her to hit the ground, had she not caught herself. When she stood, Sunfire was by her side, having been ready to catch her himself.
"I'm fine, let's keep going," she said and started walking; none of them noticing the rock she'd tripped over sinking into the ground.
Red klaxons, lined across the upper part of the cave, began flashing as the alarms blared. The group halted, Sunfire dropping his starbolt, seeing as how there was now enough light. The floor beneath Raven, Robin and Terra opened, dropping them down into the darkness below.
"No," Sunfire dove for the hole, but it sealed before he could get there, his hands slamming into another red barrier. "Drakka!"
He stood as the walls began to open, Slade's robots, large and small, began filing out. Turning fully around, Sunfire took in the situation, there were so many now, their numbers seeming to multiply every few seconds. His left hand was raised, the forearm guard exploding outward, revealing a red, mangled arm. The small ball formed at the tips of his fingers, lighting dancing all around the orange core. He turned towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
"Solar Flare!" he yelled as the ball flashed out, incinerating all of the robots between himself and the exit. "There's no other way to go but forward."
Upon reaching the end of the tunnel, he found himself in a very well lit room, with a table in the middle. Around the table were chairs, elaborately carved from fine woods, with leather cushions adorning their seats. Atop the table was a feast fit for a king, and, in Sunfire's eyes, was not fit for the one he saw sitting there. Brother Blood stood from his seat, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
"I was wondering when you would get here," he said, stepping around it to stand in front of him.
TBC
There we go, another chapter down, though, it was getting too long to include the battle I had planned. Oh well, thanks for the reviews, especially Paineful. I'm glad you're all liking the story, and I'll try to update as soon as possible.