The Titans
In
Revelations for a Generation
Part II
"…Thicker then Water…
Then:
"Everyone get ready," Robin whispered as they found the door to Brother Blood's inner sanctum. "We're about to go into the lions den."
"Bring it on," Cyborg replied as he put a different attachment onto his arm.
"Remember the plan: Beast Boy, Jericho, and Cyborg cause as much of a distraction as you can. Kid Flash, if Raven is in the room, you grab her and get her out of there. Wonder Girl and I will go after Brother Blood. Any questions."
"Yah, who played Lumpy on Leave it to Beaver?" Beast Boy asked as he shifted into the form of an orangutan.
"Not now, Gar," Donna sighed and grinned in spite of herself.
"On three," Robin said and moved his fingers until the count was just that. They moved out of the way as Cyborg blasted the door and went in, followed closely by Beast Boy who swung in from the top of the door frame and immediately jumped on two of Blood's hood covered men, knocking there heads together as he got his first look at the room.
His breath caught when he saw the three dozen or more guards that were heading toward them. It had been a trap! They had thought they were going to be able to sneak in. They had received information that Blood was going to be alone, except for a few personal guards…believable information.
"It's a trap," Beast Boy yelled back as he morphed into a large green dinosaur and used his tail to bat three of them away, hopefully putting them down for good. He caught a flash of yellow and turned his head to see Raven floating above an altar full of blood. She was in her usual garments of blue and black and her eyes were closed - Brother Blood was standing below her.
"No, Kid Flash," he began to yell but it was too late. As Wally got close enough to grab Raven he hit some kind of invisible barrier. His nose shattered on impact and he was thrown to the other side of the room, stunned.
Cyborg had seen it all happen and was trying to switch his arm while keeping the guards away. He saw Jericho make contact and jump into one of the guards. He then turned the guard's weapon onto his fellow men and shot, making sure not to his vital organs.
Then the sweet and demanding voice of Brother Blood spoke, echoing off the walls, "Kill the non-believers my brother's, so that I may claim my bride."
"Robin!" Cyborg shouted above the sounds of blasters and the melee. He fired his white sound and four guards fell to its power. "What's your back up plan, buddy? Cause this one has gone the way of the trash bin."
Robin and Wonder Girl had joined the fray after realizing that there was no way they could get to Brother Blood without eliminating the dozens of guards first. Robin was leaping off the backs of them and he threw punches and kicks, knocking some out and throwing other off balance.
"Keep fighting. We don't have a choice at this point. Gar, try to get to Kid Flash and shake him out of it. We need him to…" before he could finish his sentence he was hit from behind by the butt of one of the weapons. He fell into the sea of guards who swarmed over him and began to pound on him. All of them filled with nothing but anger and rage.
Wonder Girl and Cyborg both saw it happen and began to slug there way to him, but they both knew they were taking too long. The longer it took to get to him, the less his chances were becoming. Donna even picked up on of the guards over her head and flung him in that general direction. She took out two others, but not enough to make a difference. "Dick!" she shouted with frustration.
Now:
"Dick! Did you hear what I just said?" Donna asked trying valiantly not to cry over the phone. Even though Wally and Victor had both decided not to call him, Donna knew she had to. He wasn't just a Titan, he was the Titan, and not only that, but Tempest and Dick had maintained a good friendship even after the Raven tragedy.
"Yah," was his only reply, but Donna knew by the voice that he was crying. Trying to reign it in as it were, but not doing a good job.
"Barry Allen came and hung around while the police investigated. He said that what killed Tempest was some kind of powerful energy blast. He doubts that Garth felt anything, but you should have seen him. It was the most horrific sight I've ever seen."
There was a pause on the other side of the phone and finally he replied with that same word, "Yah."
"I know things are bad and I'm not going to lie to you," Donna went on. "We need you hear, Dick. You've got to help us find out who killed him"
"…but…"
She paused as she fought to find the right way to say it. She wasn't good at beating around the bush and yet she just didn't have the heart to tell him the truth in the harsh way that it was given to her by Victor and Wally. "…but at best it would be tumultuous. There's still so much anger as well as grief that is still there."
"Especially Wally, right?"
"Yes, especially Wally - but you can't blame him, Dick. It's just the way that the whole thing went down."
"I'm not revisiting this again, Donna," he replied and all of a sudden there was nothing but anger in his voice, "It hurts me just as much, if not more, then the rest of them. It was my call, damn it! No, I'm not coming back. I'm sorry, Donna, but I can't."
"I'm sorry too, Dick. I really am. Take care of yourself."
The line went dead and he pushed down onto another line and let it wring until it was answered by a familiar voice.
"Yes sir?"
"Alfred, it's Dick."
"Hello Master Dick, what can I do for you."
"I need to borrow the private jet, is it available?"
"Yes sir, Master Bruce won't be using it for quite a while. May I ask your travel plans, and will this visit be pleasure or work related?"
"Work, old friend. I'm going to Ireland to help a friend that just passed away."
Then:
Robin could feel the hits and he was starting to get woozy, but he couldn't give in to the blackness, his team depended on his and there was no way he was going to let him down. If only he could get a little leverage, but every time he tried to shift his weight another foot would hit him and he would be in pain once again.
Then suddenly two hands grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him up. He looked to see that one of the guards had dragged his back into a standing position and had his fist raised above him. Robin braced for the hit but instead saw the guard give him a wink…Jericho!
Jericho swung around slammed his fist into a guard while Robin resumed taking his side down one punch at a time. He took a bried second to look around and saw that Gar was helping Wally shake off the hit while Donna and Cyborg continued to pound on the swarm of guards that surrounded them.
"We've got to do something fast, Jericho," he yelled. "We're badly out numbered here and we're going to lose Raven."
Jericho nodded and immediately made eye contact with the next guard he saw. Robin watched out of the corner of his eye in amazement as Jericho began a long train of jumping into and out of one guard after the other, until he was nearly upon Brother Blood; who, at that moment was chanting to himself as Raven began to be lowered into the altar of blood.
Kid Flash, Robin noted, was starting to wipe the floor with the guards that Cyborg was fighting. For the first time Robin felt a rush of hope and began to fight with even more passion. His flips and kicks becoming more like a ballet dancer gracefully moving from one step to the next. He even laughed out loud as the rush of adrenaline took over his entire body and pushed him forward.
Even Wonder Girl smiled as she heard Robin laughing. She too felt a rush and couldn't help but join in. All of a sudden it was like old times. She could see herself in her first red, white and blue costume as she battled along side Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash and Speedy. There was nothing that the four of them couldn't do and that feeling came back in a rush with Robin's laughter. Her punches became more precise and more powerful and the guards began to fall quicker and harder.
Gar had taken flight in the form of a large eagle and he whooped with joy as he watched his friends making mince meat of the guards. He dove towards Brother Blood and as he got close Blood flicked his hand in Beat Boy's direction and the eagle was flung back into the wall. He turned back into himself as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Jericho had reached the last guard and turned the guard around, aiming his weapon at Bloods back. He fired the weapon and Blood was flung forward, hitting the side of the altar and almost knocking it over.
"Who dares…ah…the body snatcher, of course." He fired his bolts from his costume and they hit the guard square in the chest. Jericho had only seconds to leap out and he staggered, injured but still conscious.
Blood fired another bolt but there was a flash of yellow and Jericho was no longer standing where the bolt fired, it did however strike one of the last remaining guards that was behind the Titan.
Robin had finished the last two guards in his area and grabbed his batarang and was about to throw it towards Raven when Brother Bloods voice stopped him, stopped all the Titans.
"You fools! You don't realize that I have already won," and with that he swung back to Raven and hit a button on his wrist band. Raven plunged towards the blood altar.
"NO," Kid Flash screamed as he once again took off toward her, ignoring the shouts from his fellow team mates. He saw only the woman he believed he loved heading toward her doom. He moved faster then almost any man on the planet, but once again when he got to her, he hit the same force field, but was ready for it and was able to roll with the impact.
Then it was over as Raven disappeared into the altar. Brother Blood began to laugh triumphantly and Cyborg raised his arm and fired a tight beam right at him. Blood fired his own bolt and Cyborgs bounced off another force field while Blood's hit dead on. Cyborgs body shattered into pieces and Victor let out an excruciating sound of pain and fell, as his legs flew in the other direction.
Wonder Girl, Jericho, and Robin stood together in horror as they watched Raven's body slip under the crimson liquid.
"What do we do now?" Donna asked in a choked voice.
"I don't know," Robin replied in the same voice. His body had gone numb. This was not happening, it couldn't be. They were the Teen Titans, they won all the time. It was what they do. He couldn't move, couldn't think, he was frozen in his spot.
"Dick?"
Now:
"Dick?" Donna's crying voice came over the phone in the jet. "Are you seeing this?"
The television was showing the body of Red Star lying in a park. The news woman was talking about Dr. Light and the murder of one of Russia's premiere super-hero's. Dick could only sit there, his body numb, his mind had gone blank.
"Dick, please talk to me. Where are you?"
It took everything that he had to speak at all, "Ireland, I'm on my way to Ireland, and it looks like I'll be going to Russia next. My God Donna, what the hell is going on?"
As Dick listened to Donna crying the jet continued it's flight east as the sun dropped in the west and darkness enveloped the private jet…
To be continued…