CHAPTER TWELVE

Ragnarok ran outside the house, the light show in the basement having attracted the attention of his grandfather's guard dogs. Using the powers of the artifact powering his armor, he used the ground to hurl him over the fence and off the adjacent ridge, where he charged the earth going down.

Using the moon to indicate what direction southwest roughly was, he hurled himself into the air with the dirt and rocks. He had to get to Jump City.

He had to stop Delirium.

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While Raven tended to the mangled Cyborg, Robin lashed out at fist, smashing Delirium in the face, and then turned and followed it up with a kick from his steel-toed boots. Delirium reeled and blasted a reality wave at Robin, which the Boy Wonder dodged. But Beast Boy was there, picking up Robin's slight slack. He had turned into a raptor, and now he lashed with his tail, smashing Delirium into Koriand'r's fist.

Starfire flew up and blasted at Delirium with a series of eyebeams, but they missed and Delirium countered with a burst of rock from his suit's base artifact, which Starfire barely dodged. Beast Boy continued to attack, smashing him as a gorilla.

He briefly resumed his human form to talk.

"You fooled us just like Tara did! But I'm THROUGH being fooled!" Beast Boy roared, again becoming a dinosaur, and attempting to bite the evil youth's head off. But Delirium used the DC to blur out of the way and blasted Gar with a reality altering sphere.

"How would you like to be a fossil, Garfield?" Delirium flicked his wrist and with a flash of red, Beast Boy was gone, replaced by the skeleton of a dinosaur. Which Beast Boy had been when he was blasted… Delirium followed up with a spin kick that shattered the skull of the fossil.

All the Titans stopped dead in their tracks—or at least the ones that were moving.

"You didn't!" Robin snarled.

"Friend Garfield!" Starfire yelled.

"No." Raven's eyes went moist.

"B-B?" Cyborg snarled through his pain. "That…" What Cyborg said of Delirium, I cannot reprint here in a T-Rated fic.

Starfire snarled something Robin was glad he couldn't understand and charged at Delirium, dodging his reality blasts with utmost precision, and finding her mark, smashing into his face and sending him flying through the air. "You monster!" Koriand'r hurled double-handed Starbolt at his stomach, catching him and knocking him off into the distant ruin of Jump City.

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Delirium quickly shot to his feet. How had that happened? The Tamaranian had dodged everything he had thrown at her, and blasted him at least a mile with a single starbolt… That didn't sit well. Wasn't he supposed to be a deity with these new powers? And yet it seemed like he was having a harder time in this universe than he had in the previous six.

He remembered back. It had only been five months since he started this journey, but it seemed like so much longer. The first time, he had attacked the Titans outright after learning of the Catalysts and the Ultimate Power.

But he couldn't get in the temple, despite having heard of it in his own universe.

Time after time, he was shut out. Starfire would die fighting him before letting him in. And then that fool showed up, calling himself Ragnarok. Well, he had been there before Delirium had arrived. And he fought just like Delirium, so the Titans knew his every move already.

Back then, altering reality was so easy as it was now. He couldn't alter the universe on a whim as he could now, with the Golden Catalyst enhancing his abilities, but somehow he always managed to defeat the Titans anyway.

Delirium sat up, and suddenly his threat assessment visor display registered a new power source. It wasn't one of the Titans; it was Northeast of Jump City and closing fast. He turned around and ran around the bombed-out building he'd landed in to where he could get a clear view. And in the distance, his visor, translated into English by Starfire and Cyborg in one reality where he'd tried the betrayal route and failed, confirmed that whatever was coming at him was wearing a Tamaranian battle suit.

Ragnarok. The good Collin.

How Delirium despised him! But how had he gotten to earth! He had been left to die in the Tamaranian desert! Delirium had blasted the entire T-Ship with a reality beam, replacing Ragnarok with his own body, hurling the do-gooder into his dark robe in the harsh climate of the desert. He shouldn't have survived…

But he still lived, it seemed.

Why was it that his best laid plans always failed? Delirium cursed, his visor indicating that the Titans were coming.

He was growing weary of this fight; it was time for the bodies to pile up.

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Cyborg, pieced back together as best as possible on the spot, made his way through the streets of the ruins of the city, staying close to Starfire and her protective alien strength.

Raven hovered close to Robin a street down, ready to shield him and herself if Delirium attacked.

"Raven, I just don't get it. You said you didn't sense anything evil in Collin. How could he have hidden it from you?"

"I don't know. But I'm not perfect, Tim; people can hide intentions. But you're right. An evil of this Delirium's magnitude would be hard to hide even…"

BLAM!

Delirium burst forth from the ground, bending rock and blasting it and Robin and Raven. "The only magnitude problems you'll need to be worrying about are earthquakes, my friends."

But Raven shielded the two, and Robin back flipped away, drawing the sword he kept in his utility belt. Raven understood full well the implications of this action; Robin had subtly but officially just authorized the use of lethal force, but only as a last resort. If he wanted lethal force used, he would have said so.

"You're not getting away with this!" Robin yelled, lunging forward and swinging his blade at Collin's head. Delirium dodged away and blasted Robin with a DC burst that seemed to freeze him in place, and then he turned his attention to Raven.

"What, the chocolates weren't good enough? What do I have to do to make it up to you?"

Raven wasn't in the mood for banter. "Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!" she bellowed, causing rubble and broken street signs to lift off the ground from around her and fly at Delirium. But he dodged some, and used DC energy to turn others around and send them flying back at Raven

A shield of black power came up and blocked the projectiles, and just as it fell, Cyborg and Starfire arrived behind Delirium. He glanced over his shoulder, acknowledging them, but saying nothing.

"Surrender, Collin. I do not wish to fight you!"

In a blur of energy, Collin was suddenly behind Starfire and Cyborg, his hands on their shoulders… And in a flash of energy, they were different.

Victor Stone, the orange-skinned, green eyed Tamaranian.

And Koriand'r the African American Cyborg.

"WAH?" Vic screamed. "What in the name of X'hal happened here?"

"This is most unpleasant!" Kori complained. "But it won't stop me from fighting."

Starfire extended her right hand towards Delirium and nothing happened. But before she could ask Vic how the sonic cannon worked, Delirium's fist snapped out into Kori's face knocking her on her back, unused to being unable to fly.

"Why you Vorblaging sack of T'norksn'ra!" Victor yelled, mixing Tamaranian and English curses, and hurling a pair of starbolts from his hands, which Delirium rolled under. He leaped up and kicked Victor in his bare chest, wielding the power of Superboy, and sending him flying into a brick wall.

Suddenly, a stabbing pain slammed into his back and Delirium fell to the ground, and rolled over to dodge a series of sharp projectiles coated in black energy.

"ZINTHOS!" Raven yelled, sending another volley. Delirium blurred out of the way, only to find Raven's fist in his face followed by a knee to the groin, and uppercut to the abdomen, and a kick to the face.

Raven grabbed him in dark energy and hurled him into the metal post of a street lamp near where Robin remained frozen… "You continue to injure my friends. I cannot allow that!" Raven spoke a spell longer than her normal one, and when she finished, a stream of fire blasted out from her hands, at Delirium. Fighting back the pain she had caused him, Delirium staggered to his feet and rolled out of the way, and gasped when he saw where he had been was now a circle of melted asphalt and concrete.

"A bit testy aren't we?" Delirium snarled. "I wonder if you'd mind letting me show you just how BAD it hurts us males to get struck there! And in a flash of Dark Catalyst power… Raven felt very different.

"She" looked down, and gasped to see a flat chest and full length pants and steel toed boots… Raven was now male!

"What did you do to me?" Raven demanded. "Turn me back!"

Delirium responded by returning the low blow he had received.

Suddenly, a birdarang hit him in the back of the head, and Delirium reeled forward, unblocking Raven's vision of… Robin. Only now, his legs were bare as Raven's costume had been, and he wore the same cloth boots rather than the steel-toed shoes he was famous for…

And "he" was now a she.

Delirium grabbed both Titans by the hair and banged their heads together. "Congratulations, you're now Timantha Drake and Raven, son of Trigon."

Delirium grabbed both Titans by the throat and began to choke them, pressing his thumb into their jugulars and tracheas…

Raven tried to bite out Azarath something… but he couldn't. The wind to his pipes was cut off, and he had to fight the blackness out of his vision…

And suddenly that wasn't a problem anymore, as a blur of sonic energy slammed into Delirium, causing him to lose his grip on Raven and Robin.

"Booya!" Kori imitated, blowing on her sonic canon as if it were a smoking gun.

"I don't care how much you alter what we look like." Victor smirked. "We're still the Teen Titans. And we stick together."

Raven and Robin lined up with Vic and Kori. Yeah, he could change their outsides. But the Catalyst couldn't rearrange their souls.

"Titans, GO!" Robin commanded.

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Lighting crackled through the bubble around Jump City. Collin and Delirium faced each other down. Both were injured. Bleeding. Exhausted.

But Collin had been one thing Delirium hadn't.

Terrified. Ragnarok was terrified. He leapt forward, throwing a bunch of half-hearted punches, all of them deflected by Delirium. Collin thought of the terrible death masks still plastered on the faces of Superboy, Robin, and Raven. They had died screaming.

But never begging. They knew the risks of Superhero life, and had given theirs trying to protect the world. Collin thought of Cyborg, his body torn apart, his power-cell overloaded.

He had been vaporized.

Delirium kicked Collin in the chest, sending him backwards, flying into a tree, burnt out by the reality altering energy of Deliriums Dark Catalyst. It only held sway over Jump City, but it held ABSOLUTE sway. He could alter the landscape however he wanted, but he couldn't alter the human spirit. And for that reasons, the Titans continued to oppose him. To their deaths.

"Friend Collin!" Kori had yelled. "Let us avenge the Titans!"

Her voice had been a low growl, unlike anything Collin had heard her utter before or since. She had been fury.

"Right," Collin had said shakily. Really, he just wanted it all to end. He had blasted with his own Dark Catalyst, and Kori had blasted with Starbolts. The bolts had missed, and he had dodged into a reality wave. But Collin hadn't thought of anything to alter, so it had no lasting effect.

It had been another effect of his cowardice.

Kori blasted again, while Delirium was disabled, knocking him to the ground. But Delirium bounced off and struck back. Kori blocked his blows, then span around and kicked him towards Collin. He dove out of the way, and Delirium smashed into the tree. Collin opened his eyes.

And the hideous death mask of Superboy had greeted him, screaming in agony as Delirium had rearranged his internal organs with the power of the Catalyst, slowly killing the half-Kryptonian clone.

Collin rolled over and looked up, his heart having skipped many beats at the sight of what he had landed on. And suddenly, Delirium, wounded but not broken, entered his field of vision.

He had stretched out his hands to Superboy… And done the unthinkable.

A bubble of DC energy surrounded the murdered Kon-El, and suddenly, his entire substance seemed to shatter like glass, into millions of tiny shards. And these reality particles entered the energy field around Delirium.

Superboy's power had become Delirium's

With sudden haste, Delirium turned his head and prepared to fight. "Her first," he said.

Kori shot through, smashing into Delirium's chest with her fist, and the two exchanged blows, Delirium growing stronger due to his increasing adaptation to his new powers. And then his fist pistoned out… And it went right through Kori, his hand bursting from her back, causing the now-sitting Collin to almost hurl…

Her orange life's blood dripped from Delirium's gloves as he threw her to the side. "Satisfied now, Troquie?" he snapped. "Now I have to find a new reality."

He had then turned and looked at Collin. No remorse, nothing. Just intent.

"You have a Dark Catalyst," he said. "Give it to me, and I might just let you live."

But Collin had refused, and had backed away, crawling backwards, stumbling to his feet and continuing to back away. But he had been too scared to even retreat effectively.

"Give me the Catalyst!"

"No!" Collin yelled back. And then he saw it, still in Robin's hand, clutched by his death grip, and obscured from Delirium's view by a shrub. If Delirium had seen it, he wouldn't have been so close; it was Robin's staff, broken in two and jagged. A perfect tool for him to grab and run through Delirium's twisted brain.

But he had been too scared. He had been a coward. And he did what a coward would do.

He ran. Leaping to his feet, Collin blasted into the air with a rock burst and focused all the energy he could find into his Dark Catalyst. And he willed himself into another dimension, as far away as the weakened Tamaranian machine could muster…

But it had not been enough. Delirium had followed him. And now, if he didn't do anything, it was all over.

Again.

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Digging had finally paid off. Wherever Delirium had blasted Beast Boy to, it was a good thing he was a shape shifter, because Gar had been able to transform into an earthworm and slowly but surely dig his way out of what Collin had intended to be his tomb.

And found himself in another tomb. Terra's tomb.

Off n the distance, on a platform above a rock bed that had once been a lake of lava, stood the teen, her body altered into the chemical make up of limestone. Beast Boy was thankful no water had seeped in to erode her, and that the whole cave had been sealed off to prevent vandalism. But even her statue left a hole in his heart; he wanted her back, her real, flesh and blood body.

Her smile. Her voice. Her sense of humor—she actually thought he was funny!

Raven was a friend, but she could never replace what Terra was. And that made him think of Slade, and how much he hated him for what he had done to her. And what she'd done to herself. But as much as he wanted to place all the blame on Slade, he couldn't help but think that it had been mostly Terra's fault.

It was a train of thought he wanted to jump. And speaking of Jump, he had to get back to the city and help fight Delirium. Move it Gar, haul your butt up there. But he collapsed, his body and digestive system exhausted from all the digging he had done…

He collapsed. He couldn't even muster the will to turn into a gnat. Saving the world would have to wait, he thought, as he passed out.

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Robin had never been trained to fight as a woman. In all of Batman's prudence, even he had never thought to train her for a sudden and unexpected alteration of gender. But she had been trained to move and fight with the weight of a small person on his back, and the sudden top heaviness Robin felt now was hardly the wait of a person, so she applied a lighter version the same principles in reverse, striking at Delirium with her bo staff, and mixing in kicks and punches where appropriate.

Her fist made contact with Delirium's face, and he fell into a sonic cannon shot from Starfire, which knocked him into a massive punch from Victor…

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven bellowed, letting loose the rubble from half a building at Delirium. He blurred out of the way, into a flurry of blows from Robin, a who then through a birdarang at him, cutting his sleeve and causing some blood to stain his shirt.

He basted rock from the ground at her, and Robin reeled in pain, clutching a cut in her left arm. Delirium proceeded to kick Robin in the stomach, which aroused Kori's ire. She charged Delirium, and hit the ground to avoid his retaliatory reality blast. Delirium leaped into the air, and Kori opened up both Sonic Canons and a bunch of shoulder missiles at him.

She looked over at Robin. "I'm afraid this new look for you will put a strain on our relationship, yes?"

"No time, Star," Robin ordered, pointing at the sky. Starfire looked up again, to see an unharmed Delirium, blazing down to stomp Kori's head in the ground. The cyborg girl rolled out of the way, and Robin shot to her feet, smashing Delirium with her bo while it was still in collapsed form, causing him to once again spit up blood.

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And after a few more similar clashes, an exhausted Delirium tumbled away from an explosion, rolling to a halt, not moving.

Defeated. As always. He rolled over, cursing the Titans, his weak self, everything he could think of to curse for this defeat. But it was nobody's fault. He had the powers of the Dark Catalyst and the Ultimate Catalyst now, so WHY didn't he use them? Why was he still holding back?

And for a brief instant, a horrible thought struck him. He had never wanted to win. It was about the journey, not the destination, and he had fully expected to self-destruct on his quest and die in battle. But time after time, he had survived, living on to fight again. And the thought of completing his quest was too much to bear…

But he quickly dismissed that train of thought; he had Titans to kill. This was no time for epiphanies. And suddenly a thought occurred to him. Summoning the power of Superboy, he leapt up, bashing the first thing he saw, which happened to be Kori, then turning and punching Cyborg in the gut, and quickly disabling Robin and Raven before they could do anything.

And he began to remake reality again. But this time, he wasn't going to alter the universe. That was too general. He would remake only the earth. And he would build it exactly how he wanted it…

With him as its potentate.