Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. If I did, Terra would never have come within a hundred miles of a Titan.

Dr. Nightmare

The Titans arrived at Jump City Mall just in time to see an enormous man with a black and white costume with greenish smoky design knock over a display case, spilling jewelry all over the floor. The salesclerk ran screaming from him only to suddenly slump to the floor when the man threw a canister full of gas at her. "That's right! Run, puny humans! But you won't get far. Not with Dr. Nightmare at your heels!" He laughed at the people's attempts to scatter from him. Once the green gas from his canisters reached them however, the people stopped and began to slump to the floor.

"I'll crush you all. You are no match for me and my Nightmare gas!"

Deciding that the man' s posturing had gone on long enough, Robin stepped forward into the madman's path. "Oh really? Well maybe we could give you a run for your money! TITANS, GO!" Robin leapt forward, pulling out a birdarang, followed closely by Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy. Raven hung back and began to chant. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." Under her power, the railings from the stairs ripped free and twined themselves around Doctor Nightmare. With the villain distracted, Robin and Cyborg attacked together, punching the struggling Doctor while Star threw green bolts, scoring several critical hits.

Finally Doctor Nightmare fell down and stayed on the floor. As the Titans slowly circled around the inert villain, Beast Boy quipped, "Well I guess we were a match for you." All five stepped back, alarmed but ready, as Doctor Nightmare began to chuckle, levering himself up onto his hands and knees. "As it turns out, Titans, I am more than a match for you all!" he roared as he leapt up and snapped the metal railing encircling him like twigs. With one swipe of his enormous arm he knocked Robin into a wall fifty feet away. The Boy Wonder went down and stayed down.

With a feral roar, Beast Boy shifted to dino form and charged the maniac who had just knocked out his friend. Dr. Nightmare merely sidestepped and grabbed BB's tail. Swinging him around, Doc Nightmare spun faster and faster until the centrifugal force pulled BB's enormous body off the floor before he let him soar away, too dizzy to think straight enough to shift to human form. Only when a column stopped his forward progress did Beast Boy change into a disoriented human who just lay on the ground trying not to throw up.

Starfire took to the air and rained fiery green destruction on the man below. Unable to reach her, Doctor Nightmare was reduced to simply dodging her bolts as he looked for a way to bring her down to his level. He ducked into a store and Star, unsure of whether to follow or not, stopped her barrage. That was all the opening Doc Nightmare needed. With deadly accuracy, he threw one of his now empty containers at Star, catching her in the stomach. Winded, she dropped and the doctor lobbed a ball at her that broke on contact. Black gas spilled out and settled on Starfire. When it hardened a few seconds later Starfire was unable to move at all.

Raven saw her friends getting their asses handed to them on plates and began to feel an-all-too-familiar feeling stirring inside of herself. Come on. it said, This isn't right. They're your friends. How DARE he hurt them! Let me out! it whispered in her voice. Rage is your only hope. I am your only hope. GET ANGRY! the voice began to change, to become more masculine and demonic. Raven began to tremble violently. No, I can't! If I let you out you'll never go back. People will get hurt. My friends will get hurt! No, nonononononono. NO, FATHER, I CAN"T LET YOU HURT MY FRIENDS! Raven's eyes began to flicker from black to white to red to violet and back again to red. LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! RAGE WILL CONSUME YOU! Trigon's voice roared in her ears. NO! You're dead. You can't hurt me! Go away! GO AWAY! Raven screamed silently. The voice disappeared and Raven opened her eyes to see Cyborg fighting Doctor Nightmare alone.

"Hey, Raven! I could use some help over here! Raven! Rav-arghh!" Cyborg flew across the mall food court to crash-land in the garbage. Raven watched all this numbly, unable to move. O Azar, no! Don't let them be hurt! Don't let them be hurt! Part of her mind screamed at her to move, that Dr. Nightmare was coming towards her, to get away, to get revenge for what he had done to her friends, to her. An insult to my friends is an insult to me! And he just insulted me badly! Her rage built inside of her until she couldn't hold it back anymore.

Her eyes flicked to red and she fell over at the sudden pain. Free! FREEEEEE! Trigon screamed inside her mind. Raven screamed along with him. "FREEEEEE!" The demonic edge to her voice stopped Doctor Nightmare in his tracks but then he laughed and kept up his leisurely stroll towards the hunched over girl. "Ha I can see that this will be an even easier fight than I had first thought," he said. "You, a hero," and he made hero ­sound like a curse, "can't even stand up and face me! The Titans' time is over. It's time for nightmares to rule Jump City. Eh?" He stopped talking as Raven also began to laugh, an evil laugh that held no hint of a teenaged girl's voice. "Nightmares, Doctor? You know nothing of nightmares. Let me show you the true meaning!" Raven's head shot up, revealing two sets of ruby red eyes. Without her moving a muscle, black power laced with red enveloped the man, cutting off his air supply.

Oh gods no! Raven screamed inside her body. Stop! You're killing him. I don't want him to die! Just to stop him. I don't want to hurt him. I don't want to hurt anybody! Give me back my body!

Trigon hung on fiercely, trying to keep control. Your body is MINE now! I will do what I wish. And Rage wishes to KILL!

No! I won't let you! I. Won't. Let. You! Raven wrenched her body back and withdrew the red-tinged blackness of her power just in time to stop Doctor Nightmare from passing out from lack of air. He fell to the floor gasping for breath just as Raven collapsed, trembling from the use of her power and the strain of fighting her Rage.

"Well, it appears I shall have to rethink my strategy." Doctor Nightmare rasped to himself. "For now, I shall leave and live another day. But I'll be back. The Titans should count on it." He began to crawl away.

Meanwhile, Raven had recovered slightly, enough to stand up and survey her surroundings. The mall was trashed from the battle. Attempting to locate her friends, Raven couldn't find them in the wreckage. But then she saw a telltale sign of purple and green and heard Cyborg groan "What happened? How does he hit so hard?" and she sighed in relief. Turning to confront Doctor Nightmare, she couldn't find him. She whirled and saw a swish of disappearing black cloak. She followed Doctor Nightmare, determined not to let him hurt anyone else.

So that's the end of the second chapter. I hoped you liked it.

Please review. I need input desperately.