Chapter 6
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.
(Normal perspective)
The Titans just saw their guests' abilities, and to say that they were impressed would be an understatement. Lilith sensed that they were about to be bombarded by questions. She was tired of their constant questioning, so she quickly thought of a way out: sparring matches.
"How about we spar, I'm getting bored just standing around doing nothing." Lilith stated. 'Phew, that was a close one.'
Beastboy froze, "Does that mean that we would be sparring against you?" He asked in a shaky voice.
"Of course, but Ex and Zaru will probably want to fight each other. I just hope neither of them gets killed this time. Especially Zaru, he can't come back from the dead like Ex can, although he hasn't died yet." Lilith responded.
"Damn, you called that right. They've already started to fight!" Cyborg yelled.
"Oh god…" Lilith rolled her eyes. "So, who wants to take me on? How about you Cyborg, you think you can beat me?" She taunted him.
Cyborg smiled, 'Damn she's a con-artist.' He walked up, "You got yourself an opponent." And they walked off to another part of the training room.
Robin looked up at Gabya, "So what about you? I'll take you on if you want."
Gabya looked up from his weapon, and stared at the boy wonder with blank eyes. "Sure, but its getting a little crowded in here, let's take it outside." He opened up a vortex, and motioned for Robin to follow him through.
That left Starfire, Beastboy, and Raven without partners. Beastboy spoke up, "So…who wants to spar?"
(Raven's perspective)
I just looked at him, "You two go ahead, I just want to watch Exile fight." I slipped into the darkness, and reappeared where Exile and Zaru were fighting. When I got there, the fighting that was happening was much more vicious than I thought it would be.
Ex and Zaru were at each other's throats. Both of them had already summoned their weapons, and it looked like Ex had the advantage with controlling the crescent blades telepathically.
'Damn, Ex wasn't kidding when he said that didn't always get along.' I couldn't remove my eyes from the fighting before me. 'It is almost as if they are out to kill each other.'
I looked around and noticed Lilith facing Cyborg on the far side of the room. 'Lilith must be enjoying making a fool out of Cyborg. He can't even catch her. Unlike her demon companions, Lilith hasn't taken out her weapons. She isn't even using her claws, it's as if she toying with Cyborg.'
I was about to look back at Ex, when Lilith began to change form. The half brothers behind me stopped when the sensed the change.
"I hope she isn't doing what I think she's doing." Ex stated.
"She is, you know how she gets after fighting for a bit." Zaru responded. Then the two continued their fight.
Lilith began to shrink in size, taking the form of a calico cat. But there was something disturbing about this form. She had tiny bat-like wings on her back. She was now flying, with her claws extended, right at Cyborg's head. As she got close to his head, she flew higher, and instead of clawing at his head, she laid on it and fell asleep.
"What the hell?" Cyborg yelled in confusion.
(Normal perspective)
Before she could ask why that happened, the clash of Ex's crescent blades, and Zaru's Nyoi-Bo staff rang though out the tower. All of the others stopped their sparring, and in Lilith's case her nap, and came to watch the ongoing battle between Ex and Zaru unfold.
Beastboy was in awe. "Jeez, if we have this kind of power on our side, fighting Slade will be a piece of cake!"
"Umm Lilith, why does it look like they are fighting to the death? It was only supposed to be a sparring match."
Lilith shook her head, "It's never just a sparring match with these two."
Gabya nodded then added. "They want to prove who is the better fighter, when really each are skilled in different parts of fighting. Zaru is much more agile and is much stronger then Exile. But Exile is a much more skilled with his weapon, as you saw in his little 'show'. He also is much faster in the long run."
"So if you know this, why don't you just tell them that they are equal, instead of letting them fight like this?" Starfire asked.
Lilith and Gabya look at the girl, and said in unison, "We have."
Gabya continued, "They don't care, when it comes to fighting the only thing that matters is winning."
"That, and Ex is still sore about Zaru killing him all the times that he has."
Everyone tore their eyes from the fight and looked at them, "Exactly how many times has he died?" Robin asked.
Lilith thought for a moment, "I think the count is up to thirty now."
They stared in shock at her, not believing what she just said.
"AHHHHHHH!" They turned back to the forgotten fight, only to see Zaru with his staff through Ex's chest, pinning him to the wall. "You bastard!" He said weakly, and his body went limp.
(Raven's perspective)
My heart froze when I saw the staff through my Exile. I couldn't stop the tears from coming as I ran to his fallen body. When I got there, I used my powers to take the staff out of him, and I threw it across the room.
"EX!" I yelled between sobs.
I almost didn't notice the pair of arms that was pulling me from his body. "ZARU! What the hell possessed you to do that you fucking bastard!" Lilith yelled. I released Ex's body, and turned to cry in her chest.
"What did I do?" Zaru asked in a confused voice. "I've killed him before, and you've never reacted like this. We all know that he's going to come back in a few minutes. I don't see the problem."
"Well you never killed him in front of someone who truly loves him you jackass. You just made this poor girl see the guy she loves die, and you don't see a problem with that?" Lilith yelled.
"Oh, I didn't think about it that way. Shit." Zaru responded.
Lilith gave Zaru a glare that would have sent the gods into hiding. Then turned to me, "Don't worry, Ex will be alright. But I need you to control him when he gets back."
My tears stopped at her kind words, "Why will I need to do that?"
Lilith turned back to Zaru, giving him round two with her glare. "Well, he'll be pissed off beyond all reason at the asshole over there. And I've got a feeling that you'll be able to control him."
I looked into her eyes, and saw sincerity in her eyes along with another emotion, love. Not the kind I share with Ex, but more like that of a family. "Why are you treating me like this, like I'm part of your family?" I asked.
"Well, I'd say that you are a part of this deranged family. You love Ex, and he's my family, so that makes you family. Didn't you say that if he asked, you would become his mate in a heartbeat?" Lilith responded.
I blushed, and nodded. Then the tower began to rumble. "Looks like it took him a lot less time to get back than normal." Zaru informed us.
"You mean to tell me he is actually coming back from the dead! I thought he was just telling us that to impress us." Beastboy yelled.
The trembling stopped, and Ex's body began to float. Then out of nowhere, a fiery portal opened up behind him, and sucked his body in. A huge demonic looking clawed hand came through the opening and threw Ex out.
(Exile's perspective)
"That fucking hurts, you bastard!" I yelled at Zaru. I was just about to charge him to continue our fight, when the sight of Raven being comforted by Lilith stopped me. 'He'll have to wait.'
Before I could even think about running to her, my gothic beauty tackled me.
I smelled the coppery scent of blood on her. But it wasn't hers, it was my own. 'She rushed to me when I died. That means that she saw Zaru kill me. 'Gods, I'm going to kick his ass later.'
(Normal perspective)
Just then, loud sirens accompanied by bright flashing red lights rang throughout the tower. All of the Titans rushed out of the room, leaving their guests confused, and with ringing ears.
"What the fuck is that noise!" Zaru yelled.
Then Robin peered back into the room, "There's trouble, aren't you coming?"
They nodded, and followed the boy wonder to the conference room.
"Dr. Light is robbing Jump city national bank." Robin informed the group. "I think this is an opportune time for us to see how you fair in stopping this crime."
Ex saw Raven roll her eyes at the identity of the perpetrator. "What's wrong?" He asked her.
"The last time we faced this guy, he was trashing an oil rig," she pointed out the large window at a rig not too far away. "That oil rig."
Ex just stood there in shock. "He was trashing something that you could see clearly from the tower! Gods, he must be a complete idiot!" Ex exclaimed.
Raven laughed as she added, "Because of my first encounter with him, he is also afraid of the dark."
"Oh gods, this is going to be awesome! I think Robin is going to have to let us take a couple battles in order to have us show that we can do this."
Raven laughed, "We should probably catch up with the rest of them, they left a couple of minutes ago," she held out her hand, "let's go."
Ex eagerly took her hand, and they were encompassed by Raven's dark magic. They were teleported to the scene of the crime, being the first ones to arrive. Ex turned to Raven, "Should we wait, or should I take care of him?"
"Robin would want us to wait to take him down until the rest of them get here," Raven stated. "But we should stop him from destroying anything else."
Ex grinned, "By 'stop', you mean 'play with', don't you?"
Raven grinned evilly, "How did you know?" She asked playfully.
"You said that he's afraid of the dark, right?" She giggled softly and nodded. "I have an idea. You do what you did when he trashed that oil rig, and I'll follow your lead."
With that, they began to play with the unsuspecting villain. Raven began her assault by slipping into the shadows and reappearing right behind Dr. Light. Her eyes began to glow, as her cloak began to stretch making her appear three times taller.
With a grin on her face, she asked, "Dr. Light, remember me?"
Dr. Light's face paled at the sight of the gothic Titan before him. Before he could even scream, he felt all of the light in the room being blocked out by some sort of strange black flame. He turned to see the source of the strange flame, and what he saw increased his fear of darkness. Standing there, was none other then Ex, shrouded in his black flame making only his glowing red eyes visible through the darkness.
"Come play in the darkness Doctor." Ex started, "Unless you're afraid of the things that go bump in the night." Ex's aura began to lash out around the petrified villain, as Ex began to laugh at the poor Dr.'s state.
"Aw, come on Ex! Why did you have to go and take away all of our fun?" Zaru yelled in a disappointed voice.
Ex retracted the black flame back into his body, and released Dr. Light from his nightmare. "Well, you guys took too long and we got bored. If it makes you feel better, we'll take a back seat on the next one, and let you have a go." Ex thought for a moment then added, "Why didn't you just have Gabya teleport you here?"
"I don't know this area at all, so I wouldn't have known where to go without guessing." Gabya stated. "I could have made us appear inside of a wall."
"Oh, ok. That makes sense. We better get going, a thunder storm is about to hit." Ex warned.
Starfire spoke up, "How do you know that, Ex? The Man of the Weather said it was going to be a clear and beautiful day."
"Well," He started. "The temperature has dropped about ten degrees, and the smell of an oncoming storm is in the air. And by how strong this smell is, this is going to be a big one."
She began to sniff the air, "I don't smell anything."
"Well that's because human noses can't always pick up this particular scent." Ex stated.
"I am not human, I am Tamaranian." She corrected.
"Ex is right, the storm will hit within minutes. We should get back to the tower as soon as we can." Cyborg said after checking the computer in his left arm.
Cyborg, Beastboy, and Starfire all made their way to the T car. Robin rushed to his R cycle. And the two vehicles shot off without looking back
Ex walked over to raven and grabbed her hand. Then turned to the three behind him. "Gabya, you going to be able to teleport them into the tower?" He nodded, and he opened a vortex and the three of them walked through.
He turned back to Raven, then she asked, "You ready?"
"Just about, but do you sense something approaching the tower slowly?" He asked.
"Now that you mention it, yes I do sense something. But there is no evil in its aura, so don't worry about it." The couple were then encased in a dark energy, and were transported to the tower instantly. Their companions greeted the two when they reappeared. The remaining Titans had made it to the to the tower right before the torrential downpour began.
"I'm bored!" Beastboy yelled.
"Well, then what the hell do you suggest we do?" Zaru responded.
"Well," Beastboy started, "We could put in a movie…" his voice trailed off as everyone's eyes turned to him.
"Kid, that is probably the first thing that you've said that wasn't some off-the-wall brainless idea." Lilith started. "But here's the next question, what would we watch?"
Beastboy froze. Robin noticed his distress, and grabbed a remote, and hit a button that made the walls on either side of the huge TV scroll up into the wall, revealing hundreds of DVD's of all sorts.
"Go ahead and pick a couple, and we'll vote from your choices." Robin told them.
They looked at the selection in awe. "Holy shit! I didn't think anyone actually had this many DVD's!" Zaru yelled.
"Well, when you have 5 different tastes in movies, you kind of have to have a large selection." Cyborg said proudly.
Ex walked up to the DVD library with interest. His eyes lit up as he saw a particular movie there. "I didn't think you'd have Boondock Saints! That's one of my favorite movies!"
"You're kidding me," Zaru rushed over to his side. "Damn, I haven't seen this movie since our St. Patrick's day marathon."
"A Boondock Saints marathon?" Beastboy and Cyborg said simultaneously.
"Yeah a marathon, we watch it a couple times the week of St. Patrick's day." Ex stated nonchalantly.
"A couple? Try ten times in a matter of days." Gabya corrected.
"Well, can you blame us, it's an awesome movie!" Zaru countered.
"You mean to tell us that you watch that movie every year ten times in a week?" Beastboy asked.
"Of course not. Last year we watched it about fifteen times." Ex stated.
"It all depends on how long it takes for us to drive everyone else crazy." Zaru added.
"There's only so many damn times I can watch that damn cat explode and listen to them howl..." Lilith growled as her ears flattened to her head.
Everyone laughed, except for a very lost Starfire. "Friend Lilith, why is the dismemberment of a feline amusing?"
"Well kid, its not the cat getting shot that's funny, its hearing the guy named Rocco ask 'Is it dead' is what's funny." Lilith answered in a somewhat amused voice.
"Enough comments, let's start the movie!" Zaru and Ex had made their way over to the couch, with the screen showing the menu.
The others quickly joined them on the couch, but Raven held Lilith back. "Is this the only thing that they don't argue about?" She asked in an amused tone.
Lilith thought for a second and sighed. "Sadly, yes. This and food are the only things they rarely argue about."
They laughed as they joined everyone else. Ex and Zaru looked at the two, "What's so funny?" They said instantly.
Raven and Lilith just looked at their partners and responded, "Not a thing." Lilith took her place on Zaru's lap, and Raven sat next to Ex and leaned on him. Ex then put a very protective arm around her, pulling her closer to him.
They were finally able to begin the movie after all the talking had ceased.
Over the course of the movie, Lilith hit Zaru, while Raven hit Ex for quoting every line thus far.
After realizing that hitting them wouldn't work, Lilith decided on another route. "Shut up, I'm trying to listen. WE don't need your fake Irish accents to help! Who do you to think you are all of a sudden? Conner and Murph?"
Gabya started to laugh at the two being scolded. "One would think that you two would learn after having this happen every time we watch it."
"And that makes you Rocco by default, Gabya my boy." Lilith grinned and ducked the vase the angel lobbed at her.
They had almost finished the movie without another verbal quote out of the half brothers. But Lilith could sense the amount of strain emanating off the brothers as the final scene was nearing. "Go ahead, but just this once."
Ex turned to Zaru and they both nodded, as if to establish an unspoken plan between the two.
Ex gently removed Raven from his side, and the half brothers jumped onto the table at the same moment Conner and Murph did in the movie. They held their hands out to make them look like they had guns.
Lilith had grabbed the remote and thought 'Why watch the movie, when we have it live right in front of us?' And turned off the TV.
"Now you will receive us." Zaru began in his best Irish accent."We do not ask for your poor or your hungry." Ex continued, almost matching Murph's voice exactly.
"We do not want your tired and sick."
"It is your corrupt we claim."
"It is your evil that will be sought by us."
"With every breath we shall hunt them down."
"Each day we will spill their blood 'til it rains down from the skies."
"Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal. These are principles, which every man of every faith can embrace."
"These are not polite suggestions, these are codes of behavior and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost."
"There are varying degrees of evil. We urge you lesser forms of filth not to push the bounds and cross over into true corruption, into our domain."
"But if you do you, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three, and on that day, you will reap it."
"And we will send you to whatever god you wish."
They jumped down off of the tables and said in unison, "And shepherds we shall be, for thee, my Lord, for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. We shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patris, et Filii," They made it look like they had pulled back the hammer of a gun. "Spiritus Sancti."
Ex and Zaru then took a bow, and the Titans were in utter awe.
Beastboy yelled, "How the hell can you two remember all of that!"
"Well we do watch it at the very least, 50 times a year since it came out." Ex stated.
"That was wonderful!" Starfire yelled as she ran forward to give the half brothers one of her trademarked hugs. But Raven and Lilith blocked her path.
"Don't even think about it." They both said coldly, making the Tamaranian stop dead in her tracks. Then the two turned to face the half brothers, and tackled them.
"That was the most entertaining that movie has ever been." Raven said.
"You two were right on that time, that was much better than the movie." Lilith complimented.
Before any more compliments could be given, a loud bell rang throughout the tower.
"Someone's at the front door," Robin said as he went to a panel and typed something in. Just then the screen of the television showed a security camera feed of the front door.
What they saw, no one was expecting. There was a girl standing at the front door, and that's using the term 'standing' loosely. She was using the door as a makeshift crutch. She had black hair, and her clothing was in tatters.
"Cyborg, Starfire, get the med lab ready. She's going to need it." Robin ordered. Everyone else rushed towards the front door to help her.
Raven and Ex were the first ones to make it to the door, "Teleporting does have its advantages." Ex smiled lightly.
They quickly made their way to the door and opened it hastily, momentarily forgetting that the one on the opposite side was using it to hold her up.
Right as the opened the door, the unknown girl fell forwards, and would have hit the ground, if it hadn't been for Ex.
To say that the girl looked like shit would have been an understatement. She had cuts and bruises everywhere, and her clothing was barely holding together. "Help me…Titans…" The mysterious girl said weakly before passing out completely.
"What the hell happened to her?" Ex asked.
"I don't know, but there is something I could do to find out though." Raven responded. "But I rarely do it without the person's consent…"
"Mind probe?" Ex finished for her. She nodded, "Just do it, something might have happened that we should know about for her treatment."
"Ok," Raven put a hand on the wounded girl's forehead, Her eyes went white as she chanted, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos"
(Raven's perspective)
The first thing that I noticed when I entered her mind was that I was standing in the middle of a morbid battle field, surrounded by rotting corpses.
'Oh god, this is horrible!' I thought and I quickly went into another memory of the girl's, hoping it would be less gruesome.
The next memory that came was in was what looked like a genetics lab. Nothing seemed out of place, until I sensed a familiar evil aura. 'Slade!' I growled.
Slade said something, but it was too muffled for me to hear anything. I felt the girl panic, and she ran. Slade was hot on her tail, and was lashing out fearsome attacks upon her.
There was an open window, and the girl was running towards it as if on instinct, and jumped out. She felt relieved as her body began to change into that of a black falcon. Once her transformation was complete, the girl took off as quickly as she could towards the tower.
The final thing that surfaced before I returned to the tower was a name. Her name.
I came out of my trance to see everyone huddled around us.
"Who did this to her?" Cyborg asked.
"Slade." I stated, and all of the Titans gasped. "One of the memories I came across was Slade had her in what I believe to be a genetics research lab. Something he said spooked her, and she ran, and Slade chased after her, attacking her relentlessly. She's lucky to be alive after what he did to her." I said.
'Raven, shouldn't you tell them about the battle field?' Ex asked me.
'No, it was too gruesome, and I am leaving her the choice to tell them. I'll let her know that we know, so she can talk to us about it when she's ready." I responded.
"Did you find out her name?" Robin asked.
I nodded, "Her name is Vagare. She can turn into a black falcon. That is how she got here. I believe that she is some sort of demon, but something is different about her. It's almost as if she has been slightly mutated."