Chapter 2: Heart Of Evil
"MUMBO-JUMBO!" the magician shrieked and pointed his wand at Raven while feathers began to sprout from all over her.
"I'm fine, just go stop him," Raven clucked as she noticed the Titans stopped in astonishment and were about to see what they could do to turn her back to normal.
The rest of the team got the signal and began to chase after Mumbo. Beast Boy and Cyborg began to catch up to him, but unfortunately for them, Mumbo saw them coming up and was prepared.
"Alakazam!" Mumbo shouted while pulling off his hat. His hat began to create its own wind current and blew Cyborg and Beast Boy through buildings and out of the fight.
Noticing they were the only ones left to defeat Mumbo, Starfire grabbed Robin's hands and threw him at Mumbo which resulted into a kick in the face for Mumbo.
Mumbo was sent to jail and the Titans retired back to their tower. When Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy arrived, they were not surprised to find Raven, covered in feathers, lying on a bed in the hospital wing. Almost immediately, and without saying a word, Cyborg ran a couple of tests to see how they could cure her.
After Cyborg examined the results over and over again, he asked her, "Are you sure you can't fix this with some of your magic or maybe some sort of cure would be in one of your spellbooks?"
Once she shook her head, Robin asked Cyborg, "Is she gonna be fine, and if so, how long will it take for a cure."
Cyborg looked doubtful when he said, "I don't know man, maybe a couple day, couple weeks, maybe even a couple months. I really don't know."
At the picture of Raven lying in the hospital bead for months, Starfire gasped. Robin and Beast Boy both looked concern and Raven looked a little distressed and a little fine with the idea.
After a couple of seconds, Cyborg broke the silence by telling Raven, "You should rest for a while and stay in the hospital wing. If you need anything just contact us using the communicator. I'll be performing daily tests and diagnosis' on you so be ready every morning. Meanwhile try to calm yourself like you usually do, via meditation. I'll get you healed as fast as I can."
With these words said the Titans left Raven and went to go and eat dinner. They asked her if she wanted anything to eat or something to occupy her, like a book from her room, but she just said no and they were off to eat at "PIZZA".
Raven decided to meditate and she calmed herself down but after a while she was disturbed by the cracking of thunder. It was the beginning of a thunderstorm. She looked over to the clock and saw it was now 8:00 and the Titans have not yet returned. Not only that, but when she looked at her reflection in the mirror, she was normal and featherless again!
"How could this be?" Raven asked herself as she looked down at her hands which no longer resembled wings anymore.
She was completely confused, but who cares, she's back to normal right! The main problem was that the Titans were not back yet and it was 8:00 at night and raining. She questioned the fact that maybe they had come back and she had not heard them.
She decided to get off the bed and go to search for them. Once she had reached her first destination, the kitchen/main room, she heard a strange but somehow familiar voice. She pressed her back against the wall so she wouldn't be seen and began to eavesdrop without looking into the room.
"Is it dark, or is it simply misunderstood…like you? True, the spells I've taught you are very powerful. There are those who fear power, so they call it dark. But for people like us such distinctions do not exist. Without these spells, we can never truly be together. Enchanted pages or no, I'm still trapped within this book—and you're still alone. Is that what you want, Raven? To be alone?"
"NOOO!" Raven shrieked at the top of her lungs as she moved to look it the room.
No one was there. Had she imagined it all? She couldn't have, it felt so real. Which would mean only one thing: Malchior was in the tower, alone with Raven!
She was angry, frightened , and upset all at the same time. She had not forgotten her last encounter with Malchior. She had to keep her emotions in check, but she kept hearing his voice inside her head.
He would say, "Come on Raven, your getting closer to the truth," or "Your not far from where I lurk."
Were the voices really inside her head? No, they were coming from inside the tower. They were coming from her room!
His voice was becoming more faint and soon enough they sounded like little noises and it was hard to make out the words. She raced to the other side of the tower and finally reached her room. She opened the door and was acquainted with the same voice and the same emptiness and nothingness of the main room.
Suddenly his voice became clear again and he said, "Sorry. I guess I'm to fast for you. You'll have to think harder if you wish to catch me."
Thoughts were running through her head. She was so confused. None of this made sense. Until one of the problem's solutions popped into her head. She knew where Malchior was.
She reached her hand out under her bead and pulled out the thing she was hoping that she would never again hold. Once held in her hands, the white book fell to the floor and opened. Pages flipped through the book violently and suddenly Malchior appeared out of a black vortex the book had made. He flew out of her room and into the main room. Raven followed the dragon trying to figure out what he was doing. Was he going to leave, just like that?
Once they had reached the room, Malchior stopped and fire erupted from his mouth. Raven barely dodged, a small piece of her cloak had been burned off.
She got her courage back and said triumphantly, "I've done this before and I'll do it again. I don't know how you got out of your cage, but your going back where you came from."
She held the book above her head and said, "Aldruon Enlenthra Nalthos Sola Narisnor!" and Malchior disappeared in the same black vortex he had come out of. But after he was gone the vortex did not disappear, but instead turned from a black to a red color and then to a vortex of fire.
A large creature's shadow was appearing from the vortex. It was none other than the King of Evil, Trigon! Raven's emotions rushed through her. She was frightened, angry, upset, and every other emotion except for happy. And then, all of a sudden lasers erupted from his eyes, aimed at Raven. She closed her eyes and covered her face with her arms. When she opened them, something strange happened. She was not dead, but she was at home, at Azarath!
Raven looked around and saw nothing but marvelous buildings. She got up and began to walk around. She shouted for help, but no one would respond or come to her. She wandered and wandered until she found a circle of Azarath monks looking at someone or something.
Raven went up close and saw that it was a young woman, around Raven's age and resembling her, who was having a baby. Next to her was a beautiful woman. Raven recognized her as the young Azar the creater of the ring that helped Slade and the Titans protect themselves against Trigon. Once the baby was born the monks began to chant something repeatedly. Aoon enough Raven could understand what they were saying.
They created a prophecy, "The gem was born of evil's fire. The gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim. He comes to sire. The end of all things mortal."
Raven then knew it was her who was cradled in the young woman's arms. It was Arella who was looking frightened at the monks when they repeated the prophecy. It was then the future was seen and the unfulfilled prophecy was created.
Raven screamed, "NOOO!" and she screamed it because she did not know what to do.
Thoughts were racing faster through her head. She did not know what to do. And then suddenly she was talking with her mother. She had aged more and Azarath was burning and being destroyed it was then, when Raven would leave Azarath forever and go to Earth seeking a good life and trying to forget the prophecy of her birth.
Arella was saying, "Raven. Raven. Raven, wake up."
Suddenly, Raven was in the hospital bed being shook by Cyborg who was saying "Raven. Raven. Raven, wake up."
It was still sunset, she was featherless like before, but she was still very confused.
She began to say, "What happened. Malchior was here. So was Trigon. And then I was in Azarath. And then-"
Cyborg cut her sentence short, "I don't know it must have been a dream. Once we told you we were leaving for pizza, I came back into the room before I left and found the cure. You were fast asleep when I came in though."
Things were beginning to make sense now. She had understood now what everything was about.
Cyborg continued, "Anyway we think we know why you had such terrible dreams. Kardiak is causing trouble again. He's using a new technique called heart waves. They enter the minds of children who have great worries or fears and have horrible nightmares occur when they sleep."
"He's working in one of the old, abandoned warehouses at the dock. We'll track him from there. You comin'?" Cyborg asked.
"Yea, sure," Raven said as she put her hood over her head and followed Cyborg out the door and with the other Titans in the main room. She was feeling a little light-headed, but she ensured herself that it was natural to feel like this after what had just happened. They left in the T-Car and arrived at the warehouse where the tracker located Kardiak.
Once they had arrived they noticed a couple of things. First, they noticed Kardiak, larger than usual, and full of sleeping children. Then, they noticed the huge generator connected to Kardiak, that was known to produce the heart waves.
Once inside, Robin shouted, as usual, "Teen Titans Go!"
Cyborg and Beast Boy must have gotten prepared for this battle because they were, and Starfire and Robin were almost completely in sync with each other. Cyborg shot his sonic cannon, and as soon as the beam had past Beast Boy was trailing right behind it for an after attack as a cheetah. Starfire would throw three starbolts, and Robin would throw three explosive disks and they would merge inside the starbolts so they didn't only hit Kardiak but also exploded on impact.
Raven was the only one who didn't participate much in the battle. She stll wasn't feeling good, so when she threw three crates, one missed and only two effected Kardiak.
Raven was willing to try once more, "Azarath, Metrion, Zin-"
Suddenly Malchior was there, not in dragon form, but in page mummy form, and he was giving a big smirk. Suddenly he comes right up to Raven and before she could act upon it, he attacks her. Everything goes black.
Raven's vision began to become clearer. She was in the hospital wing again, but it was daytime. Raven was once again confused. She began to talk about what happened with Malchior, but Cyborg butt in again.
Cyborg then explained, "Kardiak had found a way to make his heart waves physical and they were shooting out everywhere. And eventually one of them hit you. Malchior was never there, and he was never in the tower."
After that being said, the other Titans left, but Cyborg stayed.
Cyborg told her, "You'll feel better now, you've made a complete recovery. Anyway, your still hung up on the Malchior thing, huh? He's done with, you made a mistake. Don't worry about the past, you should only concentrate on the future, and your future doesn't involve him."
And Cyborg looked at her and smiled and on one of Raven's rarest occasions, she smiled back.