Chapter 6
"Yo, BB where are you?" Cyborg called softly. "Man don't do that!" he exclaimed, when the changeling morphed to human form, from being a spider on a small pile of rocks.
"Sorry dude," he said sheepishly. "about a hundred feet down, the torches run out, and there is something large down there." he reported, as Robin, and the others came up.
"Did you see it?" Mathias asked.
"No, but I could hear it breathing." Beast Boy replied.
"Beast Boy, report." Robin snapped, wanting to get as much information on their situation, as possible.
"I know there's something out there, cause I can hear it breathing," the green titan said, "but locating it is the hard part." he added, then morphed into a rabbit, which then stood up on it's haunches, ears up, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound.
"There's to many echoes for me to tell where it is." he told them, after changing back to human form.
"Okay, lets go," Robin said, after a moment, "but be careful.."
The group moved forward for a few moments, and Robin thought they were approaching the area where Raven became the portal.
Losing his bearing in the gloom, he called the group to a stop.
"Raven." he called, feeling a presence probing his mind.
"Sorry Robin," Mathias apologized, "I was trying to see if you were still there." he explained.
Robin turned, to look back along their path, and was shocked that he couldn't see Starfire, even though he knew she was only about ten feet away.
"I agree with you, that this darkness isn't natural." Mathias's voice said from the inky blackness.
"If I remember right, don't dragons exude an aura of darkness and fear?" Robin asked.
"You're a very well read person, Robin." Mathias said, after a surprised moment.
"Star." Robin called.
"Yes Robin." she replied, and Robin could hear the tenseness in her voice.
"I want you to form a star bolt in your hand, but don't fire it." he explained, "Let it act like a torch, but be ready to extinguish it, the instant I tell you to."
"Raven?" he called, his tone questioning.
"Yes it knows we're here." she replied to his unasked question.
"Okay Star, light it up."
Robin was stunned to see that Starfire was only about three feet from him. He also noticed that the green glow seemed to only illuminate the slender redhead.
"ROBIN!" Raven shouted in warning, the same instant he realized his mistake.
"Star!" he shouted, even before the first echo of Raven's shout. "Put it out, and move!" he yelled. He was relieved to see the Tamaranean appear to vanish, as the bolt was extinguished.
"Get out of . . .ooofff." he started to yell, but was cut off, when he was bowled over by Starfire flying into him.
During the flurry of activity there was a roar, then a rushing sound.
"Star are you alright?" Robin asked anxiously, as he picked himself up.
"I am undamaged." she reassured him.
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" Robin berated himself.
"Did I do something wrong Robin?" Star asked, misunderstanding his tirade.
"No Star I did." he replied, following her voice. "I should have realized, that what you did would light you up, like a spotlight, making you a perfect target." he explained, getting close enough that he could see her. He took her hand, and helped her to her feet.
"Okay, no one move until I say so." he called out to the others.
"Robin, what are you doing?"
"Quiet Starfire, and let him concentrate." Raven's voice said.
'Where did he learn this?' Raven wondered to herself, as she felt of Robin's thoughts slow.
Unbidden, the image of a large snake, wearing a cloak, pushed its way across Raven's consciousness.
"Your eyessss can be fooled," it said, "Don't trusssst them."
Raven's eyes snapped open, and she gasped, as she felt Robin extend his senses.
'He shows promise,' Mathias's voice said inside Raven's mind, 'you taught him well.' he added.
'No I didn't.' Raven sent back.
"Get ready everyone." Robin called.
Suddenly there was a very bright flash, revealing a very large, four legged, reptile, with three heads.
Just as suddenly, the middle, and right ones, were wreathed with explosions, causing them to roar with pain, and anger.
As the roaring faded, so did the magically produced darkness.
There was a tense moment of silence, in which Robin realized that the group had stopped dead center of the chamber, and he and Starfire, were a scant ten feet from the creature.
"Titans, scatter!" he shouted, and put words to practice, as he did a back flip, tossing more explosive discs at the two moving heads.
As he watched the discs explode around the center head, he saw Starfire fly between them, raining star bolts on the one on the right.
As soon as he landed, Robin dashed for cover, behind the remains of a column. Taking a quick look around, he realized that he didn't see anybody.
"Raven check in." he said into his communicator.
"I'm about twenty feet to your left." she replied.
He was about to call Cyborg, when he caught some movement to his left. Looking closely, he saw a flash of red, that had to be Mathias's cloak. Then he saw Cyborg rise up, and wave over at him, from the pile of boulders he, and Mathias were hiding behind.
"Beast Boy, report."
"I'm in a crevice, in the wall behind, big, dark, and ugly." the changeling's voice replied.
"I too, am in a crevice," Star's voice said, "above and behind the creature."
"Okay. Raven, see if you can get to Cyborg, and Mathias." Robin ordered, "I'm on my way there too."
Keeping low, and using what ever cover he could, Robin worked his way over to where Cyborg, and Mathias were.
"So what now?" Raven asked, as she dashed over from a pile of rubble.
Robin leaned against one of the boulders, his chin cupped in his right hand as he thought furiously. Suddenly his eyes fell upon a scrap of black cloth.
"Must be my cloak, from when I was here last." Raven commented.
"You still remember what I taught you, about using a sling?" he asked the Goth, a plan flashing to life in his mind.
"And I've been practicing." she replied.
"Good." Robin said, then took one of his birdarangs, and sliced three strips of the cloth, about four inches wide, and four feet long.
"Here," he said, handing one to Cyborg, and Raven, "and take these." he added handing them both, three golf ball sized spheres.
"When I say now, press the red button on them, put them in the sling, and shoot them into the right dragon's mouth." he instructed.
"Star." he said into his communicator.
"Yes Robin."
"When I tell you to, I want you to fire, as powerful a star bolt you can make, into the head on, the right."
"Your right, or mine?" she asked.
"Don't worry, it'll be the one that's frozen." he told her.
"Beast Boy"
"Yo."
"I need you to change into something, that can run, and turn fast, and distract them."
"Gotcha."
"Beast Boy, go!" Robin shouted, and a green fox scampered from behind the dragon, and zig zagged in front of it.
The two heads saw him, and the middle one shot a blast of ice, but was unable to hit the quick moving fox.
Raven, Cyborg, now!" Robin shouted, and he and the two others stood about three feet apart, pushed the red buttons on the spheres, and put them in the slings.
"Wait 'til it goes to open it's mouth." he told them, as they twirled the slings above their heads. "NOW!" he shouted seeing the lips start to curl, preceding the mouth opening.
Raven, and Robin launched their spheres at the creature at the same time, with Cyborg's a split second behind, and they watched to see if their aim was true.
The right side head, which Mathias had said breathed fire, opened it's maw in preparation to incinerate the three victims before it, and the six balls flew true, and were sucked in with the intake of breath.
The highly compressed liquid nitrogen exploded from the spheres, freezing solid the head, and about a foot of it's neck.
"Now Starfire!" Robin shouted into his communicator.
A green glow built up for a second, then the frozen head exploded, as the star bolt struck it.
"Glorious!" Starfire's triumphant shout could be heard across the chamber
"Star, look out!" Cyborg shouted in warning.
The slender woman didn't realize her peril, until the remaining head turned toward the source of the sound, it's muzzle swatting her from the air.
"Starfire!" Robin yelled, and took several steps. Suddenly he realized his exposed position, when the dragon turned it's gaze on him.
Robin watched, transfixed, as the mouth opened, and the frills around the creature's neck glowed with icy power, and it launched the frigid blast.
Snapping out of his trance, Robin leaped to the right, as the ground he had been standing on was frozen solid by the blast.
"Robin, I am not alright, but I will recover." Star's voice came over his communicator.
"How do we beat this thing?" Cyborg asked, "Your last trick won't work on it."
"Then we do it the only way we know how." Robin replied. "Titan's go!" he shouted, and dashed from cover, a flurry of discs, and birdarangs on their way to the creature's remaining head.
"Hey ugly, get a load of this!" Cyborg shouted, as he too came out from cover, his sonic cannon ready. "Oh yeah, there's more where that come from." he cried as his blast staggered the creature.
Deciding to keep with Mathias's plan of not using magic, Raven used her telekinesis, and pelted the creature, with ever increasing sized rocks.
"Cyborg, the stalactite?" Robin shouted.
"Gotcha!" he shouted back, and aimed his cannon at where a spear of rock met the roof of the chamber. His blast hit at the same time some of Robin's discs, and the ten foot long, eight foot across, chunk of rock crushed the ice spitting head against it's body, and snapped the creature's back.
"Booya!" Cyborg celebrated.
"Beast Boy!" Robin called.
"We're over here." the changeling's voice said, from behind, and to the right, of the creature's body.
"Star!" Robin gasped, when he saw that she was laying on the floor, her head in Beast Boy's lap, eyes closed.
"She was out when I found her," Beast Boy explained, "but she's got a good pulse."
"Raven, how is she?" Robin asked.
Raven closed her eyes, for a moment, extending her empathic powers. "She'll be coming around in a moment." she replied.
Before Robin had a chance to say anything else, Mathias walked up.
"I advise against Raven using her healing powers," he said, "it might alert what we're here to destroy."
"How can it not know we're here?" Cyborg asked.
"I'd say we've made enough noise to let it know we're here, not to mention we killed two of its guards." Robin reasoned.
"Uuummm. . . .Ohhh." Starfire moaned, then her eyes fluttered open, a sight that Robin thought was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen.
"Easy now." he told her, as she tried to stand. He offered her his hand, and he was surprised how much she seemed to need it, to get to her feet..
She stood there for a moment, swaying slightly then tried to take a step.
"I gotcha." Robin said, as he caught her, as she almost fell.
"Thank you Robin." Starfire said, glad, not only that he had kept her from falling flat on her face, but for holding her so tightly.
Raven rolled her eyes at the obvious ploy, then gasped in shock, when she saw the young princess wink at her.
"You know, you two do make a lovely couple." Mathias commented dryly.
Suddenly Starfire straightened up. "That reminds me of something I found." she said. She stood there for a moment, then lifted into the air, then vanished from sight.
"This was in the crevice I hid in." she announced, when she came back, carrying a large bundle of what looked like rags. She gently set it on the ground. "At first I thought it a very strange place to hide clothes," she said, "Then I noticed something odd about it. I believe Mathias might like it." she concluded.
The group looked at the bundle for a moment, the cloth was scorched, and torn in several places. Then Raven noticed that it looked like one piece of cloth, wrapping something.
"Star, that's. . . " she gasped, as she lightly reached out with her empathic power.
Starfire reached down, and gently pulled back a section of the cloth, that was relatively intact. "I believe you know who this is." she said softly.
"Anella!" Mathias cried, seeing the heart shaped face, framed by her dark brown hair.