I just thought that I should warn all of you, coming up within a few chapters is something really bad... Something really sad... and something that could end it all... Just thought you should all know.
Raven and Timothy joined the others in the common room for breakfast. Everyone was wide awake, perhaps it was because of the fight that had just happened, or perhaps it was because of something else. Anyway, everyone seemed cheerful this morning, and that was a good thing since they had been having a hard time with criminals lately. Of course, no one seemed to attribute this to Timothy's appearance, or if they did they didn't say anything about it. Perhaps that was because they had always had difficulty with criminals, and the new onslaught didn't seem all that abnormal to them.
Timothy looked at his glass of orange juice and smiled to himself. He raised the glass into the air and said, "A toast, to the immeasurable amount of good luck we have had recently, may it last forever."
"I'll toast to that." Robin said, raising his glass as well.
"Same here," Terra agreed raising hers.
Beast Boy followed suit, followed by Cyborg and Raven. Starfire lifted her glass but asked, "Are we going to eat heated bread?"
They all laughed and Robin explained the concept of toasting. Starfire understood quickly enough, good customs are shared across the universe, just usually called different things... and they clinked their glasses together.
After breakfast Raven headed back up to her room. Timothy seemed to be enjoying himself and they were all delighted that he had finally become able to talk. Raven had left the others asking Timothy questions and Timothy eagerly answering them. She had smiled, something she had, until recently, rarely done; she knew she would get her turn, she could wait.
Besides, Raven wanted to begin reading the mysterious book again. She had read nearly every book that had come into her possession, with very few exceptions, and had quickly become fascinated with their stories, or what ever information they contained. Raven didn't really understand how but she knew that the book contained a story, she knew that she wanted to read that story, whatever it took.
She sat on her bed and placed her hand beneath her heart. Withdrawing her hand quickly extracted the book once again and she held it out in her left hand. Opening it with her right hand she turned to the first page. The pages were as blank and intimidating as ever, but Raven already knew how to get past their stubbornness. She relaxed her body and mind, sitting in her usual meditative stance. Slowly she extended her mind, stretching it outward into the book, allowing the words to form without being summoned. Slowly she lost track of her surroundings and everything around her became dark.
Suddenly she found herself somewhere else completely. She was standing in a building that appeared to have been destroyed by a devastating explosion. The sky was nearly pitch-black because of cloud cover, and beyond the crumbling walls of the building she could see falling snow. Near her, in one of the rooms, she saw a group of teenagers. Most of them looked as though they would be between the ages of fifteen to seventeen but the oldest one seemed to be eighteen, or at least that's what she assumed.
"We can't stay here," one boy said. "You know I'm right-" there was a momentary silence as the other's name was spoken, "we are running out of food and water."
"Damn it, I know... but where can we go?" the older boy said. "It isn't like the weather is friendly to us and because of the disaster's effect anything could be out there. If we start moving anything could attack us, spirits, animals, other humans..."
"It isn't like it is safe here either..." the younger boy said.
"Yes... I know, but... I need to collect my thoughts." The older boy paused for a moment.
The others around the collapsed room watched as the two boys argued and then as the older boy stood in silence thinking. It was as if they respected the two for some reason... perhaps protection of some kind. From where she was Raven could see three more boys, and four girls.
"I've wanted to leave the school for a while..." the older boy said at last. "But I've been afraid that someone would finally come and find us. I guess I was being stupid, hoping that my mother wasn't among the missing ones."
"No, you weren't being stupid." The youngest girl said.
"Thank you-" again silence as the name was said, "But by hoping that she would be able to come through this... I've endangered all of you. No, no longer. We should leave this place. There is nothing left here for us now, and perhaps there are others like us hiding elsewhere. If there are we should find them, and find any supplies we can."
Suddenly a boy ran into the room yelling, "They're coming, they've found us!"
"What?" the oldest boy gasped. "How, the protection..."
"Face it, -, you did all you could do, but these monsters age getting stronger."
"All right, get everyone you can together, I'll take care of the monsters... if I can."
"But, -, you can't take them all on yourself." The youngest girl said again, Raven guessed her age was somewhere around fifteen.
"Don't worry, -, as long as I know you are ok I won't be fighting alone."
Reluctantly the girl ran after the others as the oldest boy turned and began walking the opposite way. The kid he had been arguing with ran up to him and they stared at each other for a moment; finally the oldest sighed and nodded.
"I guess I have no other choice, you promised me that you would always help me..." he said.
"That's right, you got me interested in magic, now we will fight this together."
They walked out into a field covered in what had appeared to be snow, but Raven could now see that it was more like ash than snow. In the near distance she could see a large group of things crawling towards the two lone teenage boys. In the air more creatures flew in the same direction. The monsters, as the boys had called them, didn't look that strong, but neither did the teenagers.
"Ready?" the oldest asked.
"When you are..." was the reply.
The two held out their hands and light began to appear in them. Raven suddenly realized that the two were using pure energy to fight the monsters. She watched on with interest as the two cast balls of pure energy at the monsters and slowly started using more advanced spells. Slowly the monsters began to fall but soon the two would be overrun. Raven wanted to yell out to them, to help in some way, but she knew she couldn't. This fight had already happened, the outcome already decided.
The two were fighting directly now, the monsters attacking them with claws and other limbs. She could see them getting wounded, failing... then, as they fell, she noticed something familiar. The oldest boy began to look a lot like Timothy... he stood up, cutting through the monsters above him. With one quick swing of his arm he obliterated the monsters over his friend who stood up. His friend was changed as well, glowing somehow.
"I think it's time to show these things what we are really made of..." the youngest said. "What do you think?"
"Absolution?"
"Yeah."
They clapped their left and right hands together and separated them. A burning, glowing ball appeared a foot away from them. The ball grew absorbing the ashy-snow around it and then the two lifted the balls into the air. Together they yelled, "Absolution!" and Raven snapped back to reality.
Raven looked down at the book in her hands. The text was fading, but she could still see the two teens fighting to save their friends. It was similar to what she did, except she was more sure of her powers. Those two... it seemed as though they had just begun to discover what they could do.
---
That night, after a long day for everyone, Raven went to bed knowing that she was in for another interesting dream. She fell asleep quickly enough, and found herself back in the mountainous world she was beginning to know very well. This time, it seemed, Timothy was waiting for her. He was sitting just three feet from where she arrived.
"I see you have finally figured out how to begin unlocking the secrets from within my book." He said as she noticed him. "The past you have witnessed thus far had been buried from human eyes for many billions of years. So long, in fact, that I no longer conceder that universe to be my home..."
"I'm sorry, I thought I was welcome to read the book, I..."
"No, do not apologize, I gave you the book for a reason, and though it wasn't so you could read my deep past, I still intended you to learn more about me. I assume that you noticed that all of the names had been cut..."
"Yes, I had noticed... is there something you are intending to hide?"
"Only my true identity, and those of my friends." He replied. "You see, Raven, something you must understand is that there is not one universe..."
"I know that." Raven said. "I was born in another one..."
"And there is not one set of universes." Timothy continued. "In truth there are billions of universes, divided into dimensions, and realities, all coexisting within this existence. The thing is, the main form of communication between the universes and realities are stories..."
"I don't understand," Raven said, "What do you mean by stories?"
"It is something I have lived with all of my life... everything is written, even us, even now..."
"So, you are saying that what is happening here is being written somewhere else?" Raven asked. "Somehow I am not surprised, but does that mean that all of that fiction that I have read really happened somewhere?"
"Yes... but not just books, video is another form of storytelling... Everything, absolutely everything ever told has happened somewhere."
Raven gasped, a look of horror ripping across her face. She had suddenly realized the extent of horror stories she had read... all of those people, all of those events. They were real? No, no, how could it be. She felt sick just thinking about some of the things she had read happen to people.
"I see you finally understand..." Timothy said. "Now, on to liter matters. Since my younger self has become friendlier with the other titans I have begun to be able to extend into their minds as well. Last night I entered Robin's dream..."
"So that's why it took you so long to appear here." Raven said.
"Yes, I needed to speak with him alone." Timothy told her. "But tonight I want you to come with me into another's dreams."
"Who?"
"Cyborg." Timothy said. "I want to make him an offer."
"Really?" Raven asked, a skeptical smile crossing her face. "You are starting to sound like..."
"The devil?" Timothy finished. "Well, my deals usually don't involve souls being exchanged for what I offer. Cyborg wishes to become human again, I can give him half of that request, but not all of it."
"Like when Terra was brought back to life the first time?"
"No, that wasn't really Terra." Timothy replied. "That was a shell that looked like Terra, but her real soul had left it long before..."
"Yes," Raven said, "And I hear that you took it."
"This is true, Raven, but I took her soul not to kill her but to save her. I brought her from this universe a torn and battered soul, and brought her back stronger than she could have ever become without my aid." He told Raven. "Timothy revived her body and restarted her mind but her soul was not in that body any more. All that was left were her memories, her fear, anger, hatred and just a small amount of love. That is why none of you realized anything was wrong."
Timothy stood and held his arm out to Raven. "Come, my dear, our appointment awaits." He said.
Raven looked at his hand skeptically but took it anyway. Timothy pulled her closer and with a wave of light they left her dream and moved on to another. As the light died down Timothy gently released her and she stepped back. They found themselves in a high school football stadium. There was a large crowd of people cheering on the players, and as Raven looked closer she recognized Cyborg, but he was fully human.
Timothy walked down the stands, no one noticing him, and as Cyborg made the final touchdown and the crowd went wild Timothy began clapping. On his third clap everyone except for Raven, Cyborg and Timothy disappeared. Timothy continued clapping until Cyborg noticed him and came running over to investigate.
"Bravo, Cyborg, nicely done." Timothy said. "It truly is sad that it couldn't last, isn't it?"
"Who are you?" Cyborg replied. "How do you know who I am, and what the heck happened to everyone else."
"Relax, Cyborg, there never really was anyone else here, just you, me and her." Timothy said calmly. "This is simply a dream that I have entered, and I've come to make you a proposition."
"You still haven't told me who you are." Cyborg said and Raven began to notice that he was starting to look like the Cyborg she knew.
Timothy reached out and touched Cyborg's pointing finger and his human body disappeared into his current mechanical body. Cyborg gaped in horror at the sudden transformation and balled his hands into fists. He threw a punch but Timothy simply caught the fist and held it.
"Here is my proposition, I can restore your human body and appearance, at least for the most part. You would still have mechanical parts but they would be nanobotic technology. The technology that I work with is far superior to any current human technology and would allow you to truly go from human..." here he paused and Cyborg once again became human, "to cyborg." And Cyborg shifted back to Cyborg in the same way he had with the holographic projector.
"And what would I have to give in return?"
"All I can really ask in return is that you remain with the Teen Titans after you are restored to human form. The nanobotic technology feeds off of ambient energies around it so your power source would last as long as you do, and they would be able to grow with your body so they would never need to be maintained..."
"That's it, that's all you ask?" Cyborg asked. "I can't believe it could be so easy."
"The problem is that it will take a lot of energy and time to do. I cannot simply do this, not in my current state at least, and it would have to be something like this..." he waved his arm and they were back when he fought against Slade and truly revived Terra. "Except you probably won't have to die for it to happen."
"Probably?" Cyborg asked.
"Well, you've already died. No human life could survive such a dramatic transformation from organic to cybernetic. But they revived you then..."
"And why should I trust you?" Cyborg asked.
"Because I do." Raven said walking forward. "Timothy has already saved us many times, and he helped some of us individually, such as Terra..."
"Raven?" Cyborg asked. "How, why?"
"He brought me..." She replied. "I'm still not really sure why though. He seems to be doing a good enough job on his own..."
"But, Raven, I need you... I can't live without you." Timothy said, pouting.
"You did for a couple billion years..." Raven mumbled.
"Anyway, like I said it will take a while." Timothy said. "I cannot leave, um... here, except on very specific occasions."
"Alright, I'll accept your help." Cyborg said. "But don't do anything to loose my trust."
"I wouldn't dream of it... not intentionally." Timothy said taking Raven's hand again. In a flash they were gone and back in Raven's dream.
"Why did you want me to come along for that?" Raven asked.
"You've begun to see my beginning, now I want you to see how I continue that legacy..." he leaned forward and kissed Raven on the forehead.
---
The next morning Raven awoke to find that Timothy had already woken up and was no longer in her room. She finished dressing and left her room to find him; it was early in the morning and Raven felt that this would be a good time to talk with Timothy since all the others were probably still asleep.
She walked aimlessly around the tower for a few minutes, then finally realized that she was looking for him in the wrong places. She headed up to the rooftop and looked around. It was empty, but Raven felt that she had gone up there for another reason. She walked over to the edge facing the ocean and looked down towards the water; there, sitting on a rock by the water, she saw Timothy sitting peacefully watching the waves.
Raven flew off of the roof and alighted behind Timothy. She walked forward, watching to see what he would do. As she watched him she noticed something going on around him. As he inhaled and exhaled a number of things were set into motion. The stone to his right rose and fell as though it were made of liquid and a plant that was slightly ahead and to his right seemed to breathe with him. A small fire directly in front of him rose and fell as he breathed, and next to that a ball of electricity charged and discharged. To his left a ball of wind seemed to move to his breathing, and behind and to his left frost formed and melted on the ground and into the air. Directly behind him a small puddle of water rose and fell as the rock did and to the right of that the stone was becoming metallic as it rose and fell.
Suddenly, as Raven watched, all eight lifted from the ground and formed balls in the air. They still moved as he breathed but now they formed shapes and designs within the air. Slowly, from the front three and the ball of air a pure white light began to emanate and as it did from the back three and the stone light was drained into darkness. The light and darkness moved from the elements and formed their own balls revolving around the inner eight.
"I know you are there, Raven." Timothy said. "Come, sit, join me in meditation if you wish."
"Oh, I, uh." Raven replied, slightly flustered. She hadn't tried to be quiet as she moved behind him but she also hadn't thought he had noticed her. "Thank you." and she sat in her meditative position. After about three minutes Raven spoke again, "I know why I needed to meditate, and I believe you do as well, but why are you?"
"Balance," Timothy replied calmly. "As you needed to maintain control over your emotions, and thus your powers, so must I maintain balance over the energies within myself."
"But you didn't need to do this before..."
"No... I didn't, but this morning I feel far more powerful than I remember ever feeling. It is as though powers that I didn't even know I had have become unlocked, and with them great knowledge and responsibility. I awoke and felt the strong urge to meditate, to expand my knowledge, and have been here ever since."
"When did you wake up?" Raven asked, wondering how long he had been here.
"Only a minute before you did." He replied. "But today I don't feel hungry, or tired, nor do I feel as though I need anything... except..." he trialed off.
Raven waited a few moments for him to speak again but when he didn't she asked. "Except what?"
The elements flashed, growing larger and somehow brighter for a moment, but they faded back to their original sizes and brightness. He then spoke, but it was obvious that he was avoiding her question, "I saw you reading last night. After talking with the others for a few hours I came back up to your room and you were sitting on your bed... it must be a fascinating book, you didn't notice me at all."
At this Raven blushed, she had been reading his book, though he didn't know it. She remembered that he wasn't supposed to find anything about himself deliberately, not from her, and not from his book. Thinking of something else to say she hesitated just long enough for Timothy to speak again.
"Can I see the book?" he asked.
Now Raven jumped, she had hoped he wouldn't ask that question. "No." she replied.
"Why not?" Timothy asked, curiosity breaking into his calm.
Raven thought fast, but the only thing that came to mind was, "You are too young."
Timothy laughed, the elements falling out of place as he did so. He opened his eyes and smiled warmly at her. Raven smiled back, she hadn't felt this way since... since last time she held a 'living' book... But of course that was different, Timothy was not bound to the book and asking her to release him...
As the elements fell back into place Timothy asked, "Your magic, you use shadow, and, more recently, light, but would you wish to learn other forms?"
"I... what?" Raven asked confused and flattered at the same time.
"I can teach you. I know many spells, and many other forms of magic that do not require words." He told her. "I'm not sure how I know them but I remember each as if I had studied it for a lifetime. I know I can teach you, if you want to learn."
"I'm not sure I can learn..." Raven said. "All I've known was the magic that my father gave me and healing... I've tried to learn other magic... but nothing came of it."
"You are referring to the dragon, yes?" Timothy asked.
"How do you... yes, I am referring to him." Raven replied.
"You used all of the magics you had learned from him to seal him away again." Timothy said. "All of the magics you had learned had been from him and his books, he had never meant to allow you to use them after you freed him. That is why you cannot use those magics now."
"How do you know?" Raven asked.
Timothy closed his hands and brought them to his sides. The elements followed their paths and dissolved into his cape, cloak and gloves, which appeared and disappeared just for that moment. He then stood and walked to Raven; gently lifting her hand in his he laid its palm into the air. After a few seconds a light blue flame appeared above her hand. He placed his other hand above hers and the flame passed through eight different colors and disappeared. Slowly it was replaced by each element in turn, including metal, wood-or life-ice and electricity.
"You have the ability to learn... everyone has the ability, but you are exceptional. Even without any memories, and without any understanding I could see that in you. Magic is almost at a balance within you and your potential is great... I guess that's why from the moment I saw you I lo..." Timothy blushed scarlet and turned away.
Raven blushed as well but for her this was a moment she felt she had been waiting for for a long time. He had expressed his feelings for her before, but that was always in her dreams, now, for the first time he could do it in the physical world. She took his hands, which were still around hers and leaned forward. He looked into her eyes and slowly they leaned closer until...
Somewhere above them a rooster crowed. The two backed off and looked to the roof of the tower where a green rooster was seen walking away. Raven silently though, Beast Boy! I'll get you for that. But said nothing.
Timothy turned back to her and smiled, then grinned, stood up and pulled her up. "Come on, breakfast is ready."