Reviewer responses-
MCLBLUE- Wow, all capitals, last chapter must have really been good.
longbca- Thanks you thinks it cool, well here is the update.
Sigma1- Your the second person to say that was the best chapter yet. I hope I can beat it. Thanks for your concern abou my mom.
Moto Chick- Thank you sooooooo much. That review really made my day. I am so glad you enjoy this story that much.
IswaruOfCkaloatia- Tahnks for the review and Raven is going to be so pissed when she finds out that he could not hurt her.
Chapter 12
Good News and Bad News
Night had finally come. The sun had set and dusk was in the past and the minutes slowly clicked later and later. Raven silently sat, brooding on what she was going to have to do, until Voldemort ushered her up and lead her through his villainous headquarters to where his Death Eaters were gathering. The Dark Lord had a light yet firm grip on her arm as he steered through the passageways. He walked slower and more casually than the night before so Raven began taking metals notes the path on which she was being lead. 'Straight down the passage, left onto the main hallway, left down a flight of stairs, Take a left off the stairs, down another staircase, go into the second room on the right, go threw the door on the opposite side of the room, into the entryway.'
Raven recognized the room as the same one that the evil wizard and his minions had gathered in the night previous, but this time instead of leaving her in a dark corner, the Dark Lord pulled her up to the front of the room with him. The attention turned to them. One of the bunch stepped forward, made a low bow and then said,
"They have been briefed, my lord."
"Good," replied the Dark Lord to the man, which Raven recognized, by his voice, as the Death Eater as the first she met on that not so distant, yet fateful Friday night. Then Voldemort addressed the entire group.
"Tonight," he began powerfully, "is the night that has long been awaited. The hard-work and the pain will be paid for in full." The man smiled wickedly and though Raven could not see the Death Eaters faces she was sure they were all smirking also. Then the Dark Lord whispered to himself so no others could hear, "The war is beginning."
Linelinelinelinelineline
The pack of wild dogs took the renowned Teen Titans a good while to handle. Not because they were particularly vicious or strong, nor because they were alien dogs, robotic, genetically improved, or another thing of the such. Truthfully, the Titans hindrance came from the inside. Beast Boy insisted that they did not kill, injure, or even harm the dogs, and well, the dogs did not give them the same courtesy.
So after fleeing the dogs by flight so they could not track their sent, the Teen Titans sat perched in the branches of a wide oak tree, picking up their little conference where it left off. Honestly it was not a pretty sight. Robin was telling off Beast Boy for being naive enough to fall for Raven's plan and for letting her go off by herself; the changeling kept feeling increasingly bad for being that stupid and knew he could never live with it if anything happened to Raven; Starfire became progressively more and more worried; and Cyborg was attempting to track Raven with his sensors.(AN-If that is not a run-on sentence, I don't know what is.)
"Hey, I got her," said Cyborg, interrupting the terrible worry that surrounded the tree-bound group as he looked at the screen on his arm. "Even though her communicator signal is off, I can locate her with the tracker that is in her brooch."
"Where is she?" asked Robin urgently.
"She is still at the house."
"Let's go," and with that command, the group climbed or jumped to the ground from the tree, and Cyborg lead the way from the deeps of the forest towards the mansion. They did not fly because they could only do that above the trees, and they were trying to keep a low profile.
They walked for several minutes threw the deeps of the forest and the trees started to thin out. Suddenly, Cyborg stopped. Beast Boy, who was lost in his own thoughts and regrets, walked right into the back of him.
"What is it, Cyborg?" Robin asked agitatedly.
"Yes, friend, why do you stop?" asked Starfire in a concerned tone, while hovering a foot above the ground.
"It's Raven," Cy replied.
"What about her?" interrupted BB before Cyborg could explain.
The half-robot turned to the team, "She disappeared." He continued after he saw their confused faces, "Her signal, it is no longer in the house."
"Was her tracker turned off?" asked Robin.
"No, her signal is still working," answered Cyborg after typing a few things in on his computer in his arm, "She has just moved…really fast. I need to get a new lock on her…"
linelinelinelinelineline
Raven did not know what it was called or how it worked, but the second time was just as unnerving as the first. Just as they did not night prior, the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters magically transported from one place to another in a split second and took her with them. This time, instead of being stuck in a narrow alleyway, they were in the middle of a dark and very intimidating forest. Everything in there gave off an eerie vibe. Raven's senses were tingling, and, unless she was very much mistaken, several of the Death Eaters appeared to be uncomfortable with the current surroundings as well.
The faction moved swiftly and almost completely silently through the woods. All that could be heard was the padding of feet, deep breathing, the occasional crack of a twig, and the whistle of an uncanny wind threw the trees. Sometimes their was a howl or whine in the distance of a creature that sounded fit to come straight out of a horror monster flick that Beast Boy was so found of watching all the time.
The distance traveled could only be measured by the changes in the terrain of the land. Raven was ever so watchful, her senses heightened in what seemed to be a dangerous place, so she noticed when the trees seems to become farther apart, the air became thinner, and the tree trunks were narrower and shorter. Soon they approached the edge of the forest. Raven could see their the gap of the trees and no matter how much she could have prepared herself for it, it still took her breath away. It was beautiful. The tall castle stood gleaming against the night sky, the cool gray stone spotless and mingled in the moonlight. It seemed to have a halo around it and Raven, though she was sure it was her imagination, heard cheerfully conversation and laughing, even across the immense expanse. It was all that she could do to stop her mouth from hanging open.
Raven's first peaceful moment she had had for days was sourly interrupted by the voice of one villain, "Charming, isn't it?" he asked in a cynical way as the moved to the edge of the trees. "There was a time that I called it home," he said in a quiet voice so only Raven could hear, "But those days are long gone." He put out a hand to stop the Death Eaters. In a whisper, more to himself than Raven he concluded, "Back when I was still just T.M.R."
Raven remembered those initials as the ones that were signed on the bottom of the Titans' ransom note. She also recalled the time before in which this evil man said that it was someone he used to be. The gothic girl was not sure she understood what this meant, but she did not understand the cryptic things he was saying now. Some of the things he said seemed so…sincere.
Again, her thoughts were interrupted by the wizard next to her. "Remember what did last night?" he asked as if she where a little child. Raven glared at him for an answer. "Well," he continued, "We are going do that again tonight, but you are going to get a bigger part to play. See, along with transporting us in, you are going to make a little shield for us. In other words you are going to be our defense during his surprise attack. Do you understand?"
Raven's glare wavered, she closed her eyes to clear her head, and when she opened them again she ground her teeth before saying in the most defiant and insolent tone she could conjure, a quiet, venomous, "Yes."
"Good," he said, but he thought, 'Not like you have a choice.' "After this little mission, you and your friends are home free."
'I doubt that,' thought Raven.
"Now, sweet Raven, take us in."
linelinelinelinelineline
The four of the Teen Titans decided to keep moving and to investigate the house while Cyborg tried to get a lock on Raven again. Not too long later the house came into view.
"Cy, do you know if anyone is in there?" asked Robin
Cyborg ran a quick heat scan if the house and then answered, "Not a living soul."
The group reentered the mansion threw the same window they had left it. Their anxious leader, Robin, quickly picked the lock on the door and they entered the ghostly hallway. They swiftly went down the hallways, opening the doors to reveal unused bedrooms, musty lounges, well-over due bathrooms, worn-out dens, and even a few dust-covered libraries.
A hallway or two later the group found something of use. They had spread out and covered a large area before Beat Boy called for them.
"What is it BB?" asked Cyborg, the first to reach him.
"Yes, friend, what?" squealed Star nervously, the second to arrive. Robin came panting up to them.
"This is the room that the snake-faced man was in. It was his study." The Teen Titans fanned out to search the room, but everything of importance was either removed or under locks that even Rob or Cy could pick.
Beast Boy's eyes wandered to the far corners of the room, where a lone door was tucked into. He had not noticed the first time he was in this room or maybe he had and just disregarded it as a closet. He walked slowly over to it, it was ajar. He pushed it open. The door swung open silently on its hinges. What was inside made his eyes widen.
The walls were covered with pinned up pictures, newspaper articles, and magazine covers all proclaiming things about the Teen Titans. On all of them the passages abut Raven were highlighted and her picture was circled. The single desk was cluttered with books that you would never find in a normal library. They were about demons and magic and alternate dimensions.
"Guys," called the changeling over his shoulder, "You have got to see this." The group came over and they were surprised as he was.
"And I thought Robin was obsessive," said Cyborg and Robin did not even retort.
"He definitely did his research," said Rob in an awed whisper as he looked at the cover of one of the books which read, Dark Arts and the Underworld.
Cyborg's arm started beeping and he left the dimly lighted room to read it. The others exited behind him and one of them, though they were not sure who now, unconsciously closed the door behind them. After it slammed shut, they could only see it for a second before it melted back into the wall.
After they got over that shock, Cyborg began, "Y'all, I got some good news and some bad news. What do you want first?"
"Bad news," said Robin conversationally.
"Bad news, Raven's signal has gone off."
"Good news?" asked Robin after a silence from Cyborg.
"Good new is that I now where she was three seconds before it did," said the half-robot with a smile.
