Disclaimer: I do not own teen titans or the words to 'Violence Fetish' By Disturbed.
This chapter is dedicated to Acastus of Thessaly for the most inspirational reviews of the month!
Hand in Hand
Chapter Forty-Four: Violence Fetish
December 20th 13:14 Nevermore
"Come to play have you?" Rage repeated, her sneer stretching to show two rows of needle sharp teeth, "You know you can't win. You know that eventually, sooner rather than later I will destroy Raven and then I, Rage, will take her place."
"You can't do that! We won't let you!" shouted Cyborg swinging his laser cannon around to aim at her.
"Tut, tut." She shook a clawed finger at him, pushing him back with a wave of her hand. "The clock is already ticking. Tick tock. Tick tock." She raised her hands above her head and gave a little twirl, almost as if she were dancing. Trickles of her magic billowed out around her, veins of red and black in the darkness that glittered and flashed and writhed as if it had a life of its own.
"You're insane!" yelled Robin as he jumped down off Beast Boy's back, just as Starfire finally let go of him and took flight, her eyes darting back and forth to the unconscious Raven and the dancing Rage.
Beast Boy melted back into his usual form, his face stricken with confusion and fear. He seemed to be debated something, he bit his lip, then decision made he made a leap for the shackled Raven, only to draw up short when a wall of crackling magic slammed down, barely missing his face. With a yelp he stumbled back and whirled around to face Rage, "What did you do to her?" he demanded.
Rage laughed, giving an elaborate twist in the air, swinging her fingers back and forth, "Nothing that she doesn't deserve." The wall of magic dissipated and she laughed again, "But you can't help her. What happens to her know, is up to her. Secretly she longs for death, it's not a conscious longing but its there nonetheless and so she is incapable of waking up." She lowered herself to the ground, her dark red boots touching the flat rock silently.
Robin found it amazing that such a threat to his life as he knew it was still as small and insignificant if you thought about it terms of actual size. She was the second shortest of the group, yet she seemed to be giving them the most trouble. He fist shook slightly, where it was held at his side, "You know that's not true." He said quietly, "She can't long for death."
Rage glided backwards slightly, the grin never leaving her face, "Oh I suppose in a roundabout way, you must be correct. After all, depression is dead now. Let me reiterate. The real Raven has succumbed to the feelings of her remaining emotions, the one's too weak of will to try and take control. Namely, Bravery and Determination. Apathy and Intellect of course are still clinging to the edges of existence, after all, they are two of the most powerful emotions in Nevermore, but they never held much importance in physical appearances, often opting to wander around in the atmosphere."
"Say what?" asked Cyborg, never letting his laser's lock-on-target feature leave Rage's body.
Rage sighed dramatically, "Must I spell everything out to you? Of course I must, none of you ever understood her." Ignoring the protests of the group she continued, her red eyes flashing at regular intervals as she continued her elegant one woman dance, "Raven feels overwhelmed by Determination and Bravery. Which, I suppose you can take to mean that she's determined to be brave. Her intellect is telling her that being brave is perhaps not the smartest thing to do, can you blame her? So apathy has provided the answer. Raven is now determined not to care, by doing so she is being brave and leaving herself open to attack, intellect is too confused to do much good. So you see, it's her own fault she's in that state. I merely had to tip the scale."
"Huh?" gaped Beast Boy scratching his head and looking to the others, "What does that mean?"
Rage sneered nastily, her magical tendrils snaking forward towards the changeling unnoticed until they curled about his ankles, effectively holding him in place, "It means that Raven has resigned herself to death. Because she doesn't know what to do."
Bring the violence,
It's significant,
To the life,
If you've ever known anyone
Robin's blood had turned to ice in his veins, what Rage said, it couldn't be true, could it? It couldn't possibly be true. How could Raven just give up? She was stronger than that. His fists tightened so that his knuckles turned white and his brows furrowed into a frown. "No." he growled out, between clenched teeth.
Both his teammates and Rage turned to look at him.
Rage raised an eyebrow, "No? No what?"
"I refuse to believe that Raven would have given up so easily."
Rage leaned forwards and clasped her hands behind her back, "You sure? Hmm. Believe what you want. You're in no real position to find out are you?" she slid forwards slightly, effortlessly, having abandoned her dancing in favour of something that looked much like she was ice-skating. Seeing their confused faces, and Robin's anger she turned, spraying flashes of magic in their direction with her boots, "This world, Nevermore, with Raven incapacitated as she is, and the other emotions too weak willed to stand up to me, well, let's just stay I am in control. Anything I want can happen, I can do nothing. You're in my territory now. You are all under my control."
"You are lying!" yelled Starfire unexpectedly, firing a fluorescent green starbolt at Rage, the green light lit up the area with blinding intensity for a moment, before it was swallowed by a sudden flash of red. "H…how?" she demanded shakily, no one had ever just crushed the power out of a starbolt without even raising a hand before.
"Weren't you listening?" sang Rage gleefully, "This is my world, the rules of physics and every other law inducing theory does not apply here. I can do whatever I like. You are powerless to stop me. By coming here…you have walked right into my trap."
"Trap?" Robin's face flushed with anger, this had all been a trap, to get them there? Argh! They had walked straight into as well, blinded by the wish to help Raven. Damn. "What do you mean trap? What kind of trap?" out of the corner of his eye, he saw the tendrils wrapped around Beast Boy suddenly jerk the feet out from under the changeling.
Beast Boy hit the ground hard, and was dragged along the ground quickly, the vines thickening and tightening with each inch they moved. A shower of starbolts lit the area with flashes, each extinguished as easy as the last. Walls of crackling magic rose up from the rock, thinning and separating into bars that crossed and latched against each other.
Robin stared as what looked like a cage formed around his friend. Cyborg's cannon finally went off, the blue light arcing towards Rage in rapid fire. The demoness merely grinned and side stepped out of the way, flinging her hand up, sending Cyborg flying backwards in a cloud of dust.
"This type of trap." She purred as the cage finished its creation, sitting tightly around the bound and stunned Beast Boy. His brow furrowed as he willed the change. His shape grew, but with it so too did the cage, with frightening speed, his form shrank, so too did the cage. In despair he looked to his friends. He threw himself at the side of the cage, and then leapt back yowling like a wounded cat when his skin blistered and burned on contact with the sizzling bars. Rage watched this with half lidded eyes, a cruel smile curling onto her features, "That's one of you down. Three to go." She clicked her fingers and the tendrils of magic released Beast Boy, but even without them holding him back he could not get through the magic. "Who's next? Roll up, roll up!"
Bring the violence,
It's significant,
To the life,
Can you feel it?
"Whoa." Breathed Cyborg looking at the caged Beast Boy, "How did she do that? Raven can't even do that!"
Rage stepped backwards into the air, and then sat, hovering gently on the still breeze, "Well, I never said I was Raven, did I? I'm something different entirely." Her cloak fluttered behind her, "I'm much more powerful than she could be."
"Liar!" screeched Starfire, "Friend Robin told us what Raven told him! If you truly are more powerful then you would have taken control already! But still you are here!"
Rage's gaze slid to Starfire and turned murderous, "You dare to question my power? I should take that as a challenge should I?" she raised her eyes to the sky and then looked around at the three of them, ignoring the caged changeling. "When I have caught you all, you shall be the first to die."
Robin lunged forwards as he saw the magic drift quietly behind the floating Starfire, "Star!" he shouted, "Behind you!" he leapt at Rage, drawing his staff from his utility belt, pressing the button so that it extended to its full length. He swung at her shoulder, intent on knocking her off course, but it didn't exactly go that way.
Rage's hand shot out, closing around his wrist and yanking him forwards so he was the one who lost his balance, and then she kicked him in the small of his back as he stumbled past. That confirmed that she was separating from Raven even now, because Raven had never been big on physical combat, yet Rage had nearly levelled him in one blow.
Starfire dived downwards, starbolts flashing out in every direction as she strove to get herself away from the magic, she didn't know what else to do, physical strength wouldn't work against magic, and seeing as everything else seemed to be void, well, Starfire's fight seemed relatively redundant.
Two blasts from Cyborg's canon laser sent Rage spiralling backwards through the air, having caught her off guard when she was busy toying with Starfire. Rage hissed in anger, her four eyes narrowing in distaste. "How dare you?" she screeched at him, flinging her arms out in retaliation so that bolts of red and black rained down from the sky.
Cyborg grunted as the magical attacks hit him, and he jumped out of the way, swinging his fist in Rage's direction, only to have her teleport away just as he reached the spot where she was standing. "What the-" he started before the ground turned to liquid beneath his feet.
Rage cackled in the background, "My territory, my rules!" she reminded, as Cyborg sank in the sticky ground.
The liquid rose up to his waist and then increased rapidly upwards, unheeding of his flailing limbs and struggling. It was thick, like mud, yet it moved and swelled like water in a puddle, glimmering slightly, belying the fact that it was wet and not dry.
Starfire shot forwards, wrapping her hands around Cyborg's wrist and heaving as hard as she could backwards, trying to dislodge her friend from the dark ground.
"Starfire!"
Star heard Robin's shout just seconds before she was wrenched back painfully, as something ice cold latched around her waist, jerking her away from Cyborg, just as her friend disappeared up to his neck. She gave a scream as she flew backwards, propelled by Rage's magic until she crashed into Robin who had been running towards them. Together the two of them tangled into a mass of limbs that rolled across the jagged round, until they came to rest against one of the dark and towering trees.
"Urgh…" muttered Robin grabbing the side of his head as he tried to extricate himself from Starfire. He looked across to Cyborg, and thankfully the ground had not passed over his head, instead just settling underneath his chin, locking him securely in place, but not killing him. Robin closed his eyes, willing the pounding head in his head to cease, so that he was steady enough to get back to his feet. There had to be something wrong with the gravity of this place, he was having difficulty breathing and with each step he took, he felt light headed.
"GET UP!" screamed Beast Boy suddenly from the other side of the plane, "MOVE!"
How do sleep at night?
When you live with your lies,
Out of your mouth,
Up from your mind
Robin felt Starfire push him backwards as something struck at where he had been sitting. He heard Star's pained shout as she only just managed to evade the attack, though she acquired a thin red line of blood along her left cheek, where Rage's claw had passed.
Robin rolled to his left and the vaulted up, turning around quickly, staff at the ready. He lunged towards Rage who looked outraged that her attack had failed to hit its mark. But that confused him even more, he didn't think that Rage had wanted to kill him, but maybe he had been a fool to underestimate her. He swung his staff, catching her on the shoulder, but before he could follow through, his staff was wrenched from his grip and thrown away.
He heard it clatter to the ground. But looking around, he knew he had no hope of finding it soon. He turned around, eyes widening when Starfire suddenly crashed into him and both of them flew backwards again. Robin felt his back crack painfully against the ground, and he hissed through his teeth as he scrambled up. He dragged Starfire up and placed himself in front of her, staring at Rage in pure, unadulterated anguish.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because you're getting in the way!" Rage snapped, "But that's okay. You won't be in the way much longer." She thrust out a glowing hand and behind him, Starfire rose off of the ground against her will.
He tried to grab onto the redhead's ankle but she was lifted too far out of reach too quickly and his hand closed around the air.
"LET GO!" yelled Starfire, struggling against the magic bonds that wrapped themselves around her arms and legs, stopping her from making too much of an effort.
"Now why would I want to do that?" Rage mused out loud clicking her fingers. Starfire had no control whatsoever as her body was slammed against the thick rotting trucks of one of the trees. As her skin made contact with the back, the vines and dying leaves that littered the branches and roots, curled around the girl's limbs, effectively holding her in place. "Stay there." She ordered, as she clicked her fingers again, sending the Tamaran princess further back into the tree, so that the bugs and all manner of monsters that lived in its dead flesh crawled out through the holes and cracks and swarmed over the frozen girl.
Robin stared in horror as the tiny beasts covered his girlfriend's form completely, blocking her from view. He let his gaze slide to Cyborg, still encased in the ground, and Beast Boy trapped in the ever changing cage. He looked back to Rage.
The wind stilled as the two of them stared each other, and their cape's stopped moving and fell like sheets of colour behind them. Rage's hand found her hip and she stared at him coolly, "Just you and me now. Odds aren't in your favour."
Robin glowered at her, for stating the painfully obvious, how was he supposed to fight against the demon Rage without his teammates. She was right, odds weren't in his favour, and the likelihood of them getting out of there alive was small indeed. "We'll see what happens." He said just as calmly. That's it; he told himself, bluff your way out of this. Sound as if you know what you're doing. Maybe she'll get scared…ha. Unlikely.
Rage looked at him peculiarly, "Very unlikely." She confirmed, tilting her head to the side.
Robin's jaw dropped, "What? How did…did you just…you knew….oh." Damn her gift and natural aptitude for telepathy. His face flushed, and he ducked his head to hide his embarrassment. How could he have forgotten that she could read minds? The colour drained from his face faster than light itself at the revelation that hit him, did that mean that Raven could have heard any of the thoughts he had indulged in to compare her to Starfire. His palms felt suddenly sweaty.
That kind of thinking starts a chain reaction,
You're a time bomb ticking away,
You need to release,
What you're feeling inside
"So then." Rage started, jerking Robin from his troubled thoughts, "As much as I hate to break up your internal torment, and I do believe me, I'm going to offer you two choices. Just to see what you would choose. Fun." She drummed her fingers together and smiled, "So, do you want to live or die?" he opened his mouth to answer, but she cut him off, "I haven't told you what each entails. Living means that you will have to endure the rest of eternity as my personal slave, bending to my will and my wishes, unless of course you can prove yourself worthy, in which case we will rule the world together, side by side, Robin and Rage. Nice to ring to it, eh?" she grinned, "Or you can choose death, which leaves you to watch your friend's die one by one and then you get to be subjected to the most painfully slow demise ever to be tried on a human being. Even after that, I'll make it so that you're soul is damned to wander Nevermore until the end of time."
Robin's heart raced inside his chest, it was a wonder Rage couldn't hear it, he could barely hear himself think. That was really no choice, was it? It was surrender or not. The game hadn't changed at all; she was just pretending it had by putting a new spin on the outcome. He cleared his throat, bringing her attention back to him.
"Decided already?" she crowed, "A or B?"
Robin grimaced at her voice, with each word it was changing into something that didn't sound like Raven at all, "I choose option C."
"C?" she frowned at him.
He nodded firmly, "I'll defeat you, save my friends, save Raven and then get out of here."
She gave a snort of laughter, "Well, aren't you overly optimistic."
He took a step backwards, retrieving another staff from his utility belt, he was glad really that he always carried a spare; it really helped in time like this. He pressed the button and watched as it extended in a silent whoosh. Planting his feet in a solid stance he gripped the staff like a sword and narrowed his eyes at Rage, "Maybe I am optimistic, but I won't let you hurt my friends." His grip tightened, "Especially Raven."
Rage's face darkened immediately and she gave a snarl, "You think you can beat me?" she demanded, drawing back her hands into an offensive position, magic crackling along her fingers as she flexed her claws, "You're braver than I thought."
Let out the beast that you're trying to hide
Far across the other side of the plane, Raven's closed eye twitched ever so slightly.
Step right up and be part of the action
The two of them eyed each other up warily across the distance. Robin's hands itched against the cold metal of his staff, and his eyes flickered across Rage's body, trying to pick out unprotected area, she seemed to be leaving her back open, natural, he supposed, because she was facing him.
With a howling scream of a cry Rage threw herself at Robin.
Robin gave a war cry of his own and charged at Rage, his boots thudding against the ground in a steady rhythmic pattern that slowly gathered speed as he approached her. He swung his staff back, and then around again as they came within striking distance. Rage's attack landed first, the blistering icy coldness of her magic driving into his gut and winding him, but he sucked in a lungful of air and continued his attack. His staff struck her arm, unbalancing her, and before she could regain her footing he delivered a roundhouse kick to her side.
She snarled at him again, though the sound sounded much more threatening this time, and it echoed slightly, distracting him just enough for her to rake her claws down his face, creating three thin lines of red down the right side of his face. He jerked backwards, bringing a hand to his stinging cheek, his eyes narrowing when his fingers came back damp with his own blood.
He swung his fist to the right, anticipating that she would feint to the left, when she did, he snap kicked her in the stomach, sending her backwards quickly. Her foot caught on one o the many jagged rocks that she had decorated the land with and she went down hard.
With a roar she launched herself at him, eyes darker than the fire of hell, claws out stretched, "You will NOT win against me!" she swung at him, and he dodged quickly, smacking her in the lower back with his staff. She whipped around, catching him unaware, not ready for such a brutal counter attack and sent his spinning to the left, a deep gash opening up in his shoulder.
"Wanna bet?" he asked calmly, before he jumped out of her way, leapt into the air, spun and threw several bird-a-rangs in her direction. The flying blades cut into her cloak, opening up rips in the fabric. She paused momentarily in surprise and then the staff hit her with great accuracy in the side of the head.
The blow sent her crashing to the ground amidst Beast Boy's ecstatic whooping from the background. Rage's eyes narrowed further, until they were just lines of glowing crimson set in her ashen face. She gave an almighty shriek and the billowing wind that had been apparent in the earlier quadrants of Nevermore came back with fearful vengeance. "I WILL NOT BE SO EASILY DEFEATED!" she screamed at him, forcing herself up into the air on her magic, disbelief and anger written all over her face. "YOU WILL FEAR MY WRATH!" her magic burst into a column around her in the blink of an eye, a towering inferno of dark red and pitch black flames that licked at each other and burned the air, while chilling it at the same time. Steam started swirling upwards from her feet, aiding the wind and the magic. Her arms spread wide in an attempt to gather it all to her hands.
Get your game face on,
Because it's time to play
Raven's violet eyes snapped open in surprise.
You're pushing and fighting your way,
You're ripping it up
"Oh my G-" started Robin as he stared at what was happening in front of him, before he could finish converting the thought into words however, he felt a cold clammy hand grab onto the back of his collar and haul him backwards.
Surprised he flailed his arms slightly and tried to turn around, the person who was holding him did not let him; the angle was too difficult to manoeuvre. He caught a flash of dark green out of the corner of his eye. He looked back to Rage; she was too busy gathering her power to notice he was being dragged away from her.
"What are you doing?" he hissed at his saviour.
"Quiet." Snapped the voice.
Robin's eyes widened in shock, the voice was Raven's.
He twisted his body violently to see what was happening and at the same time, he was dumped unceremoniously upon the floor in front of the brick wall. He put his hands out to stop his fall, and he felt his staff fall from his grip and clatter to the floor. He took a deep breath, his lungs aching from the exertion he had just forced himself through when he was fighting and he tilted his head upwards. Had it not been for the fact that he had been told about Raven's remaining emotions, he supposed he would be very startled to see what was going on before him.
Raven was still hanging from the wall, looking worse for wear, but she was being assisted by another version of herself, only this one was dressed in a muddy brown coloured cape, and she had short choppy dark brown hair. She was fiddling at the shackles that held Raven with a determined expression on her face.
Robin jerked his head back to look behind him. A green cloaked Raven was stood by his shoulder, her hands on her hips, her emerald green hair dancing in front of her eyes as she looked down at him and smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry." She said, "We know what to do."
"You do!"
Raven's violet eyes landed on him and she stared hollowly at him, "We're going to tie Rage to this wall. She won't be able to free herself without help. No one here is going to help her. Determination and Bravery dislike what she's doing."
Determination nodded resolutely as the first shackles finally clicked and fell away, "She's getting too bossy for her own good."
Raven raised her head and looked across at the trapped titans and then she looked back down to Robin and Bravery, "Go and free the others." She commanded softly, flexing her free hand rapidly.
Bravery gave a mock salute, tossing her cape over her shoulder, "Loud and clear Captain!" she grinned and then bounded off with incredible speed towards Beast Boy, her feet barely touching the floor.
Robin nodded up at the gothic witch, "Good luck Raven." He said quietly before he ran towards Starfire, picking up his staff along the way.
How do you live without playing the game?
Sit on the side and expect to keep sane,
Step right up and be a part of the action,
Come and get a piece of it before it's too late
"HYA!" Bravery's hand cut through Rage's magic like a heated knife through butter, dark green energy dispelling the red wires that held the changeling in place. As he tumbled out, free from his confines, onto the ground, she held her hand down and hauled him up when he took it, "Ain't seen you in a while!" she declared, "You gonna help us take her down?"
"Huh?" said Beast Boy dazedly looking across to Rage, who was still gathering her power, and then back across to Robin who was pulling the bugs away from Starfire and then finally to the wall where Determination was freeing Raven, "Whoa, but I thought that…how did you…" he pointed, "Never mind." He concluded, "It can wait. What's the plan?"
Bravery grinned, "We're gonna catch her off guard before she's finished gathering all her power, which will take a while, believe me, and then we're gonna chain her to the wall."
Beast Boy scowled, "I thought we were gonna get rid of her, not tie to her to a stupid wall."
"You mean kill her?"
Beast Boy shrugged. "I don't know."
Bravery shrugged, "If we kill her, we will take away Raven's anger. She would never feel anger again. She would be…incomplete."
"Hang on a second!" he waved his arms, "What about all her other emotions, aren't they dead? What about them?"
Bravery shook her head, "Only if an emotion is killed by another emotion can it be truly classed as dead and not return. The others have all faded or opted to fade instead of being hunted down. Depression was the only emotion killed out right by Rage. But I think Raven can live without being depressed."
Beast Boy nodded, "Okay. I think I get it." He gifted her with a charming smile, "Okay, let's go and kick her ass!"
Bravery grinned again, "Right on! Let's go!"
You can't deny what you see,
We're living in a violent society
The second shackle clicked open.
Determination stood back with a triumphant grin, "Done!" she helped Raven down from the wall, and the gothic witch touched down to the ground gently. "You sure you're ready to do this? You know the wall won't hold her forever."
Raven stared back at her, "It'll do for now. They don't need to know that." She gestured to her teammates. "Besides, let's just focus on getting her on the wall, to begin with. You go and free Cyborg from the ground; I'll go see if I can distract Rage."
Determination sighed and brushed her hair out of her eyes, "Okay. I trust you. You are me, after all." She smiled, "We can do it." She gave Raven a small grin, before she teleported over to Cyborg.
Raven stared at Rage, feeling nothing but emptiness when she looked upon the contorted face of her emotion. Such raw power, it would surely upset the balance within Nevermore. She couldn't let that stop her now though. She had to get Rage tethered to the wall, if she could manage that then she could curb Rage's appearance drastically which would buy her time to do research and meditation so that she could figure out a way to bring her emotions back, and merge Rage and the others into her soul. Or something.
Why my brother,
Let me show you a better way,
So set your game face on,
Because its time to play
"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"
Rage whirled around at the familiar shout, before she was blown back on a wave of black energy. Winded and surprised she stared up at Raven who was floating in the air above her calmly, her own hands filled with magic. "When did you wake up?" she panted, trying to regain her breath. She looked around her, noticing for the first time the absence of the titans and the emptiness of the cage.
Something large hit her in the back and carried her forwards onto her knees. She whipped her head back quickly, only to see the tail of the green Veloceraptor vanish into the darkness. She gave a shriek of outrage, only to be caught on the back of the head with Robin's staff. She stumbled to her feet and staggered forward.
She managed to avoid the canon blasts courtesy of Cyborg as the blue light came flying at her, but being too focused on what was going on around her, she didn't notice the starbolts until it was too late.
Rage was thrown backwards, where she crashed into the same tree that she had imprisoned Starfire upon. "How dare you hurt my friends!" yelled Starfire as she rounded on the demon, lashing out with a volley of flashing green attacks.
"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"
"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"
"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"
The identical shouts rang through the air suddenly, silencing everything else.
Rage's eyes widened, "NO!" she howled, clawing herself forwards, firing magical attacks in every direction possible, trying to fend off the three enchanted attacks that were closing in around her, "I won't be defeated!" she cried rising into the air once again, "I won't be defeated!"
"That's what you think!" yelled Robin diving forwards, kicking at her legs with her right foot. He caught her on the back of her knee, and once again she hit the ground. She lashed out, pushing him away from her with a blast of dark magic.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
You're pushing and fighting your way,
You're ripping it up
"Hold on Raven!" shouted Bravery from her left, "We just need to distract her long enough to get a hold of her. You can do it!"
"I know!" cried Raven back, her arms shaking with the strain to keep the rivers of black magic coursing out of her hands into the atmosphere around Rage. She still felt weak, disorientated from everything that had happened. "I know." She repeated to herself slowly. She watched as her friends ducked and weaved and attacked her own emotion, hitting out at her, bowling her over, trying to break her concentration. She could tell that it was working; already the magic that had made such an impressive inferno was beginning to drop down and fade away, despite the frustration that lit Rage's face. She pushed herself forwards, testing the very limits of her own humanity.
Beast Boy gave a chilling cry in his hawk form and shot towards Rage's eyes, talons unfurled ready to cause optimum damage. Rage threw up her hands to protect her eyes.
Cyborg's cannon fire sent Rage reeling sideways.
The last dredges of her gathered magic flickered and then faded like the snuffed flame of a candle.
"NOW!" shouted Determination.
"ARGHH!" Raven's scream tore from her throat unbidden as fire rippled through her muscles, coiling and tightening her limbs in anticipation and tension. Her magic swelled, and then, in a huge colossal form of a pitch black bird it arced outwards and then crashed back down onto Rage's writhing form. It exploded outwards in shockwaves, just as Raven's eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped down, asleep.
Smoke flooded Nevermore.
When it cleared, Rage lay unconscious in the middle of a darkened circle of ash.
So tell me what I'm supposed to be,
Another Goddamned drone,
Tell me, what am I supposed to be?
Should I leave it on the inside?
Determination and Bravery latched the shackles tightly closed around Rage's wrists. Then, satisfied that they were tight enough the two emotions stood back and looked at the titans. "That should hold her."
Robin nodded to them, "Thanks for all your help. We couldn't have done it without you."
Bravery blushed, "We're just parts of Raven. It's her you should be thanking." She looked at Raven's sleeping form, where it was nestled safely in Robin's arms and she smiled fondly, "Take good care of her okay?"
"Count on it." Nodded Beast Boy, wiping his forehead with his hand.
"You should really get going you know." Pointed out Determination as she flicked the hood of her cloak upwards, hiding her face from view, "You know the way." She nodded to Beast Boy and Cyborg.
The two titans nodded.
"Oh thank you for all your help parts of Raven!" gushed Starfire gathering the two of them together in a group hug, squashing all life out of their bodies, until they choked and asked her to release them. She blushed and did so, before she joined the other titans as they waved, and set off for the last archway. The one that would lead them back into their own world.
In her sleep, Raven frowned.
Tell me, what am I supposed to be?
Should I leave it on the inside?
Determination and Bravery watched as the titans left through the archway. Then the brunette turned the emerald green haired girl, "I thought that went quite well."
Bravery nodded, "Yeah. Those chains should hold her for a while."
Determination looked up at Rage and shivered, she wrapped her brown cloak around her tightly, trying to keep in what little warmth there was, "When it started, it was all a game to her wasn't it?"
"Even Rage knows it's not a game anymore. It's a fight for survival between her and Raven."
"Raven will win, won't she?"
Bravery looked up at Rage's unconscious form, she looked so innocent in her sleep, but you know what they say, appearances can be deceiving, "I…I hope so."
Should I leave it on the inside?
Chained to the wall, Rage smirked and clicked her claws together, "Don't worry." She mumbled as she opened her eyes to watch the two emotions walk off into the distant bleakness of Nevermore, "It'll be gameover for you soon."
Or should I get ready to play?