A/N: Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I was avoiding it for a reason. But now I officially know exactly how I'm going to end this fic, so that makes me happy that I'm actually ending something. Well, enjoy the chapter! Please R&R.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Teen Titan character!
Chapter 27 The Warrior Inside
She cut through the air as swift as a diving bird. Her eyes and hands glowed a brilliant green as her invisible target's hazy outline was shown briefly to her. With a battle yell, Starfire let loose a barrage of a dozen or so starbolts onto the mechanical thing. But her attack proved worthless as the robot continued to walk up and down the street without a purpose at all. The only way to tell it was there because of it made giant dents in the road and because it made a loud whirling sound.
Starfire hovered in the air with confusion and worry planted on her face. She took out her communicator and called up James. Her green eyes went wide with surprise when her screen split up into many sections because so many others were talking to James too. The other Titans looked either frustrated or worried like her. James was trying to keep the others cool as they all told him that none of their attacks were working.
"Look," James yelled at them to get his point across, "My connection with Jake and the others in the warehouse has been cut off. If they found out something, I wouldn't know about it. You'll just have to keep fighting these things. From the looks of things, there are only five. Team up."
There was a pause as everyone gave sighs and asked another for help. Eventually everyone hung up and continued to fight. James ran a shaky hand through his blonde hair and tried once again to get contact with Raven's communicator. His calm demeanor was quickly slipping away. He sighed as his tries were beginning to become pointless.
He suddenly stopped when he realized Valentine was standing next to him. Tears streamed down her face as she stared silently up at the screen. "They aren't going to make it, are they?" she asked in a shaky voice.
James wrapped his arms around her small form as she sobbed. "Jake will live, Val," James told her firmly in a whisper. "He is too strong to give up now."
"What about Sam and Abe?" she asked between sobs.
The breath was knocked out of James as he thought about his kids again. He already lost a loved one. What if he had to lose two more? He wouldn't be able to live. His kids were practically his life besides his God. He hugged Valentine closer and closed his eyes as memories of his wife came back to him. Finally he whispered faintly back to Val, "I don't know. All we can do is hope and pray."
-Raven-
There was a second of complete silence. Raven easily searched for the place she wished to teleport herself, Abe, and Sam to quickly. She could feel their mixed emotions emerge into hers. Whispering her mantra, Raven sprung from her spot in the Tower all the way to a selected location in the warehouse underground. Slowly, she released herself from the two she was carrying. When she opened her eyes, Abe and Sam where beside her with wide eyes of wonderment.
"That was…different," Abe said finally with a nervous chuckle. The two kids checked out their surroundings with grim expressions on their faces. They were in a dark hallway with little light bulbs showing them a dim pathway to various doors and stairwells. The walls, floor, and ceiling was only dirt. Abe couldn't help but feel like the roof would fall on them as he noticed this.
Sam popped open her laptop and typed in a few things. Raven didn't know what she was doing, but trusted that it would help their situation somehow. Abe waited as well and smiled at the Goth girl when they made eye contact.
"Done," Sam said proudly with a smile. Raven raised an eyebrow as if to ask a silent question. Sam explained as she turned the mini computer toward Raven and her brother. Neon green lines planned out the whole underground hideout with much detail. Raven was a bit impressed. This was a kid doing this. "I was able to scan this whole underground complex with a few tricks with this computer. Thank the CIA for this one."
"Again," Abe added while rolling his eyes.
"Don't interrupt," Sam scolded.
"Jeez! Sorry!" Abe said while putting up his hands and backing away to give his sister some room. Raven resisted the urge to roll her eyes. These two were kids alright. They fought like any average siblings their age. She just hoped they wouldn't start arguing when it came down to serious business.
"Anyways," Sam continued before giving her brother a death glare, "It seems like Slade has made a pretty intricate hideout for himself, here. It has four floors if you include the warehouses as the first. We are on the second. If Slade wanted a place to put computers and tech, he would need a power source for them. I think the room he is running things is on the third floor, so that is where Raven and I should head."
"But what about Robin?" Abe asked with a shrug. "This place is huge! And let's not forget that these underground tunnels could lead to the other warehouses around here. It could take me some time to find him. And I don't want to bump into Slade and have to fight him by myself."
Raven closed her eyes and spoke her mantra. It seemed like she had left her body as her spirit searched the whole warehouse at light speed. She quickly found Robin on the floor above them just coming into the main warehouse. She opened her eyes and said to Abe, "He's in the warehouse above us. He's searching for you right now."
Abe paused with some shock coming to his face. He finally smiled and said, "Well that was easy. Do you do that often?" Sam elbowed him in the stomach for his question. He glared at her while muttering, "It was just a question."
"We need to leave," Raven said sternly to both of the kids. Her patience was slipping quickly with these two. She was sure they would put their game faces on once they were separated from each other. "Abe, you go that way," she ordered the boy while pointing one way down the hallway after a quick glance at the map on the computer. "Call us if you have problems," she said while handing him a communicator.
"Nifty," Abe said while looking at the device in his hands carefully. Sam sighed while rolling her eyes. "But just incase," he said with a mischievous smile. He quickly shape shifted into Robin with the scares, clothes, and hair exactly like the leader. Raven tried not to show her surprise. "Slade isn't out to kill Robin, so if I'm him I'll be safe till Slade figures it out that it's really me."
"Genius," Sam muttered sarcastically. "And how's your ankle holding out?"
Abe winced at the mention of it. "I'll manage," he finally muttered. "I'll see you two soon," he said while taking off into the dark hallway. His light footsteps echoed quietly as he disappeared into the darkness. After a few seconds, so did his footsteps. Raven and Sam silently walked the opposite direction Abe had headed.
Raven stole a few glances toward Sam every few seconds. The girl was rigid and nervous from what Raven could see. She had a full right to be. Raven knew that if she didn't meditate and constantly kept her emotions in check that at that moment she would be just as anxious. The faint light of the computer screen bounced off Sam's glasses and lit her face with a faded green color. Sam suddenly stared back at the watching Raven. The girl's quizzical stare startled the Titan.
"I'm glad you are helping us get Robin back," Raven said to make any kind of conversation with the quiet girl beside her. Raven was relieved when she saw Sam smile sweetly at her. Sam wasn't nervous about the situation, Raven noticed now. She was tense being around Raven. It almost made Raven laugh.
"Do you think your brother will be okay with Robin?" Raven asked Sam, trying to break the tension.
"Abe's fine anywhere there is action," Sam said with a laugh. "He might be an idiot anywhere else, but when he is fighting, his mind works like a genius." She smiled bitterly while adding slowly, "Its funny how I'm the complete opposite of him that way."
"How?" Raven asked. She felt the girl's resentment as if it was her own. Raven knew how she was feeling alone and unimportant. Raven had dealt with those feelings for years with her team. It was only after her father's destruction that she realized how much her friends loved her. She wanted Sam to know that her father and brother loved her more than anything at the moment. Raven knew exactly what Sam was going through.
"Well, I'm great at thinking things through and figuring problems out," Sam answered with a heavy sigh. Her nervousness around Raven vanished as she opened up a little of her heart to the Goth girl. "But when it comes down to fighting…I suck! My brain freezes up and I can't do anything productive. My mom was kind of like me in that way, so I confided in her a lot."
Raven felt a weight of sadness drop on both of them. Her mother was gone too. "But now she's gone," Raven said solemnly, "So now you've been with two guys who don't know what you're going through. They might try to help you, but they never seem to help you're aching heart. Loneliness starts to kick in even though you surround yourself with people. You then start to feel worthless and the feelings slowly start to get worse and drag you down. It's a depressing process."
"You say all this like you've been through it," Sam stated after a knowing nod.
Raven sighed as she searched for words of wisdom to tell this girl. She didn't think of herself as wise or anything, but she knew this one ordeal because she had suffered through it and had the scares to prove it. She had wanted someone to show her the pathway of light, but sadly she had to search for it on her own. But now she had the chance to give someone that nudge in the right direction and she was going to take the opportunity willingly.
"Sam," Raven firmly addressed her, "Just know that people love you. You are a bright, beautiful young lady with a big future in front of you. I know that your brother would be lost without your guidance, and your dad would be driven insane with only your brother around. And for when you fight, don't just remember a move or something; know that you have the power to take someone else down. A burning fire of madness is in everyone. For some people it's hard to unleash it, while for others, like your brother and Robin, it's their power source. But fear can prevent you from tapping into this, so don't be afraid of anything the next time you fight. If you can do that, you will fight like a true warrior."
Sam stared up at Raven with respect and wonder in her eyes. She then finally smiled and said quietly, "My mom said something like that one day to me…but I had forgotten it. Thank you for the great reminder." She then giggled and said, "This conversation was unexpected. To tell you the truth, I was kind of scared of you at first."
Raven let herself laugh a little before saying, "I kind of saw that."
Sam suddenly stopped in front of a metal door in the hallway. Raven quickly put on the brakes and stood beside her as they both looked at the computer screen, their faces glowing green in the darkness. "This is it," Sam said with a firm nod. "This is the closest place to a power source on the surface."
With a simple wave of her hand, Raven forced the door to slide open for them. They walked in cautiously while looking around the large, dimly lit room they were now in. Just as Sam had predicted, computers and various monitors lined the walls. This room wasn't like the hallway and had metal floors and walls. A main computer was stationed on the far wall and was showing many black and white footage of the different rooms and hallways around Slade's complex lair. Other footage was on the Titans in the city fighting something both girls couldn't fully make out.
Silently, the two walked further into the room. They gasped as the flood lights blinked on above them and the whole room was bathed in bright light. They quickly found out they were surrounded by Slade-bots. Raven went into defensive position as her eyes narrowed into black slits. She stood close to Sam who was looking around with fright in her eyes.
Raven looked over to the main computer screen and growled in anger as she saw Slade standing there. His hands were clasped calmly behind his back as he watched her with his one eye. "You two will do perfectly," he said coldly to them. His voice sent cold shivers down Sam's spine while only boiled Raven's blood. Slade smiled wickedly before giving his robots the command to attack.
All the robots started to shoot their laser guns at the two. Raven quickly put her hands above her head and made a black force field to protect them. Sam grabbed Raven's communicator out of her pocket and tried to call somebody. All she was able to get was static. "It's not working!" she yelled up to Raven.
"Then we will have to fight our way out!" Raven yelled back down above the laser fire.
Sam nodded firmly while closing her laptop. She had that game face on that Raven had seen many times on her teammates. This girl was ready to fight. Raven dropped her shield and melted into a pool of darkness underneath her. Sam duck rolled toward a robot and ducked under it just as another round of lasers shot toward her. They hit the robot she was now behind. The thing exploded and sent scrap metal throughout the room.
Raven reappeared behind another robot, her eyes pools of nothingness. She yelled her mantra and cut her hand through the air. The robot was cleanly sliced in half. It fell over in sparking bits. Raven did her best to destroy the robots without warring out. Usually she had other people to back her up. If she was knocked out for even a second, she knew she wouldn't stand a chance and Sam wouldn't either.
Sam was doing as much damage as Raven was doing. She had used her laptop as a bat at one time to smash a robot's head in. Her laptop had also been destroyed, but it had erased another robot from the playing field. For once she was using all the training she had been taught. Right when she thought she wouldn't be able to come through, that fire inside of her suddenly sparked, and she gripped onto it with a wicked smile.
But once most of the first set of robots was lying in broken parts around the room, more came out of nowhere. Raven could feel her energy gradually leave her body. She was beginning to get knocked around a bit, and she paused before defending herself at times. Sweat was poring down both girls' faces as the fight continued. Their breathing became labored. But they kept fighting viciously. It seemed like nothing would stop them.
Sam gave a loud battle yell as she roundhouse kicked a robot in the neck and brought him to the ground. Any fear of getting hurt or dong the wrong thing had left her long ago. A warrior inside her had been set free. It was something she never knew could happen to her. It felt exhilarating elating. She actually loved it.
As she punched the robot's face with a tight fist, Sam knew she was in the perfect place. Even as the robot brought up his laser gun to her chest, Sam knew her time had been well spent in her last few minutes on earth. She didn't close her eyes or scream as the laser cut straight through her heart. She embraced death like a true fighter.
Raven saw the laser shoot out of her comrade from the corner of her eye. Her eyes widened in fear and disbelief. "Sam!" she cried while releasing a wave of black energy and throwing about five robots around the room. The enchantress wildly cut a path for herself through the robots till she was at her fallen comrade's side. But by the time Raven was kneeling over Sam's body, the girl was dead.
A lump Raven wasn't able to swallow formed in her throat as she stared down at Sam. Hot tears formed in her violet eyes. She didn't think this would happen. She wished she could have done something. Raven felt helpless as she cradled Sam's head in her hands. "No!" she whispered as sorrow washed over her. She desperately tried to hold onto a stable emotion.
Before anything else could happen, something hard whacked into the back of Raven's head. She was out before her body hit the ground. Slade stood over both of the girls in thought. He was about to kill Raven with his raised laser gun…but then he thought of the future and left her there. He would kill her later on in life; he was sure, along with the rest of her teammates. One would do for now.
Slade motioned for his robots to pick up Sam's dead body. Small drops of blood splattered onto the metal floor as they carried her to the door with Slade in the lead. The man stopped at the doorway and glanced back at Raven's unconscious body. He smiled evilly under his mask then left.
A/N: I get too attached to my characters, I'm afraid. I had planned on killing Sam for a long while, but its difficult to kill someone off that you made…except Jessica. I hope I didn't shock you too much. My long finale is the next chapter! It might take two or three weeks to produce. See you next chapter! Please don't forget to review!
