If I owned Teen Titans, I would like, totally rub it in GuardianSaiyoko's face. Yeah…and then I would suddenly find myself with a cut throat and a doctored Will.
3 DAYS:
The First Day
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"
Raven meditated in the comfortable, familiar gloom of her bedroom; her cape hung inches above the floor as she levitated, legs folded.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"
She was in the calm center within, the fear, anxiety, anger, panic, guilt…Raven was within the eye of her storming emotions. They would not command her, she wielded them.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"
Her control tightened, mental barriers and safeguards fastening her powers where they belonged; a beast in a cage, a dammed flood. Raven's mind drifted as her lips mechanically muttered her mantra endlessly.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"
Raven's unexpected encounter with Slade had shaken the dark girl more than she cared to admit. Besides her father, Slade was one of the few things-or people- that inspired fear into her. The hold over her powers had been deeply splintered.
This mediation was needed and long overdue.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"
Mind clear, muscles relaxed, Raven's breaths were calm and level. No thoughts of Slade or worries for her friends, just herself and the tranquility of her room…
A heavy knock boomed against her door, breaking her concentration and sending her painfully onto her backside. Gritting her teeth with frustration, Raven smoothed out her cloak as she approached the door; the knocks were aggravatingly insistent.
Sliding the door open a crack, Raven's irritated eye peered out. "What?"
Cyborg stood awkwardly in the hallway, nervously scratching the back of his head. The fleshy part, that is. "Hey, Rae. Good to see ya up. You doin' alright?"
"I'm fine."
"You sure? I mean, you just left the infirmary without even talkin' to us. We're just a little worried about ya, Rae…"
"I'm fine," she growled.
Cyborg held up his metal hands, "Okay, okay, I believe ya. But…I still think we should talk. Is it alright if I come in?"
"No."
She closed the door before he could even object.
Raven bit back the tinge of regret that tugged her heart's cords. Of all the Titans, Cyborg respected both her privacy and her reclusive habits the most. He was like a big brother, really. Sure, they didn't talk that much, but there was an unspoken understanding between them; ever since she and Cyborg rebuilt the T-Car together.
That happy memory made Raven feel all the more guilty.
You need this meditation, she reminded herself. He'll get over it.
Sitting onto her soft bed, Raven crossed her legs and shut her eyes as she resought to balance herself. She quickly lost herself in her meditation again, body hovering above the bed.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"
For the leader of the Teen Titans, it seemed an old nightmare had crawled from the deepestcorners of his mind back into the real world.
Slade.
It had been long, arduous thing for Robin; letting go after Slade had seemingly perished in that volcano with Terra. When Beast Boy and the rest of the Titans mourned for Terra, Robin instead found himself unsettled by Slade's demise. He was almost…fearful to accept it: to accept that his arch-nemesis- the source of his greatest torment- was finally gone.
It was too good to be true.
Robin couldn't let his guard down, not for an instant.
And in the end, a booby trap Slade had left behind for his favorite 'apprentice' conjured delusions in Robin's mind. He hallucinated Slade had indeed survived, logic failed to acknowledge the others couldn't see him, that they couldn't find the explosives Slade claimed to have planted.
So brutal were the hallucinations, Robin would have most likely torn himself to pieces had it not been for Raven.
Raven
Clenching his teeth, Robin's fist dented his workbench. Slade had returned- wielding impossible powers and marked with the symbol of Scath- resurrected by Raven's own demonic father to torment her. So worried for Raven's welfare, Robin couldn't care less about Slade at that time. Trigon was the real enemy.
But Trigon was vanquished, Slade freed from his servitude.
And yet…he was still after Raven.
"Why?" Robin asked himself. "Why is Raven so fascinating to him?"
True to his habits, The Boy Wonder dug up all his Slade-related materials from storage and dusted them off. The workshop where he repaired and maintained his crime-fighting equipment once again became a window to the boy's furious obsession. Newspaper clipouts, official police reports, and blurry photographs occupied every square inch of the dark room's walls. An unfinished bird-a-rang laid lonesome on the workbench as hundreds of pages of research piled around it.
Slade's cracked mask stared tauntingly at Robin through an empty eye hole, propped up against a small tower of computer disks detailing every battle the Titans ever fought against him. Components from a wrecked Sladebot overflowed out of a cardboard box left to collect dust in a corner. Even the black uniform Robin was forced to wear as Slade's apprentice was being worn by a quiet, blank faced dummy.
Aching hand no-doubt bruised now, Robin resumed his pacing around his cramped workshop, the new computer disk Slade had delivered atop Raven's unconscious body danced between his restless fingers.
A suspicion gnawed at the back of his head. Something about all this seemed…off, somehow…
Recalling the gymnasium's utter ruin, Robin wondered how Slade could've walked away from it so easily…he wasn't immune to Raven's powers…not even Trigon was immune to the dark gifts he bestowed to his own daughter.
Could it be…?
Excavating his computer from the clutter of papers, Robin pulled up Titans' Tower's security records. Aside from their bedrooms and lavatories (obviously), all of the Tower was wired and constantly monitored by cameras from the fully automated security systems Cyborg had installed. While the camera in the gym had been destroyed (along with most of the gym as well), its record hadn't. The entirety of Raven's clash with Slade was fully intact in the computer archives.
Not feeling like sifting through endless hours of useless footage, Robin ran a search query around the timeframe of this afternoon for the gym. Fast forwarding a bit, he clicked to mouse for normal speed as the blazing black bird that was Raven's soul-self first phased into the room.
The following minutes left Robin's eyes widening.
"What the hell?"
(You picked up the G-52 assault-rifle)
(You picked up 563 rounds for the G-52 assault-rifle)
(You picked up a med-kit)
Beast Boy sat blankly in the pig-sty that was his room. Eyes glazed and unfocused, his fingers numbly operated the controller for his video game. Heavy gunfire and alien screams of agony squawked from the T.V. speakers. The green gamer took no notice as a heavy form sat itself down heftily beside him.
(Player Two has entered the game)
(Player Two has picked up the RFH-Cannon)
(Player Two picked up energy cells for the RFH-Cannon)
"Dude," Cyborg gasped next to him. "Is this the new Earth Invaders: Doomsday Edition?"
The Changeling nodded, dulled eyes never leaving the screen. "Yeah. Bought it today at the mall."
"Sweet."
Neither of them spoke as they thumbed away at their videogame. Explosions, gunfire, alien howls, and the unmistakable hum of Cy's RFH-Cannon blowing an alien juggernaut it half filled the silence between the two like a strange, foreign language.
(Player One picked up the Chainsaw)
Cyborg's human eye gave Beast Boy a worried glance. BB was being distant, and quiet. Even a complete stranger who knew the green prankster for five minutes on a normal day could tell something to bothering the kid. He wasn't even trash-talkin'!
Determined to help his best bud, Cyborg spoke up compassionately.
"Somethin' bothering ya, man? You're gamin' skillz are crappin' out even worse than usual."
Turning his head slowly, Beast Boy's eyes narrowed.
(Player One eviscerated Player Two with the Chainsaw)
(Player One picked up the RFH-Cannon)
(Player Two respawns in five seconds)
"That was cold, BB. Real cold."
(Player Two has rejoined the game)
(Player One disintegrated Player Two)
Raven cracked her eyes open when her communicator rang at her hip. Her meditation may have been interrupted again, but at least she hadn't fallen on her ass.
Yanking the persistently chiming thing from her belt, Raven flipped it open to Robin's face. "What?"
"We need to talk, Raven." Robin said brusquely.
"I'm meditating here."
"Report to my workshop now. That's an order." His tone allowed no argument.
"Fine," she grumbled. "I'm on my way."
Robin cut the comm.-line before she could. Pulling up her hood, Raven returned her communicator to her side before exiting her room and turning down the hallway to Robin's workshop.
On her way, the dark girl realized she had never really been in Robin's little playroom before. Their fearless leader often locked himself in there whenever something frustrated him or if he was on the verge of a breakthrough. Now that Raven thought about it, even her room was visited more than Robin's workshop. Everyone kind of…kept away from it, mostly out of respect for Robin.
Fresh from her meditation, Raven easily pushed back a nagging apprehension. Robin never pulled rank, he didn't order, he asked.
Something had definitely gotten to him.
"The choice is yours, Titans. I so do hope you attend; if not for me, than for Raven's sake."
It wasn't difficult to guess what had Robin on edge.
She stopped at the end of a deserted hall, facing an unassuming, unmarked door. She rapped at it lightly.
A raven, tapping at a chamber door. She thought ironically. 'Nevermore'
The door slid soundlessly open. "Come in," Robin invited from inside.
Carefully stepping inside, she took in the dim lights and the room's Slade-related theme. "Love what you've done with the place."
Taking after his mentor, Robin melted from the darkness. His dark cape draped his athletic form much like Raven's cloak. "We need to talk."
"Yeah, heard you the first time."
Masked face stern and humorless, Robin crossed his arms. "Why is Slade after you?"
"Funny, I asked him the same question."
"I know."
She raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"I dug up the footage between you and Slade from the security archives," he explained. Titling his head to the computer, he said. "Computer: bring up bookmark tag 543."
Raven saw herself on the screen, pulling herself from the gymnasium floor, eyes glowing an angry white. "What do you want from me?" she had demanded the empty room.
The video-Raven wheeled about, following something invisible. Nothing else but her registered on the screen, yet she glared at an empty spot on the wall hatefully.
"I'm not interested having a chat with you," She spat to the blank wall.
The real Raven found herself reeling. It wasn't possible…Slade had been there…she had seen him.
"There's no-one else there, Raven," Robin said gently. "Even if Slade was somehow cloaked, he couldn't hide his voice from the audio-recorders. You were talking to something that wasn't there."
"What are you getting at, Robin?" she replied tensely.
"That time when we all watched that scary movie together…your powers created the things you feared into reality. Isn't it possible you thought you saw Slade? Couldn't it have been all in your head?"
"You're not really here, are you?" The video went on behind Robin.
The camera recorded no answer, but the Raven on the screen reacted as if she had received one.
"How do you explain the disk then?" Raven pointed out. "You saying we all imagined that, huh?"
"Your powers created a cloaked monster from a scary movie that grabbed all of us, why couldn't it conjure a computer disk?"
Raven felt the control she meditated hard to regain begin to slip. Doubt flooded her, along with guilt, resentment, helplessness…and anger.
"I felt Slade! I felt his hand on my shoulder! I felt his breath on my neck! I felt it when her smothered my face!"
Her power was like an frightened animal thrashing at its leash. It needed to strike out at something… Raven's self-control teetered.
"And I felt it when Slade punched me," Robin said. "I was so sure it was real, but it was just a hallucination, Rae."
"SHUT UP!" Her eyes flashed red for an instant, the wild sorcery within her took a life of its own, wishing nothing more than to reach out from the recesses of its host's soul and crush the pitiful mortal mocking it.
It wanted Robin.
It wanted to kill him…
NO!
She redirected her mental lash at something, anything, other than Robin.
Behind the costumed crime-fighter, the computer monitor was enveloped in black and shattered like glass. Robin jumped as it exploded.
Ashamed, Raven turned away from Robin, grateful her hood hid her. "I….I need to meditate."
Wrapping her cloak protectively around herself, Raven's form glowed black as she sank into the floor and phased out of the room.
'The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements.'
-Lady Macbeth, William Shakespeare's Macbeth
Things are picking up well, I'd say, so expect an update to come soon. As always, reviews are appreciated and constructive criticism is ever welcome.
The first day is over, and just two more
Before the fearsome Slade's Grand Retour.
Peace out, War in,
-Cy