Author: ferretgirl1124
Genre: Action/Adventure, angst
Rating: R
Warnings: Dark themes, graphic content, child abuse and death, implied character death
Pairings: RaexBB, RobxStar, KFxJinx, CyxBee, SpeedyxAqualad
Summary: Neko's return hails a new reign of terror, and her latest plot shows itself to be more terrible then the Titans could have ever imagined.
A/N: Have you everread something that nauseated and horrified you to the very pit of your soul, only to realize it was something you wrote? Welcome to 'I will' chapter 4. If you're weak of stomach...please, forgive me. Once this part is over, the third part will be much better. I'm trying to add a happy section to each chapter, to make it little easier to bear, but feel free to throw things at me if this one is too much.
"...The killer's rampage has continued into Arizona. A six-year-old, Devan Collins, resident of Quartzsite, was abducted from his bedroom late last night and found this morning on the front yard..."
Robin's fist connected with the desk, sending tremors through the sturdy peice of furniture. They had a serious problem now. This account brought up too many questions, and watching it for a third time hadn't help. The official documents offered only a few more clues.
This whole thing was strange. Either Neko was purposely messing with them, or they had a copycat killer (no pun intended, because the current situation was not one for puns). His team had retired to bed when they discovered that they had been going in circles for eight hours, and that it was well past midnight, but he couldn't quiet his brain enough to get some rest.
It just wasn't like Neko. None of her other attacks had been at all stealthy, done purposely to get their attention. But now that she had it, maybe she was trying to be more careful. The boy wonder's head hung in a mixture of exhaustion and defeat, his tired mind barely registering the sound of the door opening.
"Robin."
It wasn't a question. Turning to face his latenight visitor, the masked boy sighed and collapsed into a near-by chair, waving the figure into the room. "Raven. What are you doing up?"
"I had a nightmare. About the kids." The flat tone of her voice, so much colder then her usual monotone, told him all he needed to know. "Shouldn't you be sleeping? We leave tomorrow."
"I know." Standing, the dark haired boy began to pace, narrowed eyes focusing on the ground. The sorceress watched him, eyes following his restless movement almost wthout meaning too. "I just can't. This isn't like her at all. The boy had one wound, no poison, taken from his room in the middle of the night and returned to the house sometime between one and six a.m..."
"So she's playing with us."
"Or we have a copycat killer."
Raven's dark eyebrow arched sceptically as she crossed her arms. "This has been in the news for less then a week, and it only became national news once she moved into another state. The likelyhood of a copycat is very slim."
Scowling, Robin turned back to the files and skimmed them again. "I know, rational thought says it makes no sense. But no one could change their patterns that much."
"Unless she's consciously making an effort. She's a sociopath, Robin. I know that you of all people understand how dangerous that makes her. Worse, she's an intelligent sociopath, so she might be changing her patterns to throw us off track."
"So our only wild card is Trickster."
"Yes." Raven's face twisted momentarily, fortunately obscured by her hood's shadow and the room's gloom. Yes, Trickster was a wild card. But was he enough of one? Neko had analyzed them, and done it carefully; she could tell just by the planning that had gone into the capture that had led to the catgirl's inital arrest. So, was it completely out of the question that she might realize that they would go to her cronies for information? No...it was more likely paranoia; after all, she probably thought that Trickster was dead. "Come on. We should get some sleep."
"Oh, come on! You guys can't be serious!"
"Raven?"
"Right."
"Mmph!"
Trickster flailed, glaring at the group of teens standing in a tight circle around him. His arms were wrapped in a pitch black substance, and the same goo covered his mouth, thankfully muffling the cries of indignation he was attempting to issue. They had been traveling for two hours, aided by the sorceress's powers, a decision that had been made unanimously when they realized that Neko had to have been traveling through the state on foot or in stolen cars. Using a floating platform of aura gave them the chance to see her no matter how she was moving.
"We're almost to Tucson. Has anyone seen anything?" The whine in Beast Boy's voice was surprisingly grating, and the others twitched. He sat down on the edge of the platform and began kicking his legs idily, glaring down at the ground.
Raven bit her lip and took a deep breath, trying to get her emotions under control before she caused her friends to plunge to their death. "If we had seen anything, don't you think we would have said something?"
"Rae's right, BB. Stop whinin' and help us look." Cyborg cast his green friend an irritated look before returning to work. His expression brightened slightly as he saw something flying towards."Hey, y'all, Star's back!"
Starfire landed on the now slightly expanded platform and glanced between them, crossing her arms underneath her breasts and turning away from Trickster's stare. She had been sent on a scouting mission, but nothing on her face spoke of good news. "Freinds...I have found nothing. I do wish that she had run to a cooler place, though..." Her normally orange skin was even darker, indicating a painful, if not severe, sunburn.
"Don't we all."
Raven's dry remark was ignored as they settled in, the others soon following Beast Boy's example and sitting down. There was no real reason to guard Trickster...after all, if he escaped the only reward would be a fifty foot plunge to the hard packed desert floor.
"This...camping is most intriguing. Are we going to be doing the roasting of marshmallows? And the running from lake monsters?"
"Beast Boy, I told you to stop showing my girlfriend those cheesy teen horror movies!"
"I didn't!"
"It's eight o' clock, 100 degrees, and you're fighting over movies."
"C'mon, y'all! I'm tired!"
"This state does much with the sucking, yes?"
"Yeah, Star. It sucks like Speedy and Aqualad locked in a room together."
"Beast Boy!"
"...I do not understand."
"You don't want to."
Trickster stared at the two tents, gaping under the muzzle of aura. He had been tied to what passed for a tree in the deeper parts of the desert state, and the rough bark scraped against his arms painfully; he was sure he'd be bleeding by the morning. Not that his sadist captors would care. They had finally stopped for the night an hour ago, throwing up two tents and cooking a quick meal before retiring for the night, leaving him out here in the heat. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the tempurature, the pain, and the slowly approaching coyote howls.
Okay, he definately agreed with the Titans. This state sucked.
Setting out the next morning was tough. A sudden thunderstorm struck, turning the shallow stream they had been camped next to into a raging river. The ground, usually dirt baked as hard as rock, was marshy. Three things were discovered that morning: their prisoner was drenched and potentially ill, they couldn't get a fire started to make breakfast, and the girls tent was sinking into the muck.
So, needless to say, it was a rather peeved group that dragged themselves into the air that day. Two were coated in mud, one was sneezing miserably every few seconds, and all were hungry.
The rest of the trip was the worst they had so experienced. Sure, that wasn't saying much, but it was a pretty good indication of what the rest would be like. It was hot, and the storm had brought up the humidity. Around two in the afternoon, Beast Boy caught Tricksters cold, almost killing them by sneezing and shifting into a T-rex on the narrow floating platform.
Another few hours passed, and there were still no reports. Neko couldn't have gotten far, so they decided to state in the god awful state until they heard something. Hopefully, they could catch her before she got farther then two states. They did not need a cross country goose chase; that would put too many innocents in danger, and all of them were having nightmares from the five they hadn't been able to save.
They were about to stop for the night when the report came in; another child, a three-year-old, had been found pinned to a tree in her front yard by shots from a staple gun that had been sent through her throat till she stuck. Raven paled and was forced to land, running into a nearby bush only moments before she lost the little food she had eaten that day. Star began to cry silently and clung to Cyborg, the only one who had managed to control his stomach. Left alone, hog tied and lying in the dirt, Trickster simply stared ahead, expression blank and eyes empty.
They left for New Mexico, where the report had come from, no one talking. Someday, maybe they would be able to speak of it. For now though, the six simply flew, eyes fixed on the horizon, stomachs and minds reeling.
"We were stupid."
Cyborg glared into the fire, the light dance across his face. They had been forced to stop for the night when they were less then thirty miles from the border. It was letting her get ahead at a time when Raven should have simply teleported them to the town the latest victim was found, and they despised the delay, but after a few minutes of flying, the platform had begun to flicker as the sleepless nights and the constant distractions caught up with her. It was decided that to keep themselves alive, they would have to stop for the night.
They had landed, grudingly set up camp, and started a fire along with the current conversation.
"We were stupid." Beast Boy glanced up as his metallic friend repeated himself, frowning. "We underestimated her, and she got away. How the hell did she get to New Mexico so damn fast? We stopped for one night!"
"Eight stolen cars." Robin stood on the edge of the light, arms crossed with his fists clenched tight enough that his nails would have dug gouges in the palms if it weren't for his gloves. "And even if we had left as soon as we had found out, she would have been long gone. The kid had been there for two hours. Her mom was asleep when she was kidnapped, and she was pinned to the back of the tree, so the only way to see her was through the house's living room window."
Beast Boy winced and turned, hiding his face in Raven's shoulder. "Dude...this...can we handle her? She's moving so fast, and she's so...sick. That little girl's parents finding her like that..."
Wincing, Starfire pulled her legs up to her chest and buried her head in her arms. "I do not know. I have never seen anything like this. On Tamaran, to commit such an act would have been the worst of offenses, warranting immediate extermination."
"Extermination." Raven mulled over the word, tasting it, and nodded slowly. It was a word more fit for a bug or a rabid dog then a human, but in this case, it seemed to work perfectly. Perhaps because Neko was rabid mentally, if not physically. "It's not exactly excepted here, but most people can't do anything. And if a civilian went after Neko..."
A shudder ran through the assembly and Cyborg poked at the logs distastfully. "Man...even Slade was never this bad...how are we supposed to deal with some one like her?"
"The same way we've dealt with everyone else." The masked Titan finally joined the group, kneeling next to his girlfriend and wrapping an arm around her comfortingly. "We've beat the Brotherhood of Evil, H.I.V.E, Slade, Brother Blood. We can handle one crazed catgirl. We just need to move fast tomorrow, and try not to get discouraged. I know can do this, Titans."
The pep talk almost failed, but Beast Boy grinned slightly and sat up. "Yeah! Robin's right. We beat everything that comes our way! Plus, we've beat her before, and she doesn't even have her team with her now."
A green eye peeked at them as Starfire looked up, smiling slightly. "Yes! We shall show her what it would be like to be a Tamaranean criminal."
"I'll make her regret even thinking of touching those children."
"Rob's right. The Brain makes this chick look like nothing! We can take her out, easy."
Robin looked around at his team and smiled. They were together again, and they were finally willing to work for this. They had managed to defeat the most powerful demon in the universe; a simple psycho should be a peice of cake to destroy. None of them noticed Trickster, once again tied to a tree and out of the firelight, shake his head slowly and regretfully.
They really had no idea what they were up against.