~RavensMind~
For the Excluded
Chapter 22: Despair's Architect, or How Scarecrow Summoned a Demon
"Fear."
Black skies. White stars. Her memory tower in view, Raven rose from the rocky ground and glanced around the landscape of her mind. Why was she here? The last thing she could recall was taking Beast Boy back to the safehouse to check him out with her friends, yet here she was. Her consciousness would not return to her body, she was here whether she chose to be or not. How? What could manage to force her into her own mind like this?
Cleverness.
The orange clad emotion appeared beside her. The look on her face was grim. Raven then realized she did not know where her emotions were, as she normally did. Such severed ties did not bode well.
"Why am I here? Why can't I remember much?" Raven asked.
"You've lost some time, however I have managed to recover the details of the past day," Cleverness began.
"Past day?! Is that how much time I've lost?" Raven asked.
"Largely, yes. You and your friends managed to find Scarecrow and his bomb. For all intents and purposes, it is...no longer a threat to the city. Certain events have put you and your friends in mortal danger," Cleverness continued.
"What happened? Where are they?" Raven asked.
"I'll show you the last thing I pulled from your memory," Cleverness replied.
Raven's vision faded and she slipped into the scene Cleverness revealed to her. The Titans and Batman stood in the center of a large factory room, guns pointed at them from all sides: guards on the catwalks, amongst the machinery, coming from behind them. Directly in front of them stood Scarecrow alongside Two Face and a pair of Hive agents. Scarecrow held a phone in one hand, and his gas mask in the other.
"You are too late. Your hope is lost. I have won. A missile loaded with my toxin shall launch in a matter of seconds….Ah, and there it is. All too familiar, your scared faces, I've seen many. Shock will bleed into dread, then your minds will go down the stages of denial. At the end, you will know the depth of your failure," Scarecrow said, pacing in front of them.
"As long as we're fighting, we haven't failed," Robin said.
"Fool. You do not grasp it, your city is done. You are done. I will see to it that none of you escape and I shall know your fears when I am done with-," Scarecrow started.
The phone in his hand began to ring, the high-pitched banshee of a ringtone echoing around the room. He answered it and stepped off to one side.
"What? Impossible. What do you mean gone? It's going to fire in less than a minute, no one shall stop it, no one can stop it…... NO! DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Scarecrow yelled into the phone.
Seconds passed before the building shook violently, dust falling from the ceiling, windows shattered, and clouds of gas engulfed the room. One by one, everyone in the room fell to their knees, hands over their mouths and noses before they all hit the floor. She felt something surge through her before she blacked out.
Slowly, Raven was pulled from the memory, once again standing on the rocks outside her tower with Cleverness. The fear toxin had taken them all down. Everyone in the room. Somehow it had to have been released, part of Scarecrow's plan went awry. It was hardly the biggest problem, her friends were all suffering from the fear toxin. She had to help them. There was no telling what horrors they were enduring, though, she didn't seem to be suffering from any. The only things that were amiss in her mind were that she couldn't leave it and her emotions weren't around.
"Where are my emotions?" Raven asked.
"Preventing Despair from escaping. It's taking everything we have to keep her locked away, well, almost everything. Wrath is missing," Cleverness said.
"Missing how?" Raven asked.
"I...do not know, she vanished when you showed up here," Cleverness said.
"Strange. I know my friends are in trouble, is there anything I can do to help them?" Raven asked.
"Perhaps. You could try taking the bridge over to Robin's manor and check on him, I have yet to hear anything from him or his emotions to start. I shall think of a way to help the others, though we have little means of doing so," Cleverness said.
Without another word, Raven ran for the bridge, hoping that Robin was okay, that he'd be able to help. With any luck, Batman might've told him something about Scarecrow's toxin and how to beat it.
Hope and luck were all that armed her.
RRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
The clouds of gas had settled in the factory room, reducing all visibility.
For mortals.
Wrath looked out of Raven's eyes, windows of her cockpit, and slowly stood up. Nothing moved. Bodies were strewn everywhere. She located Raven's friends easily enough, but they could wait. All life could wait. She had come for Scarecrow. Stepping over passed out soldiers, she came to where the villain had stood. He was nowhere to be seen. She could sense him though. He wasn't far. She flexed her fingers and called on the power that had been forbidden to her for so long. She rose into the air and flew to the nearest door. Locked.
Funny.
Black magic engulfed the door and it was ripped from its hinges. She flew on her way, determined to do one thing. Find one person. End his insane existence. Then save Raven and her friends. Neither task would take long. As she flew down the hall, it occurred to her that Raven might object to her slaughtering the idiot that played with emotions. She was not here to object, but Wrath would consider the idea, maybe she could make him suffer instead of killing him. Prisons were too quaint, they didn't trap people forever. Proper vengeance was vital, it wouldn't do if he could return and visit the same fate upon more people.
Free of Trigon's control, Wrath could finally consider how to exact her will. The end of things was not the most terrible thing, it would be far worse for one to wish for their own end to come. With the power available to her, she could easily rend Scarecrow in a matter of moments, but how could it make him suffer instead? He would pay dearly for his senseless actions.
Wrath passed through another room, advancing through the building, seeking her target in the courtyard just outside. Scarecrow was not moving fast, walking at a leisurely pace to a vehicle as though his next destination was the park.
He thinks he's alone.
He thinks he's safe.
He.
Is wrong.
I. Falling Grayson: Robin's Terror
Alerts. Too many to count, no time to respond to all of them. There was only so much he could do. Every loss was another blow to him. To think that he had anything left to lose. The now middle aged Richard Grayson stood in the dark, too familiar cave his mentor had made into the greatest war room on the planet. Bruce, oh, what would he say if he could see Gotham now?
The years had not been gentle to the now former Robin. Nothing was left for him. He was forced into the position he now claimed out of necessity. After the Joker finally claimed the life of his ward, mentor, and old friend, Bruce Wayne, he had taken up the mantle of the dark knight. Enemies were everywhere, Slade threatened Gotham and the planet.
He'd do anything to bring his friends back. They had all been brutally taken out by Slade's machinations. He'd been powerless to stop the onslaught that had eviscerated them. One by one they had died. Starfire had been ripped from the sky and pummeled to death by her sister, Blackfire. Cyborg fell apart at the hands of Brother Blood, who exacted explosive revenge on him and the Titans East. Beast Boy had morphed one too many times and had been grinded into bits by the new Hive recruits. All honorary Titans had mysteriously vanished. The final stab in the heart was when Raven was captured by Slade and tortured until she succumbed to her Anger, the demon within using every power in her Arsenal with reckless abandon, only to burn her out, which ultimately killed her.
He had little time for that old pain to haunt him now. Sorrow wasn't something he should feel, it wouldn't stop Slade. Nothing had stopped Slade. While Joker may have killed Bruce Wayne, Slade had the last laugh, and delivered the clown Prince of crime to his doom. Such was the fate of any rival criminal.
He had no one to help him, the Justice League was off fighting other threats, and Alfred had passed away shortly after Bruce died. Another horrible blow. He had no time to train anyone. No time for himself. He was the Batman and nothing would keep the Batman from his task.
He turned from the batcomputer to go to the waiting batmobile when a sudden movement in the shadows caught his eye.
Someone was here.
He was about to reach for a weapon in his utility belt up until he saw who the intruder was.
Raven.
She hadn't aged at all. Not a hair was out of place. His last mental image of her was as clear as ever - he had no doubt it was her. Was he insane? Was she a trick of Slade's?
"Raven? Is it really you? How are you here? How are you alive?" Robin asked, bewildered.
"Robin. Listen to me, this isn't real. You're trapped in a nightmare, it will kill you if you don't snap out of it," Raven explained.
"No. It's real, Slade won, he killed you and our friends. Everything depends on me, I have to stop him, Gotham needs me, it needs Batman," Robin protested.
"I know it's difficult, but think. Isn't it odd that nothing has gone well for you? And you haven't mentioned Scarecrow," Raven said.
"Scarecrow? The name is familiar, but I don't know why. Things are as they are, I can't change them, only do what's right for all the people who've been hurt or killed," he said.
"Our friends need our help. I need your help. We need to end these nightmares. Please, why would I lie to you? If I'm dead, how am I here now?" Raven asked.
"Say I believe you, how do I stop it?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. We were gassed with Scarecrow's fear toxin, maybe the answer is related to a fear of yours," she replied.
"What fear? I don't have time for fear, I'm trying to save people," he said.
"Think. I don't know everything you're afraid of," she said.
"Losing you? Losing our friends? Fighting Slade again?" he guessed.
"I think you'd be dealing with our deaths here if it was either of the first two, but Slade might be part of it," she said.
"Slade is part of everything. I have Intel on every operation of his, every ally, every enemy, I know the situation. Saving the city from him is all that matters now, I have to stop him," he said.
"You sound like Batman," she said.
Her words burned him, he hated the association, the implication that he somehow was anything like Batman. He was different, that's why he left, he didn't want to follow Batman.
He looked around the batcave. Everything in here was his. He knew every inch of his stronghold. His eyes settled on the batmobile, the fully equipped, sleek, tank of a car. It was all his. Something a ways off against the wall near the batmobile caught his eye.
Walking past Raven, he touched a tarp that covered something large. He pulled it off and examined the motorcycle it revealed. Red, black, and yellow, with an 'R' on the front.
Robin's motorcycle.
No - his motorcycle.
How had he forgotten it? He looked from it to the batmobile and questioned why the contrast of the two bugged him. They were both his, yet they weren't. Slowly, he began to piece together a truth he never really processed on a personal level since he thought he watched his friends die.
"I am Batman," he said, his voice soft and empty.
"You're not," she said.
"No, I'm not," he agreed, "I never wanted to be."
"Then why are you acting like it here?" she asked.
"I thought I had no other choice, but it's the last thing I would do," he replied.
"Maybe there's something else we're not seeing," she said.
"I think I get it now, if what you said is true," he said.
Robin walked over to Raven and removed the cowl from his head and handed it to her.
"I'm afraid of turning into Batman," he said.
Gradually, the batcave faded in their vision and it morphed into the library of Robin's memory manor. His emotions all sighed in relief and dragged a Robin in a gray uniform to his feet.
So Robin dealt with his Fear.
II. Sideshow Act: Beast Boy's Terror
That fucking carnival music.
Day in and day out, it pushed Beast Boy further toward a runaway train of mania that threatened to consume him. He couldn't believe it, every day he spent in the cold, bleak cage felt like the first. The endless crowds that passed his cage brought him nothing but pain. Watching them walk by, tossing popcorn at the glass like he was the ugliest sideshow drained him of life. Once in a while he would be thrown into an arena and forced to fight enhanced beasts for the amusement of the crowds.
His cursed memory couldn't let him forget how he had ended up like this. The Brotherhood of Evil took it upon themselves to capture him when he was on patrol alone one night in Jump City. They stripped him of anything that would've let his friends track him. In all likelihood, they were still searching for him. He had no clue what city zoo he was in, but it didn't matter. He was trapped in a special containment unit that resisted every attempt he'd made to break it.
Every day, the Brain would show up and gloat, telling him how easy it was to capture him, how hopeless his situation was, and how his friends should just grieve, rather than scour the earth for him. The only thing that sustained him were the memories of his life before he'd been captured. Gaming with Cyborg and Robin, skipping rocks with Terra, trying to make Starfire and Raven laugh, and his sweet TV. He missed it all.
The gray walls outside his confined space gave no entertainment. He could see the other animals in their own glass enclosures, but he couldn't talk to them, or hear them. The low lights always made it feel just past dusk, regardless of the time of day. He never knew what time it was. What made it worse was that his two meals were nothing but rubbery chicken. He either had to eat meat or starve.
Once in a while, one of the Brotherhood might show up and torment him, but otherwise he spoke to no one.
Total isolation.
His ears perked up when he thought he heard a familiar voice coming from down the hall outside his enclosure. He bounded to the glass and peered out, straining to see around the corner.
No way.
Robin and Raven were coming down the hall toward him at a run. They stopped short just in front of him, panting.
"Guys! Thank fuck! Get me outta here!" Beast Boy exclaimed.
"Beast Boy, this isn't real. You're stuck in a nightmare caused by Scarecrow's fear toxin," Raven explained.
"Wha?! Dude, no, I've been sitting in this dump of a sideshow for like years! You don't know what it's been like! No way it's all in my head," Beast Boy said.
"She's right. She helped me out of my own nightmare, we need to get you out of yours," Robin said.
"Uhhh, no dude, I'd know if I was dreaming, it's been hell. Get me outta here and stop messing around," Beast Boy said.
"Do you think we'd leave you like this for years? Don't you think we'd've found you before now?" Robin asked.
"Well...sure, but I dunno, sometimes we're not lucky," Beast Boy replied.
"Has anything good happened to you since you were taken?" Raven asked, "have you been happy about anything for even a second?"
"Uhh, no. Everything's horrible and I gotta leave," Beast Boy replied.
"The only way out is accepting your fear," Raven said, "admit what you're most afraid of."
"I dunno? There've been times where I thought I wouldn't be able to control myself. Like, being the dangerous animals would make me savage," Beast Boy wondered aloud.
"Perfect. Now embrace it," Raven said.
"What? How?" Beast Boy asked.
"Don't fight it, be what you fear," Robin replied.
Looking all around his enclosure, Beast Boy tried to focus on something that might help him accept this. He was a sideshow attraction at a low quality zoo. Okay, that wasn't going to change, but he could. He strode toward the glass and pressed a button near the edge of the display. The floor beneath him shifted as a lift took him up, the ceiling split apart, and he emerged into a vast arena. Crowds of spectators jeered from the many bleachers that surrounded the field. A forest stood between him and whatever his opponent was. Now, he faced it down eagerly.
A pack of massive wolves with alligator teeth charged through the trees, seeking their target. Beast Boy morphed into a gorilla, then bounded toward them. The first leapt up at him and he clocked it in the face. He tossed it to his left as another bolted into his view. He swiped it aside with his massive fists and slammed it to the ground. He stopped caring about whether or not they lived, stopped caring about the crowds, if this was all fake, why not let loose? Why not give in to the instincts of something vicious?
With that thought, something surged within him and he morphed into the hulking form of a T-Rex. He caught one of his enemies in his jaws and crushed it, the animal's blood drenching the forest floor. The crowd fell terribly silent and the remaining wolves backed away from him. He pursued them into the woods, destroying the trees and brush as he moved. Just as he went to snatch another wolf, the world around him began to fade until he saw only blackness.
Gradually, stars filled the pitch black, and he found himself standing on a familiar floating rock. He recognized the green clad version of Raven that flew down and met him on the rock.
"Yeah, nice moves!" Raven's bravery said.
"Thanks, uhh, why am I here? I thought I'd wake up or something?" Beast Boy asked.
"We need to group up first! Get ready to deliver the smackdown to whoever we find when we wake up," Bravery replied.
"I have to wait here?" he asked.
"Yep! Robin and Raven are going to get the others and join us," she replied.
"Dude, why can't I help?" he asked.
"Cause you don't have the powers to do that, duh. Raven is the one who gets in people's heads, and Rob has a bond with her, so she can bring him along," she replied.
"Lame, so what am I supposed to do?" he asked.
"Rae says to stay here… and try not to do anything stupid," she replied.
III. Metal Meltdown: Cyborg's Terror
What he wouldn't give for just one thing to work. Maybe if he'd only tinkered longer, the upgrades would last. No matter how hard he tried, every attempt at a technological improvement was a failure. He used to be a natural, though he could barely remember what that had been like. The mistakes were beyond counting and the costs too great.
Cyborg sat at a work table in a cold, metal bunker pouring over blueprints. The metal parts of his body were outdated and worn. Sparks occasionally flew from the arm that housed his sonic cannon, his red eye flickered, and he had to spend a few minutes adjusting the screws in his legs before he could stand up from his chair. The squeaks in his joints he heard every time he took a step used to drive him mad, now it was routine.
Surrounded by spare parts and broken equipment, one would be forgiven for assuming the room he inhabited was just a store room for things on their way to the dump, but no, this was all he had to work with now. All he deserved for all the errors in programming and construction. His mistakes had caused everything.
Cyborg had installed several upgrades into the T-Car, Robin's R Cycle, and the Tower itself over the course of a week, and they seemed like they'd been successful. After a day, things started going horribly wrong. During a high speed chase, the engines of Robin's motorcycle and the T Car exploded. Cyborg had been the lucky one to survive. He managed to drag the bodies of his friends away from the wreckage before both vehicles were incinerated. At least he could give them a proper burial. They deserved so much better. Devastated, he returned to the tower to find it engulfed in flames, being doused with water in every direction by firefighters.
He did not have time to repair things, as Brother Blood had returned - hovering in a massive, armed airship built from advanced tech he had never seen before. Cyborg barely made it into the safety of a bunker he had constructed beneath Titans Tower before the bombs fell. What remained of the tower was reduced to rubble. Everything he had come to know and love had been eradicated by either his mistakes or the act of an evil mad man.
Now, he sat and worked on weapons he might be able to use against Brother Blood. He had tried to call on the other Titans around the world for help, but the communication network had either failed or was taken out. Watching things fall apart was all he seemed to do, as every success was merely a delayed failure. Toying with tech used to be his wheelhouse, but now he came to hate how reliant he was on the machines that both kept him moving and served him to fight.
A loud clang behind him jolted him from his work and he would have sprung to his feet if he was able to do so. Instead, he turned his head quickly and surveyed the room, looking for the source of the disturbance. He gasped and wondered if he was hallucinating as he found two familiar intruders standing in the doorway of his work room.
"Raven? Robin? You're alive?!" Cyborg asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, sorry, but we don't have much time to go over things - this isn't real, it's a nightmare caused by Scarecrow's fear gas," Raven replied quickly, crossing the room to Cyborg's side.
"We were knocked out and we're all asleep on the floor of a factory in Gotham, we all need to wake up," Robin explained, joining Raven at Cyborg's work table.
"Are you sure? Everything feels so...real. I know what my dreams are like, man, even my bad ones, and they're not this," Cyborg said.
"I promise it's not real. I don't know what happened to you here, but you have to trust us," Raven said.
"Yeah, of course I trust you, but I don't know what you want me to do. I can barely stand up here," Cyborg said, indicating the state of his disrepair and busted tech.
"You need to admit what you're most afraid of and accept it, otherwise you'll still be trapped in the nightmare," Raven said.
"And I'm just supposed to know what scares me the most?" Cyborg asked.
"We can help you figure it out," Robin replied.
"Man, I don't know. I thought when you guys...well, when I lost you guys in this dream, that that was it, but I guess not - I'm still here. I just can't get anything to work, it all breaks. D'you know how much stuff I've tried to build? Repair? Nothing stays together. Is that it?" Cyborg asked.
"It's possible, but I don't know how you'd embrace that," Raven said.
"I think maybe it's that you're not gonna be able to fix everything, but that's okay, you keep going - you keep fighting, no matter what happens," Robin suggested.
"Easy for you to say, you try fighting Brother Blood like this," Cyborg said, pointing to his sparking sonic cannon.
"Have you tried?" Robin asked.
"I mean...no, but I know I won't last two seconds," Cyborg replied.
"You can and you will," Raven replied.
After some coaxing and assistance, Cyborg finally emerged from his bunker beneath Titans Tower. Several drones and henchmen of Brother Blood awaited, either hovering or patrolling the area. Weapons were pointed at him as he stepped into view. Brother Blood's voice mocked him through one of the larger drones, highlighting his disrepair and inferior designs. Cyborg flipped a switch on his arm and an energy pulse shot out in all directions of him. The drones short-circuited and fell from the sky, while the guns and electric devices on the bodies of the henchmen also short-circuited. Even as a piece of Cyborg's tech failed on his leg, he rushed forward and began slamming his fists into the henchmen, his heart pounding harder with every punch. He took some hits himself, suffering more damage to his bodily-components, but was ultimately surprised that he was still standing and functional after the fight.
The scene faded before him and he found himself standing beside Beast Boy on a rock, floating in a familiar dark space. Beast Boy clapped him on the back and smiled widely at his appearance, before filling him in on what else was happening. He also relayed Bravery's instruction to stay put, which was fine to him, he was just glad nothing was actually wrong with him, and he could breathe a bit easier, not having to wonder if everything on him was going to fall apart.
IV. Lost in Space: Starfire's Terror
That surely could not be the same asteroid, could it? It must be impossible to have gone in a circle this far out in the depths of space. Tired and dirty, Starfire flew onward, hoping against all odds that she would find something that would direct her home. She had no idea how long she had been flying or where she currently was in space. She only knew that she had lost sight of her friends and the T-ship during a battle in space and assumed that she was flying in the direction of Earth. She passed a small planet once in a while, that despite the relative vegetation and water, would be devoid of life. She would scrounge what she could for food and drink, sleep, and fly onward.
After so much time alone in space, she worried that she would never see anyone again. To put in one way, if her conniving, back-stabbing sister showed her face, Starfire would jump at the chance to talk to her, so desperate was she for some form of contact with something other than herself. Her memories of her friends was what had kept her company, kept her from dipping over the edge of sanity. Even that only went so far for her.
There was no one.
Not even ghosts. Just her.
Drifting through space with nothing to do gave her time to think of all she wanted to do when she found her friends again, all that she would tell them, and it kept her moving forward when her body was demanding for her to stop. She missed Beast Boy's jokes, Cyborg's cooking, meditating with Raven, Robin's team pep talks, the parties they had with Titans East, and the sights and sounds of the occasionally peaceful Jump City.
Another planet gradually came into view and she felt her heart jump in her chest. Her excitement faded upon realization that it was not Earth, or even Tamaran. All the same, she was glad that it meant she'd have a chance to at least rest if there wasn't anything else she could find. Her boots dug into the sandy shores of the unknown planet and she breathed deeply, somewhat relieved to discover that there was air to breathe. Air meant that she could bring her friends here, if she ever saw them again.
Much like the other planets she had visited, this one also seemed devoid of any lifeforms. She managed to find some apple trees with plenty for her to eat and a clear lake nearby, so she did not have to go far to scavenge. As she sat in the grass beside the lake, munching on her apple, she was hit with another wave of loneliness. She liked to give Silkie apples once in a while, and the little bug would gobble them in a bite and manage to spit out the core and seeds. She wished she could share her apples with him again, she would buy out the whole produce section again if she could. She just hoped the store clerks would not get upset like last time.
She was probably kidding herself at this point, it was looking less and less likely that she would ever make it home.
The sound of a snapping twig made her drop her apple and bolt to her feet, partly out of fear, partly out of excitement. She twirled around, her eyes glowing green - ready for anything. She stopped dead and took a moment to process and went from a battle stance to a full-fledged run, embracing the intruders in a near bone-crushing hug.
"Friends! I am overjoyed to see you! But...oh, what happened while I was gone? Where are Cyborg and Beast Boy? And how did you discover where I was?" Starfire asked, releasing them from her embrace.
"It's good to see you too, Star. Nothing happened, well, it did, I mean-, this might be hard to understand, but uhh-," Robin started.
"What he's trying to say is we're not really here, none of this is real. We're all asleep, trapped in our own dreams... thanks to Scarecrow's toxin," Raven said.
"That is...not possible, I believe I would know if I was asleep. Everything that has occurred has felt very real to me. I have been traveling for so long, alone, I refuse to believe it has been for nothing!" Starfire objected.
"I wish it wasn't true, but you have to believe us, or we're not getting out of here. We already helped Beast Boy and Cyborg with their dreams, and Raven helped me," Robin said.
"If that is true, then surely Raven would have had difficulty as well, yes? How did she get out of her own dream?" Starfire asked.
"I didn't have one. My Fear was locked away before I got hit by Scarecrow's toxin, so it didn't affect me...much," Raven replied.
"Let us say I believe you, how do I stop this...this dream?" Starfire asked.
"You need to face your fear, whatever it is," Raven replied.
"How do I identify it? There are several things I am frightened of in this 'dream,'" Starfire said.
"It should be one that's bugging you more than others, at least that's what we've experienced," Robin explained.
"This dream is centered around it, as we've come to learn with Robin's, Cyborg's, and Beast Boy's," Raven added.
"Oh! I have missed you all so much! Perhaps that is the problem? I feel terribly lonely," Starfire suggested.
"So, you're afraid of being alone?" Robin asked.
"That would make sense. I do not believe I have been by myself frequently in my life. Even on my home planet, I rarely left my family for long. I do not enjoy being alone and my time here has been excruciatingly difficult, I cannot stand it!" Starfire replied.
"In that case, you need to embrace that fear in order to end the dream. Try accepting the loneliness," Raven suggested.
"I believe if I could, I would not still be in this dream. It is also difficult to accept something I no longer feel. I am no longer lonely, you and Robin are here!" Starfire pointed out happily.
"Hmm, fair point," Raven said, "but we can't leave without you."
"We don't have to leave the dream, we could just go somewhere else here," Robin said.
"True. Okay, just hope it doesn't take too long, not like we're in a safe place to sleep in the real world," Raven said dryly.
"Star's got it, right, Star?" Robin asked.
"Yes! I shall not let you down!" Starfire replied, "Oh, I shall try to meditate, as you once said it helps with this kind of thing, yes?"
"Perfect. See you soon, Star," Raven said.
True to their word, Robin and Raven left Starfire meditating by the lake as they walked out of sight and sound. Starfire hovered in the air as she closed her eyes and began meditating, letting everything else slide from her mind, centering herself, and finding the threads of her discarded loneliness. Soothing the anxieties that had been tormenting her for seemingly countless hours took some work, but her meditation helped, and she felt the loneliness gradually slip into the folds of her subconscious. Any fear she may have felt began to fade and she wondered why she ever worried about it at all. Every feeling, no matter how horrible, fades, and she didn't need to get lost in it.
When Starfire opened her eyes once more, she was no longer by a lake on an unknown planet. Instead, she was standing beside Cyborg and Beast Boy on a rock in the middle of a black sea of stars. They both told her where she was and why they were there, but she did not care, she was just happy to see them again.
V. Knightfall: Batman's Terror.
"I couldn't have done it better myself! Thank you so much for your assistance, Bruce-y! Now, where is that butler of yours?" Joker asked, laughing at the helpless Batman through an earpiece.
It was like being trapped in the driver's seat of a car with no means to control the vehicle as it ran over pedestrian after pedestrian, and no way to look away. The Joker had managed to infect Bruce with something that allowed Joker to control his body. He stood on the roof of the burning GCPD, Gordon's broken, bloody body at his feet, and Gotham in flames before him. The Joker made him do all of it. He had watched himself kill so many people.
The senseless glee that the Joker took from the activity only made him laugh harder and cause more harm. Try as he might, Batman could not wrest control away from the Joker, and there was still a lot of planet left to ruin.
Of course, it would have been worse if it had been real.
Batman had worked out he was dreaming after the first murder Joker made him commit. He had taken enough hits of Scarecrow's toxin to know how it messed with his head, but he had never been hit this hard. Usually, he could power through it, his mind would not fold to the toxin, and he would continue on after the initial shock and he could get an antidote in his veins after that. Here, though, there had been no time to try and power through, he had been knocked out, and was incredibly vulnerable while he wasted time in the prison of a dream.
"See, I don't need to ask, old-boy, but it's more fun if I do! Now, where do you suppose I should start? Should I take off his fingers one at a time, see if he can count to ten as I go? Or should I just beat him to a pulp? The options are….endless, really!" Joker continued.
"Doesn't matter what I say. It's not happening," Batman said.
"Oh, but it IS happening! Think I'm just in your head? Think that I didn't make you turn the city into your new fireplace?! Think again, Bruce-y! This is my city, my body, and I'll find a way to make you laugh at it - if I have to kill every hapless, helpless fool in this city - on this planet - to do it!" Joker countered.
"Save it, it's just a dream. I'm wasting my time here," Batman said.
"Then as long as it's just a dream, you won't mind if we take a stroll down to Wayne Manor for a little soiree? How bout it, Bruce-y?!" Joker asked.
Batman did not respond. He would only continue wasting his time if he did. It was bad enough that he felt like he hadn't prepared enough to deal with the toxin. He was more concerned with how Robin and his team were fairing. They had no preparation for this, no prior exposure to the toxin, or even time to study any negative effects. They needed his help. Maybe Robin would have recalled something, though he had tried to keep his sidekick away from Scarecrow when he was teaching him. He should have done more for the boy before he let him go, taught him better, but the departure of the boy wonder had not been something he had planned.
"Y'know, you're not making this any more fun for yourself! Might as well talk! C'mon, live a little! Who should I shoot after the butler? Catwoman? Should we see if she has eight lives?" Joker asked.
Again, he saw no point in engaging the Joker, as that would not yield the result he wanted. He knew there was a way to unlock his mind and break free, but was still struggling with the path forward. He needed a trigger, something that would push him into a place his mind would not let him go, maybe that would let him escape.
He was moving now, grappling and gliding away from the GCPD, through the raging inferno that hid a city toward the elegant, luxurious mansion on the hill over the city that hid more than one of the world's greatest secrets. Joker was bent on finding Batman's breaking point, but it would never happen since he knew nothing that happened there mattered. Knowing it was not real was more torturous, since he had no idea what was happening in the real world while he wasted time in his head.
After what felt like hours soaring through flames, Batman found himself standing on the lawn of Wayne Manor. Yet, he was not alone. Robin and Raven stood opposite him, as though they had just been leaving the mansion and were startled by his appearance.
"Batman? None of this is real, it-," Robin started.
"I know. Scarecrow knocked us out. How do we wake up?" Batman asked.
"You... know?" Raven asked.
"Yes. Scarecrow's toxin isn't new to me, but I've never been hit with a dose this high, I can't wake up. I assume you know?" Batman asked.
"Yeah. You need to embrace your greatest fear, then Raven should be able to use her powers to wake us up, and get us back to the batcave so we can get help," Robin replied.
"Not before we stop Scarecrow," Batman said.
"We won't be in shape to stop Scarecrow," Robin countered.
"Scarecrow who? Ohhh ya mean that bloody stain on the floor of the Arkham bathroom? Yeah, he's dead, not sure you need to worry about stopping him from going anywhere, unless you want to grab a mop!" Joker said, "I know the brat, but who's the girl? His squeeze?"
Batman sighed and internally rolled his eyes.
"We don't have time for this," Batman said, "Go ahead, Joker, reveal my identity, burn it all down, kill them all. I'll just adopt a new sidekick."
"Oh, Brucie, thought you'd never ask!" Joker said gleefully.
Rather than the gradual end the rest of the Titans experienced, Bruce was immediately brought to join Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire on the same rock floating in a black sea of stars. Robin and Raven appeared shortly thereafter. Raven had a worried expression on her face, biting her nail as she looked from one of her friends to the other.
"What is it?" Robin asked Raven.
"I'm...not sure I can wake us up, there's a problem. One of my emotions is missing, and I keep thinking...if I was asleep, I would have had a dream too, and I doubt I could've helped any of you...I think I'm technically still awake...and that emotion has control right now," Raven replied.
VI. The Vengeful One: Scarecrow's Prison
Generally speaking, most people are unaware of their nightmares as they are happening, but most people have not spent years of their life trying to instill them in others. In addition, most people have not angered someone with enough mojo to send them on a one way trip to the afterlife. Scarecrow was learning first hand what that power looked like when it is used more creatively.
He was treading water in the middle of a seemingly endless ocean that stretched ever onward in every direction he looked. He tried to unlock his dream and wake uo, as he had done so many times before, but his own subconscious ignored him.
He did not remember what happened to him, only that at one point he was walking to his car after leaving Batman and his tedious friends to die on the floor of the factory as they slipped into nightmares fueled by his fear toxin, then nothing. He briefly wondered if he had gotten hit by his own toxin somehow, but he dismissed it quickly.
It felt different.
It felt…wrong.
Dreams were not directed this way, even nightmares. They all had an order, a process. This was something without activity, without energy - without imagination. Whatever it was, it had him, and he had no path to an escape.
"You know much of fear, but little else," a soft voice said.
The words came to him as little more than a whisper.
"You cannot even guess as to what's happening to you now, maybe that approaches fear in your mind, but...it's not. It's like your toxin. It just takes people, drags them down into something they don't fully grasp, but they have no choice, and they have to deal with it," the voice continued.
It was as though the waves around him carried the words aloft, suspending them clearly, ensuring their buoyancy.
"I could have done so much more to you, something more bombastic, more...visceral, but no, that is...not allowed. You deserve to suffer in a way that speaks to the depths of your crimes - your plans - your madness. As you may have noticed, there is nothing here but water, nothing for you to test, question, or prod. All you can do...is splash."
"You think this frightens me? Pathetic. You cannot hope to teach me fear. Not with this amateur approach," Scarecrow said aloud.
"Fool. Hear my words. It is not. Designed. To scare you. When I leave, all you'll have is the water to keep you company. There is no other shoe that drops. This is all there is."
"And who are you to inflict this on me?" Scarecrow asked.
"No one you'll encounter again. Enjoy your swim, then say hi to Gotham PD when they wake you up, if they even can. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some friends to wake up...and a body to return."
A/N: Hope you're all doing well and you enjoyed this very overdue update. This story is slowly coming to a close, should be another few chapters before it's done, and I hope to get them out faster than this one. Thanks for sticking around, love every like and comment my stories get! More to come!
