The Beast
As Raven neared Hunter's limp form, he began to change. His illusion necklace wore off and he grew bigger and more muscular until he was nearly three times his original size. Dark, blackish green hair began to sprout out of his enlarged form. Long, sharp, claws emerged from his fingers. In addition, his fangs grew to twice their original size.
Raven looked on in shock and fear. Hiding her emotions, she prepared to speak to him. Before she could, however, Hunter stood up, opened his eyes which were now a glowing red, and spoke.
"Ah, puny little Raven. How wonderful to finally meet you again." His voice was different. It was deeper, almost demonic, and very loud. It boomed in her ears and almost seemed to be said telepathically as well as verbally.
"Beast?" Raven uttered, fearfully. "What happened to Hunter?"
"Very good, Raven!" The Beast exclaimed. "It's so nice to finally be allowed into the real world in my true form. With a primal spirit at my disposal, nonetheless! Anyway, Logan is long gone. His mind is broken. Shattered into a million pieces. And, just like when he was a child, I'm here to pick up the pieces and succeed where he has failed." The Beast boomed, gleaming.
"Succeed how?" Raven replied, silently activating the distress beacon on her communicator.
"Succeed at dominating the world, of course. Make the world ours so no one can ever hurt us again. Despite what you may believe, I don't want Logan to die. His death means my own. After all, he's the one who called for my aid all those years ago." The Beast said.
"What?" Raven replied, shocked.
"He never told you? The miserably runt probably doesn't even remember himself. Ah well, allow me to educate you." The Beast sneered. "When Logan was a boy, his parents injected him with a serum which is what gave him his powers. Of course, they were terrible people who wanted nothing more than to test their inventions on real humans. After he was injected, his parents died and he was subjected to years of tests and torture as scientists tried to recreate what created him. Hours and hours and hours of prodding and poking and merciless experimenting. Treating him like he was nothing more than a disposable lab rat. As the scientists tested on him, his psyche began to break. His mind began to fracture and I was born. I pitied him. I realized the only way to stop the tests was to utilize our powers. I saved the miserable runt's life in return for full control of his body. But it wasn't by force. I asked the idiot if he wanted freedom even if it meant bad things and he agreed. So, I killed them all. In the most brutal and bloody way I knew how. In return for saving Logan, he pushed me to the corners of his mind and acted as though I never existed. Relegating me to a long existence of darkness and neglect. So, naturally, I took matters into my own hands. His mind is, and has always been, weak. It's easy to manipulate and the only thing stopping me in the past were his good feelings towards you and the rest of his team. With his mind shattered, those feelings are buried and I'm free to get what I've deserved for far too long." The Beast said, glaring at Raven.
"Listen, I know it's hard but you have to let go. If you truly care for Logan you need to help him instead of trying to control him." Raven replied, trying to reason with The Beast.
"NO!!!" The Beast roared as his eyes glowed even brighter as rage threatened to take over. "You can't control me. No one can control me! Ever!" He roared again.
"I..." Raven replied, at a loss for words.
"Ha. He's trying to fight me now. Begging me to at least spare you. Fat chance! Instead of spare you, I'll make sure to relish tearing you apart. That'll be sure to thoroughly break him more than enough for me to remain in control. Forever." The Beast interrupted. He slowly walked towards an ever-fearful Raven.
"Titans Go!!!" Robin yelled from behind Raven. Aqualad jumped from a tree above Raven and The Beast and landed behind him before hitting him in the back with a staff. Cyborg and Jynx shot at The Beast from the front with their respective powers. Bee and Starfire rained volleys of energy and starbolt down on The Beast from above. Mas and Menos attacked The Beast head on. Finally, Robin grabbed onto a shocked Raven and pulled her away from the commotion.
"Are you alright?" Robin asked Raven, concerned.
"He's...strong. Stronger than before." Raven said looking at Robin, hopelessly.
"We have to try. I let Beast Boy down once and I'm not looking to do it again." Robin said. Raven nodded at him. The two joined the fray with Raven joining Bee and Starfire in the sky and Robin joining Mas and Menos in rushing The Beast head-on. The Beast roared loudly in anger and pain from the attacks. He swiped at Robin, causing him to jump in the air to avoid the strike while Mas and Menos outran it using their speed. Timing it, The Beast head-butted Robin while he was in mid-air causing Robin to go flying towards a tree. Thinking quickly, Raven encased the Boy Wonder in black energy and gently set him on the ground. The Beast then abruptly turned around and swiped at an unprepared Aqualad sending him flying through a tree and knocking him unconscious from the sheer force of the attack. Bee rushed over to help him. The Beast then roared again and brought his hands crashing on the ground, causing a shockwave to pulse and knock anyone down who was standing. Everyone but Starfire and Raven were knocked down and their attacks stopped temporarily allowing The Beast more than enough time to attack. He charged at Cyborg, seeing red. Unleashing his rage, The Beast allowed pure instinct to take over, increasing his strength but losing control of his actions. The Beast slammed into Cyborg and knocked him down again. He then grabbed onto Cyborg's right arm and ripped it out of him before clawing Cyborg's chest, heavily damaging his power core. Cyborg shut down instantly but The Beast continued. Ripping Cyborg apart in a primal fashion, nearly killing him, The Beast only stopped when Starfire shot a starbolt at him to distract him. The Beast leaped at Starfire, moving faster than she anticipated and caught her in mid-air. As he landed, he slammed Starfire into the ground beneath him and jumped on her unconscious form in rage while the team watched on in helpless shock. Having recovered from the shockwave, the rest of the team yelled in anger as they all attacked The Beast at once. Targeting Robin next, The Beast ignored all other attacks and ran at the boy wonder. Furious at Starfire's condition, Robin raised his staff and prepared to jump over The Beast and attacking him from behind.
When he did, however, The Beast reached up and clawed Robin down to the ground. Deep claw marks ran across Robin's torso as he too lay on the floor, unconscious and close to death. The Beast turned and looked at Jynx, who had since shot an energy blast at his head. Roaring in anger, The Beast ran at a terrified Jynx who put up a shield while the rest of the team tried to slow him down using their various abilities. Raven added to Jynx's shield with her own hoping to stop The Beast in his tracks. Ignoring the other members, The Beast plowed through both shields with ease and grabbed Jynx by the neck. He lifted her up and choking her. Desperately attempting to stop him, Bee shot a bolt directly at his eye. The Beast roared in anger and pain and dropped a comatose Jynx to the floor.
Turning to Bee, The Beast didn't charge. He instead closed his eyes and concentrated. Confused, the remaining members of the team looked on in concern and fear. The Beast opened his eyes and Bee clutched her head in pain. Seeing what was happening, Raven created a magical shield around Bee, stopping The Beast's telepathy. Angered, The Beast jumped at the still-recovering Bee, shattered Raven's shield, and knocked her to the ground. She too, was knocked unconscious. Raven saw defeat and telepathically told Mas and Menos to transport the defeated members of the team to the tower while she stalled The Beast. Nodding in unison, the twins got to work.
"So...what has become of your team, puny Raven?" The Beast boomed as his rage subsided and he retook control from his instincts.
"You can control the rage?" Raven asked, surprised and scared at the same time.
"Of course. The out of control beast that you know is only because the runt doesn't know how to harness my power." The Beast chuckled.
"You nearly killed Hunter's friends." Raven said, anger boiling.
"Did I?" The Beast mocked. "Oops." He smiled, deviously.
"You're a monster." Raven replied.
"Ah yes. But I am a necessary one." The Beast said, proudly. "So, how should I destroy you? Should I assume the runt's form while I do it?" He asked, shifting into Hunter's form and smiling.
"No...Stop!" She said, her conflicting emotions threatened to take control.
"See. I never understood why you suppressed your emotions. I quite liked your demonic form." The Beast chuckled. Raven tried to hold back her increasingly strong emotions as she stared The Beast down. "By the way. Did the run ever tell you why you didn't lose control around him?" The Beast asked.
"No." Raven replied, emotions subsiding.
"The fool found a way to use part of our power to telepathically separate your emotions from your powers. The amount of energy that idiot was wasting trying to save you from yourself was embarrassing. Not to mention the amount of strain and pain it caused to do that. Could you imagine our strength had he put our power to better use? We could have rivaled mother nature itself." The Beast jeered. Raven's mouth hung open for a second at what she heard. Hunter had fixed her. Something she had thought was impossible. Something she had tried to figure out her entire life. "Well, Raven. It's time for me to annihilate you and the rest of your team. This was fun but I have an entire city to subjugate, not to mention an entire world after that." The Beast said, eyes glowing brighter.
"You don't deserve to rule that body, let alone the world." Raven snarled, anger flaring up. Not caring, Raven prepared to strike.
Encasing a large fallen branch in dark energy, Raven threw it at The Beast as hard as he could. Smirking, The Beast shifted back into his beast form and the branch snapped as it collided with an outstretched claw. Snarling, The Beast leaped at Raven using it's powerful hind-legs. Raven's eyes widened in shock as his powerful form careened through the air towards her. She instinctively projected a shield in front of her hoping to block the powerful blow. Smashing through the shield with ease, The Beast landed in Raven and pinned her down on the ground. She groaned in pain as the sheer weight of The Beast threatened to squeeze the life out of her. Snarling once again, The Beast lowered it's head to her neck. Raven shook with fear but tried to her best to suppress it, all to aware that her emotions were no longer being stalled by Hunter. The Beast barred it's fangs and spoke.
"You see how easy it is, puny Raven? How easily I can sink my teeth into your neck and end your miserable existence." The Beast gloated, smiling deviously.
"Please. Stop. Don't do this. I need you, Hunter." Raven pleaded barely hidden desperation in her voice, hoping Hunter could hear her. Her eyes began to water. For the first time in awhile, Raven felt like crying. She wasn't scared for her own life, only sad about never being able to see her friends again, especially Hunter.
"Who are you calling to? The runt? Like I said, he's long go-" The Beast began. Stalling a moment, The Beast's grasp on Raven lessened. Still too strong for Raven to escape, but enough to stop her from being crushed. "No!!! You will not win, useless runt. You are worthless and broken, it's my turn to have control!!!" The Beast screamed as it clutched it's head in pain, fully letting go of Raven.
As quickly as she was able, Raven pulled herself out from under The Beast and collected her strength. The Beast writhed, still cursing Hunter which only seemed to accelerate the pain it was experiencing. Raven, unsure of what to do, tried to read The Beast's mind. She stared intently at The Beast and slowly sent her consciousness into it's mind. She withdrew almost as soon as she entered. Gasping for air, Raven felt only pain. Pain from Hunter and pain from The Beast as they fought an intense mental battle. Although she knew Hunter's mind was weaker, she also knew he was winning.
"Hunter. I don't know how much more you've got in you, but you have to beat him." She said, hopelessly. "Not just lock him away, but you actually have to destroy him once and for all." She wanted nothing more than to jump into The Beast's mind and help Hunter win. She knew, however, that she wouldn't be able to control her own emotion with the strength of theirs. Coupled with her weakened state, she begrudgingly knew she would only do more damage if she tried to help.
She wasn't used to helplessness. It didn't sit well. Watching hopelessly as the fate of her, Hunter, and for all she knew, the whole world rested out of her hands. Snapping herself out of it and preparing for the worst, however, she got ready to fight, provided Hunter lost. Not wanting to think about the possibility but knowing it wasn't entirely improbably, she simply stared at him, hands raised.
Inside Hunter's mind, a full on war was being waged. Hunter and Prime versus The Beast. The duo were having a little success hurting The Beast. Straining, Hunter briefly recalled events that happened a few moments earlier:
He was broken. After all the things he'd been through and everything he'd endured, it was something he'd done that broke him. He had hurt Raven. How could he? The one person he cared about more than life itself and he'd hurt her. He pondered this as he sat in his mindscape. The Beast was free and had taken control but Hunter didn't care. He was much more of a monster than The Beast ever would be. The Beast hurt people, but only he could hurt someone he loved. He shuddered at the thought of the scratch marks that tore through Raven's side. Reliving that moment on a loop. He watched, sadly as The Beast tore through his team. He willed himself to get up, willed himself to fight The Beast. He had to save them, but could he? Was he strong enough to defeat The Beast?. Thoughts of failure tore through his mind. Prime was silent. Prime was gathering strength to fight The Beast alone and Hunter knew it. He knew Prime still had hope but he couldn't share it. His feeling of self-loathing was too great. His mind had truly been shattered. As he thought, his mind drifted from what The Beast was doing to his friends.
Is it so bad that The Beast is in control? He thought to himself. The Beast had been telling him it could protect him since he was a child. Maybe it could. Maybe it couldn't.
Suddenly, he was snapped back from his thoughts. He paid attention just in time to see The Beast land on Raven, hard. He watched with horror as the life was squeezed out of her with The Beast's sheer strength. He knew he had to fight. If not for his own sake, at least for Raven's. As The Beast neared her neck with it's fangs he realized it wasn't bluffing. It would kill Raven just like it had promised. He could not allow that.
Gathering strength, Hunter began to push against The Beast's hold on him. Fighting for dominance of his own body. He could hear Raven's desperate plea as The Beast's fangs flashed. He would not let The Beast win.
Returning to the present, Hunter fought for control, slowly but surely, Hunter and Prime's combined efforts were slowly pushing The Beast away. He could see Raven a few feet away preparing for the worst. With another pang of regret that he'd allowed The Beast to hurt her again, he pushed the presence back with renewed strength. He saw The manifestation of The Beast in his mind begin to falter. Pressing one final time, Hunter pushed The Beast out and towards the dark recesses of his mind. He had done it.
Hearing Raven's words however, he pondered a moment. Realizing she was right, Hunter drew The Beast into himself, absorbing it and gaining full control of it's powers. After years of torment, both he and The Beast had finally known peace. His mindscape was no longer the dangerous and volatile place it had been. For the first time in a long time, he felt at peace. He knew this was far from over, The Beast may not have been in it's true form for long, but it had caused massive damage while it was. Gathering his courage and what remained of his strength, he and Prime shared knowing looks as Hunter prepared to re-enter the real world.