A/N: The next chapter will most likely be the last. I didn't expect it to get this long, but the story refused to cooperate.
As always, I do not own Teen Titans.
"That's not your sister," Raven stated, breaking the silence of the room.
Madame Parise turned to face her. "How dare you," she challenged.
"I'm sorry," Raven continued, "but you've been tricked. They can't—"
"Shut up!"
Raven sent a pitying glare in response.
"What did they ask you to do?" Robin cut in, catching on quickly.
Madame Parise turned to stare at the form of her sister once more, tears already beginning to spill from her eyes. If it weren't for his excellent hearing, Beast Boy probably would've missed her answer.
"Souls," she admitted softly. "I only had to bring them souls on All Hallows' Eve." She took in a large gasp of air and brought one hand up to wipe at her eyes before continuing. "I just invited the guests. They said they would do the rest, pick out the brightest and most hopeful, but it was only a few. It was only supposed to be…" She shuddered and paused. "It was just a couple of them and they were lost. They promised that she would come through with them…I just…This was the only way."
"What have they done with Starfire?"
"I don't know," she confessed before moving both hands up to stop her tears. She looked like she might fall over and anything she said next came out in muffled sobs.
Apparently unsure how to help, Robin focused next on the most important problem in his mind at the moment and turned to face Raven. "Anything you can tell me about how to get Starfire back?"
Raven stared at the glowing girl still in the center of the room for a moment, eyes slightly narrowed in concentration. "If they've trapped her soul," she started, "then we need to break their hold on it so she can return. We can't go in after her."
"How?"
Raven shook her head and finally looked at Robin, "I can't really be sure, but we need to work fast. All Hallows' Eve is when the barrier between the living and the dead is at its thinnest."
Robin's face hardened at Raven's words and he approached the center of the room with renewed determination. Once again, his hand reached for his inside jacket pocket. "Let Starfire go," he said, venom laced into his tone.
At his words, the girl in the center of the room disappeared. Beast Boy watched as the swirls multiplied and darkened to a crimson color he could only associate with blood. The faces reappeared and they laughed.
"Poor orphaned boy," one of the voices taunted.
"We will take you to her."
Then, they grew and twisted until all of the faces formed an ethereal body all their own, each part grinning madly. It formed arms that extended out into claws and hind legs that stretched out into bestial proportions. However, it failed to sprout a single head. Instead, the faces continued their great swirling dance above the body like some terrible misrepresentation of a hydra.
Beast Boy watched with wide eyes and backed up to get as far away from the thing as possible until he hit the wall. Then, he heard it shriek, whether in anger or in desperation he couldn't tell, and he cringed at the sound.
It swiped at Robin, who dodged with practiced ease and tossed the smoke bomb in his pocket. Raven threw up a shield of dark energy as it lashed out again while Madame Parise simply stood in shock, terror etched on her face in an expression that might become permanent.
The body turned and moved to grab onto the guests, still sleeping against the wall. Beast Boy leapt into action, morphing into a tiger to try to swipe at the clawed hand. Instead, he collided with another one of Raven's shields, thrust up to block the monster from everyone else. It shrieked again.
"Don't touch it and get them out of here," Raven informed him, now standing directly in front of Starfire. Beast Boy could see Robin ushering Madame Parise back up the stairs, still under cover of the smoke, which had drifted across to cover the passed out guests as well. Quick to take his chance, Beast Boy changed into an elephant and trumpeted out their wake up call. They startled as quickly as Robin had, but remained dazed as Beast Boy returned to human form and began to help them all up. A few began to scream or cry once they realized their situation, but the creature paid them no mind as it traded blows with Raven.
Beast Boy followed Robin's lead in rushing the guests over to the stairs. He nodded as he approached, signaling that he had the civilian situation under control and Robin moved back to assist Raven with a trio of explosive disks, two of which hit each side of the ghostly body. The last one burst near its left foot. Beast Boy saw the Boy Wonder dodge an outstretched claw before he noticed a pulsing green light at the brightest point of the monster's foot.
Robin must've seen it too because he sent another disk flying off in the same direction. However, this time, the foot kicked it back and it exploded beside Raven, causing her to fly back against the wall.
Beast Boy leapt into action. He might not be able to touch the thing, but he would certainly try to distract it. He morphed into a hummingbird and flitted his way past the faces, hoping to catch their attention. A clawed hand reached for him and he dived. A foot rose up to crush him and he somersaulted back again. He circled at the top, briefly hoping he might get it to hit itself as he flew back down again. He heard another explosion, probably from one of Robin's disks, and swooped right to avoid another foot before finding himself headed straight for a clawed hand, palm spread out to grab him.
He'd never been so thankful for the sound of Cyborg's "Booyah!" accompanied by the sight of the sonic cannon hitting the creature's arm. The claw jerked up at the direct hit, allowing Beast Boy to swiftly fly by unharmed.
Out of breath, Beast Boy flew over to the bottom of the stairs and changed back to his human form. "Cy, where you been?"
"Man," Cyborg replied from the top stair before letting off another sonic blast, "this place is one big maze."
The faces shrieked again. This time, it sounded painful.
Beast Boy turned to see Raven standing once more, palms glowing black and mercilessly hurling small chunks from the floor at the body's left foot. The green light shone even more brightly now and Robin almost followed it eagerly as it suddenly zipped out and collided with Starfire's form, still resting against the wall. Once the light settled, Robin tossed one last explosive disk for good measure and rushed over to help her up.
"Star?"
She groaned, "Robin? What is—?"
She was interrupted by the sound of the Raven's shield driving the creature's hand up into the ceiling. It shook violently and poured dust on top of them.
"You have to get out of here, Star," Robin urged. "We've got this."
"Hey!" Cyborg shouted. They turned to look up at him. "I think y'all should move now." He aimed his sonic cannon up at the ceiling.
Robin nodded and helped Starfire up. "Raven!"
She simply waved in acknowledgement, tossing another rock in the process, and began to shift towards the stairs, eyes still trained on the monster. As it reached out once more, Cyborg sent a sonic cannon full blast straight at the ceiling. As expected, it cracked and pieces rapidly began to crumble. Robin and Starfire rushed up the stairs to meet Cyborg. The three stepped up through the door and out of harm's way.
Beast Boy waited at the bottom, hand held out for Raven, who looked thoroughly exhausted. She abandoned her high heels and began to run towards the stairs as well as Beast Boy's waiting hand. He gasped as he saw the claw reach for her back and when it hit her, her eyes went wide with fear and shock. He leapt forward instinctively, transforming into a gorilla to catch and cover her body. The clawed hand held the blue light that was hers, but as it drew back, the ceiling hit the bright spot near its foot with a sharp clatter and the hand disappeared altogether. So, Beast Boy grabbed the blue light and cradled Raven, body and soul, underneath him while everything else fell on top of him.
