Here, my friends, is a new chapter! Ready for more Teen Titan-ic awesomeness?! I certainly hope so, cuz here it comes! In this chapter, Raven wakes up, and thus transfers from stage 1 to stage 2 of the paralysis drug's effects, and finds herself very much in the clutches of her very, very, very abhorrent admirer, who's got very despicable plans for her indeed. Will Beast Boy or any other favorable circumstance unfold in time to prevent our favorite half demon sorceress from being horribly violated or similarly done wrong by one of the relatively least threatening, yet at the same time most heinous, villain the Titans have ever known? Only one way to find out people! And that being said, here's to hoping you read, review, and enjoy!

A/N: Real quick, I'd best remind you once again that I do not own Teen Titans. NOW onward with the story!

Chapter 14:

Damsel in Distress

It seemed like it took almost an hour before Raven finally managed to open her eyes, and she let out a low groan of fatigue to indicate her difficulty in getting herself to wake up. When she finally managed to wake up and get her eyes fully opened, she groaned again and tried to shake her head side to side to strengthen the feeling . . . only to discover that she couldn't move her head.

Her eyes widened in horror as the entirety of the previous events came rushing back to her. "No," she thought to herself as she stared at the ceiling of the cave she was in and remembered with terror how she'd been afflicted with the paralysis concoction. As of her waking up, she had now been released from suspended animation, but now was stuck in the second stage, awake and in paralysis. Granted, it was slightly less total compared to how it was implied. She could still talk and move her eyes, and she still had her basic senses. But otherwise, she could not move, and neither could she use her powers.

She gritted her teeth, genuinely afraid, and in fact feeling more terrified about how she was feeling so obviously afraid without her powers acting up about it for once. "This is bad," she thought to herself. Admittedly, this information was pretty obvious, but really she couldn't blame herself for thinking such thoughts in her current situation. Then the full import of how she was positioned hit her, and her eyes widened again. "I'm lying down," she thought to herself. "And I'm on my back."

In that instant, it took all her willpower not to scream or burst out crying from terror. She knew all she needed to know to realize just how screwed she was at risk of being under the current circumstances. "No," she thought to herself. "Oh God, please no; this can't be happening, it can't." She grimaced. "Why me?"

Then she thought of something else, and her heart sank even further. "I didn't even get the chance to send out a distress signal; and now I won't get that chance." And indeed she currently appeared very likely to never get that chance. She had no idea if she even still had her communicator on her at this point following her confrontation with Adonis. And even in the unlikely event that it was still on her, she certainly wasn't in any condition to draw it out and sound the alarm.

At this point, her only chance at escape from what would almost certainly be a very unpleasant fate would be for Adonis to somehow choose to wait and bide his time before having his 'fun' with her long enough for the drug to wear off sufficiently enough to allow her to fight her way out. But even that was a sketchy at best. She had no idea of the exact dosage she'd received, and she didn't even know how long she'd been in the unconscious state of suspended animation. Therefore, she really didn't even have any idea herself how long it would take for the current state she was in to wear off, and she wasn't entirely certain whether or not Adonis himself would know. She closed her eyes, gritting her teeth. "God," she mentally prayed. "If you still care about me enough to allow me into Heaven again like you did last year, then please, let me make it out of this situation unharmed in any way, shape, and form. Grant me this prayer, and I promise I'll never willingly refrain from praying every night before I sleep or doubt your existence ever again."

"Finally awake huh? Took you long enough."

Raven's eyes snapped wide open with shock and horror. She moved her eyes so that she could just a slight view of the area in front of where her feet were positioned, and saw none other then a somewhat limited view of Adonis walking towards her from that very direction, a small grin on his face, and with his armor still on.

At the sight of the look on Raven's face, Adonis chuckled. "Oh come on," he said. "No need to keep up the façade. We both know you've been looking forward to this moment ever since we met."

Raven gritted her teeth, silently snarling in rage at the boy's continued arrogant belief that she had even the slightest twinge of feelings for him that weren't outright disgust. "Typical rapist," she thought to herself. "Always believing that girls who say no are playing hard to get and mean yes when they say nothing but the exact opposite."

Adonis came to a stop, still smiling, and placed his armored fists on his sides as if posing for a medal. "I will admit, I wasn't entirely certain how long it would take for you to wake up. I mean, I had guessed that it would likely not last nearly as long as it would have if you'd been successfully taken out by that makeshift bomb designed to release the considerably higher dosage of that stuff's gas form. But hey, with stuff like this, you can never be too careful, and we all know what they say about making assumptions."

Adonis shook his head side to side, still smiling proudly to himself. "But hey, you're awake now. And judging from your current state, I'd say you woke up about one or two minutes ago. And since it's now 10:17, that would mean you were unconscious for about 15 minutes." He walked on over towards Raven again before coming to a stop just inches away from the bottoms of her feet, thus allowing enough of himself to be in Raven's view for her to see that he'd managed to find the battery for his upgrades that she'd removed during their battle and placed it back in its original spot. "And assuming the second stage of the drug takes a reasonably longer amoung of time to wear off then the 1st stage even in spite of you're having been exposed to a smaller dosage then originally intended, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time for a nice good bit of fun."

Raven made another silent snarl, but inside she was both angry and terrified. "By Azar," she thought to herself. "Why me?" Indeed, her situation was not looking very good.

. . . . .

The green lion continued rushing down the blaringly obvious trail that his armored rival had left, growling and snarling as much as the communicator in his teeth allowed. "Hang on Raven," he thought to himself. "I'm coming."

And indeed Beast Boy was coming. In fact, even as he continued right that very moment in his headlong dash down the trail that Adonis had left, the very strong smell was getting just as strong as all the other obvious signs of Adonis's presence were. His lion form's eyes narrowed, and he let out another carefully planned snarl. As soon as he made it to his destination, he was going to make Adonis pay. "He'd better not have done a thing to Raven by the time I get there," he thought to himself. "If he has, then God curse him, I don't care what Robin says, I am personally sending him down to Hell where he belongs."

Galvanized by the anger and determination that burst up in him upon thinking these thoughts, the green lion made a mighty leap across a good couple yards or so before continuing his epic dash mere seconds after landing, another careful snarl popping out of his mouth in the process. "Hang in there Rae," he thought to himself. "By Heaven please hang in there Rae. Regardless of what's happening now or by the time I arrive, I will save you."

. . . . .

Adonis remained standing where he was, grinning like an idiot, and his hands clasped together with his fingers intertwined. In fact, he'd been standing there like this for quite a few minutes, and it was even 10:20 now to boot. Raven, in spite of her fear, couldn't help but raise her eyebrow in clear confusion. "Why in Azar's name is he still just standing there?" she thought to herself. "He already admitted he doesn't know for certain how long it will take for the drug to wear off. If we wanted to do anything to me before that happened, he should be already doing it right now instead of wasting time and running the risk of it wearing off in time for me to kick his ass and prevent him from doing anything."

Adonis chuckled, and shook his head side to side. "Ah," he said out loud. "Never gets old looking at a sweet piece of eye candy like you." His grin widened, his eyes agleam with sleaze. "The rumors may say your half demon, but your body is clearly that on angel."

Raven snarled, and this time very audibly. "If you wanted to torture me before doing whatever it is you want, just having me look at you is torture enough." She snorted, and directed her eyes so that she was looking more towards the cave wall behind her head then at Adonis. "Besides, you're wasting your time anyway, and in more ways than one. You said so yourself, you could very well have considerably less time than planned with the dosage you gave me. And even if I had gotten the dosage you'd originally planned, I'm not in the mood for games. If you want to defile me, then just get it over with."

"And have it all be finished so soon?" Adonis made a 'tsk-tsk' noise, shaking his head side to side. "Please," he said. "Do you not grasp the magnitude of what I am on the verge of achieving? I've been dreaming of this moment for at least 3 years now; all since the day we first met. With something like that, you can't just rush in and make it all over without even getting the chance to truly appreciate it. No way. A moment like this? It must be savored. Yes, at all costs, it must be savored."

Raven gritted her teeth, clenching her eyes shut at the same time. "As if the fact that he's a rapist isn't enough," she thought to herself, "he just has to have a cruel side to it as well."

"And I'll admit, even I'm smart enough to know that usually it's a pretty dumb idea to go prattling on about stuff in my position, especially considering how well that's ended for all the other schmucks in my place that I've seen in the movies." He grinned. "Still, with the current circumstances, plus the ones soon to come when we're finished here, I'd say it ought to be safe just this once for me to crow around a little."

Adonis chuckled, turned around, and started slowly walking in a circle around the low flat bed of rocks that Raven, unbound, yet still unable to move, was lying down upon. "You see babe," the armored boy began. "As much as I'm in this for the sheer joy of finally achieving this big huge dream we've both been longing for since day 1, my personal joy ain't the only reason I'm up to my current antics right now. No way."

Raven raised her eyebrow, still glaring hatefully at the armored boy. "You expect me to believe that?" she growled. "A person as dumb as you doing stuff like this for anything but their own fun? You?"

"You've certainly got that right," said Adonis. "I sure as Hell ain't the sharpest tool in the shed." He chuckled at the angry grimace that came on Raven's face. "Well hey, no reason to be offended it its true." He chuckled again, shaking his head side to side in the process. At this point, he was now just starting to walk across the area located directly behind the top of Raven's head. "Believe me, if I were in your shoes, I'd totally find it just as hard to believe. But in this case, I'm not kidding. I've got other reasons behind this little spree. Cuz the thing is, this very dream of mine that I'm now so close to achieving? Turns out, it actually got assigned to me only yesterday as a test of worth for working with some new guy in town who hopes to recruit me for some bigshot army of villains in the making he's working on setting up."

Raven's eyes widened, her sarcastic retort she'd prepared now quite forgotten.

"Yeah that's right," said Adonis. "Just because I had bad luck the last time I worked as someone's underling doesn't mean I'm gonna give up just yet on working for someone else. And to put it simply, this potential new boss of mine has big plans that I may yet get the honor of working with him on if I succeed in tonight's little test." He chuckled. "Granted, the part that I've been dreaming about wasn't exactly included in the description of my task, but my future boss did give me the added bonus of being allowed to have as much fun with you as I wanted in between your initial capture and the moment I present you to him dead or alive like he requested. As long as I've met back up with him and presented you to him by midnight, I'm free to both have all the fun with you I've ever wanted and become a brand new recruit of what he hopes to be an army of villains just as worthy of fear and respect as the Legion of Doom; potentially even better than them according to what he said."

Adonis paused in his walking, turning his head directly at Raven from his current position, a wide grin on his face. "And since I'm already at it, I might as well go ahead and tell you what I know about my future boss. After all, you'll be meeting him soon enough anyway." He turned around so that he had his entire body facing Raven's direction. "I'll admit, I don't know an extremely large amount to be honest. I mean, with that huge black cloak he was wearing, there was very little else I could use to identify him by aside from his eyes. And trust me, when a person has creepy pupilless red eyes peeking out at you from under the hood of his cloak, you don't forget him in a hurry."

Upon hearing this description, Raven found her mind moving at about a thousand miles per minute as she considered the possibility of just who this figure that Adonis was talking about actually was. In particular, she could now remember a moment from the Titans' adventures with Geo-Force the previous summer how Geo-Force had mentioned something about a figure dressed in a black cloak with pupilless red eyes had been responsible for subjecting him to the mind control that had caused him to go rogue. And now, hearing this very same description given by Adonis about his apparent hopeful boss-to-be, she couldn't help but wonder, was this figure and the one responsible for the Geo-Force adventure the previous summer one and the same?

"In fact," Adonis continued, "according to what he tells me, he apparently tried to increase his membership last summer, but with less than impressive results. And since then, he's been laying low; until now, with a new and improved effort at finding worthy and willing recruits. I will admit though, he seemed to put particularly strong emphasis on 'willing' for some reason."

"That definitely confirms it," Raven thought to herself. "To many coincidences otherwise."

"But enough of that for now," said Adonis. "At this point, he was now back at his original position from before he'd begun circling around Raven. "Time for some fun."

Raven's eyes widened. "No," she thought to herself. "By Azar, please no."

For a heart stopping few seconds, Adonis remained standing where he was, grinning maniacally in triumph. Then he chuckled, and shook his head side to side. "No," he said. "Not yet. I can still savor the moment just a few minutes or so more." He turned around, chuckled again, and calmly walked away back in the direction leading to the exit of the cave.

Raven remained tensed up for about a minute, making absolutely sure that Adonis would be indeed gone for a while. She exhaled in relief, and relaxed. "At least now I have a little bit more time," she thought to herself. Then she grimaced. "But by Azar, this drug had better wear off soon, or I don't know what I'm going to do."

. . . . .

Beast Boy the lion was still running down the trail at 10:25, the exact same moment that Adonis had departed from the cave to savor his coming personal triumph for a little while longer, and he was snarling and growling in a mixture of rage and triumph as he recognized clear as day how very close he was getting to reaching the destination where Adonis and Raven were located. And he was looking forward to the coming confrontation.

"Almost there," he thought to himself.

Confident as ever with his current circumstances, the green lion made another bold leap forward before landing and resuming his brisk running through the forest down the trail left by Adonis. He let out another carefully performed snarl. "Adonis will pay," he thought to himself.

Then he thought of another thing. "Raven doesn't know help is coming," he thought to himself fearfully. "I've got to do something to let her know not to abandon all hope, but how can I do that without making it obvious to Adonis as well?"

Then he realized something else, and he found himself mentally smiling. "Of course," he thought. "My emotional feedback." He mentally chuckled at his moment of genius. "I set it back to my usual state of guard after last night. But now, knowing what I know, and being aware of the very noticeable difference Raven noted between my emotional feedback from before and after that other day, might as well let it back down again."

The shape shifter kept on running, but now with his eyes closed and his mouth slowly inhaling and exhaling deep breaths to calm down sufficiently enough to properly let down his emotional guard. After what felt like an eternity to the changeling, but in reality was only about a minute or two following his realization of how to send a hope signal, the green lion's eyes opened, and the shape shifter simultaneously sent his familiar emotional guard wall crumble down for the second time that week, not to mention in his life. "Definitely no need to worry now Rae," he thought to himself for good measure. "I'm coming. And now, you'll detect me coming from miles away."

. . . . .

At 10:30, Raven was still lying down on the stone surface of the makeshift bed of stones, still waiting to notice at least some easily recognized sign of the drug wearing off, yet at the same time feeling wary about Adonis potentially coming back while she was still under the effects of the drug.

And the fact that she still hadn't noticed any obvious signs of feeling different as a result of the drug wearing off made her feel a good deal more worried than before. After all, one thing she knew that Adonis didn't appear to be aware of was how both phases of the drug's effects lasted for the exact same amount of time, and at the maximum dosage typically capable of being taken at once without dying, both phases lasted for an hour each. And since she had woken up from stage 1 into stage 2 after only 15 minutes according to Adonis, then that meant that as of the current moment, the drug should have completely worn off by now. Yet she even now still didn't feel any different than she had when she'd woken up in the first place. "Come on, come on," Raven thought to herself, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth as if silently willing herself to break free from the effects of the drug. "Wear off already." She opened her eyes, glaring up towards the cavern ceiling. "I'm waiting," she mentally growled.

All of a sudden, she felt a very unexpected presence suddenly flood her mind . . . a very surprisingly familiar presence. For a brief moment, she was confused as she tried to remember why this mental presence felt so familiar. Then her eyes widened as she realized how it seemed not so much like a telepathic presence, but rather an almost indecipherably tangled and muddled ocean of emotions mixed and molded together into a big, fat, glaringly bright beacon. And with that description now entering her head, she now remembered how she'd only ever seen such an overwhelmingly obvious emotional feedback in one person. Without even thinking, she unconsciously lifted her right hand up to her forehead as if in awe. "Beast Boy," she thought to herself, clearly feeling glad to have both once again been exposed to the emotional beacon that she'd found herself missing over the course of the entire day till now and received proof that at least one of her teammates was on the way to help her out.

Then she finally realized how her right hand was positioned, and she lifted it skyward, now even more surprised. Granted, she still didn't feel any different in regards to how she'd felt while the drug was obviously active and this current moment. But now, with how her hand had now just moved twice, it was now clear that in spite of not feeling any different, the drug had worn off, and she mentally kicked herself for not thinking of doing the simple task of testing her theory about the timing by just trying to move. "By Azar," she thought to herself. "This drug is already designed to paralyze its victims' bodies; does it seriously have to addle their minds to?"

Then she realized something else that she could go ahead and test. She turned her head to her left, extending her left arm towards a nearby stalagmite. She concentrated hard, clenching her eyes shut and gritting her teeth as she desperately tried to summon the familiar feeling of the more combat-based aspect of her powers. "Azarath . . . Metrion . . . Zinthos." Her head and arm collapsed back into their positions from before her effort at using her powers, panting in exhaustion with her eyes open once more. "Ok," she thought to herself. "So I don't yet have my powers completely back yet. But at least I can move."

"Hate to break it to you baby doll, but that drug I've got you all doped up on aint gonna wear off just by you willing it to."

Raven directed her eyes towards the direction she'd heard this voice, and they narrowed upon catching sight of Adonis standing confidently nearby with his hands on his hips and a smug smirk back on his face. Clearly, the armored boy had only arrived back from his last bit of moment savoring fairly recently, as he clearly still believed that Raven was under the effects of the drug and powerless to stop him; something he'd definitely not be thinking if he'd been present to see her move her hand and arms not too long ago.

The armored boy chuckled, and gingerly stroked a small area on what appeared to be a mechanical belt around his waist where a large circular button was positioned. "Oh this is going to be so much fun," he said out loud more to himself then to Raven. He briefly positioned himself as if about to start walking towards her. Then he paused. "But first." He drew out a syringe from his armor. The syringe in question, Raven couldn't help but notice, was twice as big as the one he'd used to inject her with the drug dosage that had not too long ago worn off. Raven mentally glowered. "What an idiot," she thought to herself. "Surely he should have been able to guess that the dosage in that syringe would have left me immobilized for a Hell of a lot longer than the dosage in that other syringe." Nonetheless, she was now quite glad that he had used the other syringe instead of this one. Otherwise, she'd have been in considerably bigger trouble at the current moment.

"Best place this somewhere safe so I don't run the risk of it falling out, breaking, and taking me out when I take off my armor." Adonis gently placed the syringe on the cave floor, took a couple steps back so as to be absolutely positive that he wouldn't step on it by mistake, and then turned away from it to face Raven. His smile returned. "Showtime babe," the armored boy purred. With a chuckle, he started slowly, yet very clearly confidently, started walking towards her.

In that instant, Raven knew that Adonis had finally chosen to stop messing around and decided that he'd savored the moment long enough. Unless either she did something right now or Beast Boy arrived within the next few seconds, Adonis would have his way with her. She looked back over Beast Boy's glowingly obvious emotional output. She noticed that it was starting to get slightly stronger in a way that indicated he was getting close, and fast; but sadly, not fast enough. She mentally grimaced. It appeared she would have to somehow take of herself long enough for the changeling to arrive to finish the job.

Then she directed her eyes back towards the still slowly advancing Adonis, and her eyes narrowed again, but this time in intrigue at the circular button on his armor's belt. Now that she thought about it, perhaps maybe this button would be a very useful element in allowing her to give herself time to hold out for a rescue. At least, that is, assuming it had the function she now currently suspected it to have.

Adonis finally came to a stop right at Raven's feet. He chuckled in glee. "Finally," he said out loud more to himself than anyone else. "The moment I've been waiting for."

"Now or never," Raven thought to herself. She looked up towards Adonis. "I guess it wouldn't hurt then to tell you a little secret."

Naturally, Adonis paused upon hearing these words. Then a small smirk came on his face. Clearly, he was thinking exactly what Raven had hoped he'd be thinking. "I knew it," she thought to herself with a mental smirk of triumph. "He thinks I'm about to admit to his delusions."

Adonis chuckled, and folded his arms across his chest in smug triumph. "Well go on ahead babe," said the armored boy. "I'm all ears."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Perhaps it would be easier if you were to lean down?"

"Sure thing." Adonis leaned over, and very worrisomely close to Raven for that matter. But thankfully he was still far enough away to allow Raven room to move, yet close enough for the all-important button to be within reach of Raven's grasp. "Well come on now darling," Adonis purred. He leaned his head so that his ear would be located close enough for Raven to directly whisper around that area. "Tell me babe. I gotta know."

Raven took a deep breath, and then exhaled. She opened her eyes. "Go to Hell."

In a flash, she lifted up her right arm and pressed the button. Adonis had just enough time for his eyes to widen at the sound of the noise made by Raven's pressing the button when his armor suddenly loosened around him and spectacularly retracted into an impossibly well-fitting series of compartments within the belt. No sooner had his armor been unexpectedly stripped off of him earlier then he'd planned, when he managed to have just enough time to place a hand on his chest as if to further confirm the unexpected development before Raven proceeded to give him a kick to his chest with both her feet and send him stumbling backwards and away from her. No sooner had Adonis finally managed to get himself to stop his stumbling when Raven managed to weakly catapult herself off of the makeshift bed and back onto her feet, striking a battle pose in the process. Upon doing this, she directed a calm and emotionless glare towards her abhorrent admirer, more than willing to continue trying to fight him off even though she knew that she was still both cut off from her actual combat-oriented powers as well as physically weak enough to just barely be able to stand without wobbling. "It ends now," she thought to herself.

Adonis finally managed to get his voice back, and he pointed at Raven, an incredulous look on his face. "But," he stammered. "How?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Need you even ask?" she grumbled in an almost spiteful tone. "Clearly, you wasted too much time." She folded her arms across her chest, still trying her best to disguise how very risky a sense of balance she currently had. "You yourself noticed that the first stage only lasted 15 minutes, ¼ as long as it would have if I'd succumbed to your initially planned dosage. And now, knowing that both stages last the exact same amount of time, it's clearly been another 15 minutes. And as you can see, I'm now free as a bird." She let a small smirk cross her face. "Pun intended."

Adonis mentally cursed. He had completely forgotten that little detail. "I knew I should have paid more attention to the rest of what my future boss said when he was giving me all the details about that drug," he thought to himself. But even as he thought of all this, he allowed no sign of his current thoughts and frantic state of mind to show. He gritted his teeth and glared at Raven, but the effect was largely reduced by the fact that he was no longer in his armor. "Well played witch," he growled. "Well played."

"I warned you about this," growled a considerably angrier voice in his mind.

Adonis ignored his inner Beast, and pointed his finger at Raven defiantly. "You may have delayed the inevitable this time girl." He narrowed his eyes and leaned his head forward threateningly. "But you're not gonna get away from me tonight that easily just yet."

"Oh really?" Raven responded, her tone still masterfully allowing herself to seemingly appear more confident and powerful then she currently was. "As you can see, the drug's worn off, and I'm no longer immobilized. And that, combined with how you're currently no longer properly suited up the way you prefer to be in times of combat, means I'm more than capable of kicking your ass and taking you out without too much effort."

Adonis chuckled. "Nice try babe," he responded. "But even I know it's not gonna be quite that simple this time." He folded his arms across his chest, admittedly looking somewhat more comical then intimidating now that he was currently no longer dressed up in his armor, but his next words more than made up for his lack of intimidating physical appearance. "You see, under most other circumstances, you'd be absolutely right," he admitted. "After all, under normal circumstances, I would be at a glaringly obvious disadvantage against you, not to mention anyone else in your team, now that you've stripped me out of my armor." He pointed his finger at Raven once more. "However," he continued. "In spite of my having not paid enough attention to my future boss to be able to remember that one little detail about the timing that you've now given me a firm reminder about, I did pay just enough attention to know that it still takes a respectable amount of time for the victims to recover even after the drug initially wears off following the end of the second stage."

Adonis thought to himself, clearly working to do the necessary math in his head. "As you've now reminded me, both stages last for the exact same amount of time. You first got injected and succumbed to the effects at 10:00, then you woke up at 10:15." He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth as he worked to try to figure out the rest of the math. "It's about 10:33 now," said Adonis. "And since you obviously must have regained your ability to move at 10:30 if I'm doing the math right, that means you've still got a good bit of time left to wait before you're even at full physical strength, let alone before you fully regain your other abilities."

Adonis opened his eyes, a more confident look now coming back onto his face as he found himself mentally treading somewhat more familiar waters. "Therefore, right now I'd say we're in about the same weight class." Then his eyes lit up as he seemingly had an epiphany. "In fact, even though we're now even in regards to weight class, I actually still have an advantage against you in the current circumstances." He turned his head to face Raven once more. "You see; I'm used to moving around at the level of strength I have when not in my armor. You, on the other hand, are very likely just barely able to stand up straight without the risk of potentially wobbling or falling over. Also, you're used to letting your magic do all the work and have little to know experience with physical combat. And even when you're physically tired and weak, you usually still at least have you magic to back you up. But now, with a mixture of inexperience at physical combat, a temporary lockdown on your magic, and being just barely strong enough to even stand upright on your own two feet, I should somewhat be just strong enough to have a reasonable advantage against you even without my armor on."

The boy looked down at his belt. "Granted, I suppose I could go ahead and press this button and get my armor back on," he admitted. Then he thought to himself. "Nah," he said. "In your current condition," he then continued, pointing his finger at Raven once more. "I suppose it would be much more of a fair fight between us if I left my armor off. In fact," he unclipped his belt, lifted it up as if to guarantee that Raven would get a good look at the sight of it in his hand, and then threw it backwards over his shoulder. The belt landed on the ground and bounced clean out of the cave. "There," said Adonis. "Now we've definitely got ourselves guaranteed a fair fight."

Raven, defiant as ever, still showed absolutely no sign of feeling nervous, even though she knew full well that Adonis was very likely correct on all counts this time. "Interesting theories," she stated dryly. "But it's going to take a whole lot more than just talking tough to get me to believe you."

"Oh, but that's the beauty of theories," Adonis stated. He tensed himself up into a somewhat reasonable fighting stance. "You get to test them." He grinned, and nodded his head up and down. "Ladies' first."

"You asked for it."

With a shriek of rage, Raven leaped into the air straight towards Adonis, using the back edge of the makeshift bed as a means of propulsion. Adonis was caught off guard, having expected for Raven to try to weakly run towards him rather than jump at him, and the sorceress managed to crash into him and tackle him to the ground.

Upon successfully tackling Adonis, Raven managed to squeeze in a small series of relatively weak, yet still painful, punches to the boy's face before Adonis managed to smack her in the face with a backhanded strike from his left hand. This blow caused Raven to rear upward and back and leave herself open just long enough for him to maneuver his right leg into an appropriate position before he then kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying back off of him.

Raven landed on her back and bounced across the cave floor three times before skidding to a halt on her belly. Raven had just enough time to briefly groan in pain before she heard running feet and an angry yell coming towards her from behind. She turned her head in time to see another then Adonis charging towards her. Thinking quickly, she braced herself as if wincing resignedly to Adonis successfully tackling her, and then sweeping her legs at the last minute, tripping up Adonis and sending him flying right over her before crash landing hard himself flat on his face a good yard or two in front of her.

Adonis weakly got back onto his feet, and then rushed towards Raven from the opposite direction, another angry yell bursting from his lips. Raven managed to weakly somersault out of the way to her left just in time for Adonis to end up righting directly across the area she'd been laying around at. Before the boy even fully realized that he'd effectively run right past his target, he felt something small, yet heavy, smack into his back, and he fell back down to the ground with a thud. Mere seconds after Adonis landed, he heard something heavy bounce on the ground ahead of him, and he lifted his head in time to see a bowling ball-sized stone bounce across the ground directly in front of him. His eyes narrowed. Even he was smart enough to put two and two together and realize that this stone was clearly what had just recently hit him in the back, not to mention who was obviously responsible. "In the back!?" he growled. "You can do better than that!"

"Yes I can."

Adonis's eyes widened, and he turned his head just in time to see Raven running straight towards him. Mentally swearing, he hurriedly swung himself around in a way that allowed him to sweep Raven's legs out from under her with his own. Raven shrieked in surprise as she went flying over Adonis, who managed to react swiftly enough to get back on his feet just in time to grab her by the ankle and swing her around before then sending her flying back towards the makeshift bed.

Raven landed on her back at around the halfway point between Adonis's current position and the makeshift bed. She was yanked back down to Earth before she could even register any potential pain from her landing when she heard Adonis yell. She lifted up her head just in time to see that Adonis was now lunging through the air straight towards her. Thinking quickly, she hurriedly did a backflip, her feet catching Adonis by the chest in midair and propelling him forward and directly over her towards the makeshift bed.

Adonis, sadly, was just as quick to react, and he was able to turn his otherwise painful head-on impact with the 'bed' into a roll that allowed him to safely get back onto his feet right at the edge facing the back wall of the cave.

At the sound of an angry scream coming towards him from behind, Adonis turned his head in time to see Raven attempting another rush towards him. He jumped off the bed, yanked one of the stones supporting that particular tip of it, and threw it at the sorceress. Raven's eyes widened, and she hurriedly, dove down onto her belly in time for the stone to harmlessly fly over her and shatter on the ground a good few feet behind her.

Unfortunately, Adonis had been planning for Raven to dodge the projectile in this manner. In fact, by the time Raven managed to lift herself up into a position where she'd be able to do a pushup that would hopefully allow her to get back on her feet, Adonis had already managed to position himself directly in front of her face through a series of front flips, and Raven had just enough time to lift her head and abruptly notice Adonis suddenly standing there when he kicked her in the face.

Raven grunted in pain as she went rolling backwards from the impact. She came to a stop in a backwards leaning position on her backside, and she shook her head to lessen the effect of the impact when she heard Adonis rushing towards her again. Thinking quickly, she used her hands, which were conveniently already resting against the ground behind her, to propel herself into a position that allowed her to successfully kick Adonis in the neck with both feet and send him quite comically bouncing backwards on one foot before then taking newfound advantage of the remaining momentum of her attack to backflip herself back onto her feet, albeit with a brief moment of unsteady wobbling.

Adonis ended up completely losing his footing and crash landing hard on his back. He managed to painfully get back onto his feet, snarl lividly at Raven, and then rush towards her again, drawing his right arm back as if about to try to punch her in the face with it. Raven leaned back, tensing herself up for her intended counter attack. Right as Adonis swung his fist, Raven grabbed onto his wrist just as the boy was seconds away from successfully punching her, successfully redirecting it so as to send the boy stumbling to the side off balance. Unfortunately, this same success also caused her to briefly stumble and spin in circles in the direction opposite the one she sent Adonis stumbling off to. Fortunately, she managed to extend her arms forward in time to steady herself by pressing her hands against a nearby cave wall while Adonis flat out slammed face-first into the wall opposite the one she was now touching.

A moment later, right as Adonis got himself onto his hands and knees, Raven propelled herself off her respective cave wall to send herself running towards the downed boy with her right fist at the ready. Adonis heard her coming, took a deep breath while tensing himself up, and then struck in spectacular fashion with a well-timed back flip that allowed his left foot to smack Raven in the face just as she was about to reach his position and strike him. Raven was sent stumbling backwards, eventually causing herself to turn a full 180 and stumble a few more steps away from Adonis. Then she felt someone grab onto her cape and yank her into the air. The sorceress had just enough time to shriek from both shock and the sudden lack of air before Adonis then spun her around him in circles and sent her flying in the direction of the makeshift bed once more. She landed once painfully on her back, bounced backwards from that landing before coming to another painful one on her stomach, and then bounced again before coming to a final painful landing on her back, and on the collapsed remains of the makeshift stone bed.

At this point, Raven now felt too much pain to even try to get back up, and she groaned in agony with her eyes closed and teeth gritted. Then she felt someone grasp onto both her wrists from above, and her eyes snapped open with an equally surprised gasp bursting out of her mouth at the sight of Adonis leaning over her with his hands grasping her by the wrists.

Adonis panted and gasped in a mixture of exhaustion and triumph. Then he smirked in a mixture of smug triumph and grudging respect. "You put up a good fight," said the apparently triumphant Adonis. "I'll give you that." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "But now it's high time I stopped messing around." He opened his eyes, now very clearly showing that he was in serious mode. "Like you made clear not too long ago, I've wasted too much time already." He nodded his head. "And now, I'm gonna have my fun. And the best part? I'll go easy on you." He directed his full attention towards her face once again. "I'm gonna get it over with." A wolf-like grin came onto his face. "Just like you wanted."

. . . . .

Outside the cave, at around the same moment in which Raven and Adonis's fight within said cave had begun, Beast Boy the lion was now over ¾ of the way to reaching the end of the trail Adonis had left, and he couldn't help but feel a warm fire of triumph blazing inside him. "Almost there," he mentally snarled to himself. He narrowed his eyes in a mixture of focus and confidence. "I'm gonna make it." Then he had another thought, and his mental smile widened. "I'm gonna save you Rae," he thought to himself. "And I'm gonna do it in style."

The green lion narrowed its eyes, now clearly focusing on something. "Alright buddy," he mentally growled. "I know you're in there. You ready?"

"Come now," responded the now very familiar indeed voice of the Beast. "You know me better than that." A brief pause ensued, and Beast Boy could clearly see in his mind a vision of the Beast nodding its head up and down with its eyes closed. "When it comes to the mate," the Beast continued, "I'm always ready."

"Good," Beast Boy mentally replied to the Beast. "Because it's time for you to come out again. We've got a friend to save."

"With pleasure," the Beast growled.

Beast Boy lunged to a stop, threw Raven's all-important communicator into the air with a swing of his head, and then jumped up in an almost back-flip like fashion before transforming into the Beast in mid-air. The instant the transformation was complete, the Beast crash landed to the ground on both feet in a crouching position, snarled, and then straightened up and extended its right hand upwards just in time to catch onto the communicator when it fell right into the grasp of that very hand. The Beast gently clenched its hand around the communicator, leaned forward, and roared savagely in challenge before it then started rocketing forward as it proceeded to rapidly start dashing down the remaining portion of the trail to be followed. And as it furiously charged its way down the remainder of the trail, snarling, growling, and roaring in rage and triumph, it was so focused on its upcoming mission that it never noticed the figure hidden amongst the trees that managed to get incidentally alerted to its presence and see it running right past her.

This same hidden figure, however, thankfully knew better than to make her presence known to the creature. And much like this figure, the dark cloaked figure who'd managed to also catch sight of the Beast through means of the cameras in the eye holes of the figure's mask that he was remotely viewing the footage being recorded, now had considerably more important things to do now that his underling had managed to allow him to become aware of this new unpleasant development that had just now gotten added to an already large list formed only that night.

. . . . .

Adonis took a deep breath, preparing himself to finally get started on what he now very bitterly wished he'd had the sense to do considerably much earlier than now. Raven closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and likewise tensed herself up in dread of what was now very likely soon to come. But then, just as Adonis was preparing himself to initiate the steps needed to fully initiate his planned 'fun', an electronic beeping that sounded almost like some sort of alarm started blaring from somewhere in the boy's pants pocket. For about a minute, Adonis grimaced, his eyes clenched shut and his teeth gritted as he tried his best to ignore the piercing noise. Then, finding out that he couldn't take it anymore, he angrily drew the source of the noise, which turned out to be his cellphone, out of his pocket and accept what turned out to be what must have been a very urgent call. "Sorry boss," said Adonis in a deceptively calm tone of voice. "But I'm a little busy right now."

"Forget that," snarled a voice from the other end of the connection. "Whatever it is you're currently doing, stop it now! You need to get out of there! The green one is heading your way, and will be arriving at your location within the next few minutes!"

"Ha, ha, very funny," said Adonis. "Honestly, you expect me to believe that? If that clumsy little green wimp were anywhere near this part of the forest, I'd have gotten some advance notice of it hours ago. Now please, no interruptions."

"DO I SOUND LIKE I'M JOKING?!" roared the voice on the other end. "You know perfectly well that I specifically said that I'd only call you with this number in the event of an absolute emergency! Now stop what you're doing and evacuate the area!"

"And I'm telling you," Adonis responded. "That there's no need to worry. I've got everything under control, and I'll be on my way at around the end of the current hour."

"CAN YOU NOT HEAR ME?!" the voice shouted, practically erupting in flames with rage. "ABORT THE MISSION! EVACUATE NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN! BEFORE THE GREEN ONE ARRIVES!"

Adonis lowered the phone away from his ear and placed his other hand over the screen. "Sorry," the boy said, clearly giving a sarcastic blatant lie. "Having trouble hearing you; I'll call you back later."

"I MEAN IT!" roared the mysterious voice on the other end of the line. "ABORT NOW AND EVACUATE . . .!"

Adonis selected the 'end call' option, effectively hanging up. "Sorry about the interruption my dear," Adonis then said as he gently placed his phone back into his pocket. "Honestly, my future boss has demonstrated a much better sense of timing throughout all the time I've known him before now."

Raven narrowed her eyes. "I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss his claims right now if I were you," she responded dryly.

Adonis chuckled. "Please, don't make me laugh." He looked directly back at her face once more. "I mean come on, you know just as well as I do that there's no way that wimpy green oaf could possibly be anywhere within 50 miles of this place without me being aware of it somehow." He pretended to think to himself. "Hmm, now where was I? Oh." He grinned smugly, and started leaning back towards Raven once more with his hands at the ready to resume what he'd been about to do before the interruption had occurred. "I do believe I was about to. . ."

He suddenly tensed up, arching his back, clenching his eyes shut, and gritting his teeth in a snarl of pain and annoyance. "Ah!" he screamed. Then he started violently jerking and thrashing and writhing around, screaming and howling in what seemed to be pain. "Ow!" he shrieked. "What are you . . . ah! Quit it! Ow! Stop that! Ah!" Without warning, he tumbled backwards right off of Raven and landed on the ground behind him on his back, still thrashing and writhing in an almost seizure-like fit of pain. "No! Stop it . . . ah! I mean it! Ow! Don't be stupid . . . ah! That's impossible . . . ow! I mean it . . . ah! No really . . . I've got this covered . . . ow! I mean it . . . ah! I'm serious! He's nowhere near here. . . ow! Oh for crying out loud; FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE WOULD YOU JUST . . . AH!"

Without warning, he slapped his hands over his ears and starting thrashing, writhing, and rolling around even more violently then before; howling, snarling, growling, roaring, and screaming in agony. Raven, having at this point managed to get herself positioned so that she was now sitting upright on her backside, yet slightly leaning backwards nonetheless. And as she watched in stunned shock, Adonis eventually managed to come a tense stop in a position that had him lying on his left side with his back arched and the front of his body facing her direction. "No," he groaned in pain. "Please . . . stop . . . ah!"

At the exact same moment Adonis unleashed that latest shriek of pain, his teeth abruptly extended into fangs. Raven was briefly startled, but she very quickly regained her composure. Good thing to, because the appearance of the fangs was the only the beginning. Several more rapid changes in appearance followed in swift succession. The first such change following the fangs was revealed when his eyes suddenly snapped open and revealed two cat-like yellow eyes in the place of his usual smug dark eyes. Then his back suddenly did a reverse arch, and his feet expanded into the shape of what looked like a mixture of the paws of a wolf, a bear, and a cat, complete with claws in the place of toenails. Then Adonis snapped into a position in which he was lying right on his belly, his hands snapping away from his ears and onto the ground in front of him just in time for them to expand into a more hand-like version of the same paws that had just now been formed from his feet, complete with his fingernails likewise extending into claws.

No sooner had the claws and paws taken shape when Adonis abruptly snapped into another position in which he was on his hands and knees, had his back slightly arched, and he was likewise very strongly tensed up. For a brief few seconds more, he snarled, growled, and whimpered in pain and despair, his eyes closed and teeth gritted once more. Then, with a final despairing "NO!" the boy rapidly expanded in size with coarse brown fur sprouting across his body until he then stopped expanding in time to almost explosively snap into an upright standing bipedal position with his arms and hands raised in the air, roaring in challenge; all in the familiar form of his own personal inner Beast.

The brown furred Beast stood before Raven for a tense moment, snarling and slavering in rage, clearly fighting against its savagely strong urge to kill her. Then another Beastly roar split the air from outside the cave. The brown Beast tensed up, closed its eyes, and gritted its teeth, now clearly struggling to decide which desire to place higher priority on. Then the other Beast's roar split the air again, and the one standing before Raven made its decision. It opened its eyes and glared at Raven. "I'll kill you later," it growled. It turned around so that its back was facing Raven and the rest of it was facing the exit to the cave. "Right now," it continued, "my rival takes precedence." With a roar of its own, the brown Beast charged out of the cave, snarling and slavering as it mentally prepared itself for the upcoming battle against its hated rival Beast.

Meanwhile, Raven panted in relief and exhaustion, and a small face came on her face. For she'd had the chance to access her empathic radar once more, and Beast Boy's distinctive beacon of emotional feedback was indeed now considerably stronger in a way that could only indicate that the changeling was indeed getting increasingly close to her location. "Thank you Beast Boy," she whispered to herself, genuinely glad to know that he was within the area. "I knew you would make it." And indeed, now that she thought about it, she truly had known that Beast Boy would arrive in time to save her, long before even she herself had realized it.

And just like that, another chapter done! And boy am I hoping you enjoyed this one! Granted, the long awaited clash you're all waiting for hasn't begun yet. But fear not! It won't be much longer now before the wait finally ends (chapter-wise anyway). And that being said, once again I hope to receive a respectable amount of feedback. Remember, I require a minimum of 1 review for this chapter in order to post the next chapter once it's complete. And that being said, feel free to comment with as detailed or simple a review as you want (but absolutely NO flames under ANY circumstances!).

And now, for a response to a guest: I am very glad indeed that you are enjoying and 'idolizing' my work so much EchoInTheDark! And fear not, I'll definitely be continuing the good work! But right now I'd best explain a little something to you. Just so you know, am well aware of how childish and dumb Beast Boy behaves. However, as the green bean himself made clear in 'Detention/Mad Mod', he has a brain; he just doesn't use it much. The way I see it, and have made a note of in both writing and dialogue in my stories so far, I believe that either A: as long as it's something he'd find particularly interesting (and I'm quite certain this obviously means that machinery and tech-based topics are not among the topics that would fit this category) or B: at any moment that he stops fooling around, he is actually capable of being plenty smart and capable. Again, this is just my interpretation and not at all a dig against you. I'm still very glad indeed that you are such a big fan of my work and hope you continue to remain as such :).

Coming up Next: The one! The only! The Battle of the Beasts!