A/N: Felt as though it was necessary that I give the readers a heads-up: this chapter contains quite a bit of character angst, and since flames are damaging to my already dwindling self-confidence I would appreciate that those be withheld. Or, if you are absolutely compelled, go ahead. Sigh.
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The transition from reality to unconsciousness had been seamless and very unlike what Speedy had been expecting. It was as if he had simply blinked and the world reformed around him. And it was quite an eye catching world. Speedy had seen Lord of the Rings once, and if elves lived under water then maybe this is what their cities would look like.
"So this is the mind of an intellectual," he said with awe.
Jericho shrugged a shoulder and smiled. "It makes you wonder what your own unconscious world looks like, doesn't it?"
"I have one of these?" asked Speedy, surprised.
"As much as I'd love to listen to you both gibber on about alternate unrealities, we do have to get a move on if we want to save your boyfriend, Speedy."
The archer automatically shot Raven a glare, forgetting temporarily the immense gratitude he owed her for stretching her neck out for Aqualad's sake. "He's not my boyfriend!" he growled, but Raven had already taken off down the street. With resignation he ran to catch up, Jericho bringing up his right side.
'Boyfriend' was never a term which he had used to define his relationship with Garth. It just didn't fit.
"Friends with benefits?" Jericho offered too sweetly.
"If it's your business, he's my ex, alright? Problem with that?"
Contrary to the reaction Speedy had been trying for, the guitarist simply held up his hands in a surrender and smiled brightly, panting all the way. "Not at all, sexy. You're… just fun to bait."
Speedy grumbled some obscenities under his breath, "…Damn mute. Hey… How're you not... a mute anymore?"
"It took you long enough… to realize this."
Raven had taken to levitating overhead rather than running through the cobbled streets, so her breath was less labored than the boys'. "He is perfectly capable of speaking every thought that comes to his mind in unconsciousness. What's amazing is the fact that he never stops."
Speedy snickered, "We'd been wondering why you guys hadn't hooked up."
Raven's blue eyes rolled with exasperation, but Jericho seemed to find a great deal of humor in this. Unfortunately, it was difficult for him to laugh and breathe at the same time and he nearly choked.
They continued on in silence for a few moments more until Raven broke the stillness with, "That's it, just up ahead!"
The darkness hardly needed introduction from the witch though: even the inexperienced Speedy could easily tell the abrupt change from elegant architecture to what could only be described as a distorted funhouse mirror. The angles that some of the building stood and arched would never have been able to hold in any real setting, and the tops of these black stoned houses wove an urban canopy overhead, blocking out whatever light source that illuminated the rest of the city.
Speedy reached for his bow and realized that he was the only one present who was armed with a weapon. He wondered if it would even do him any good.
"What are we up against, exactly?"
"I didn't want to go into specifics at the Tower," explained the witch darkly, "but we're not fighting some run-of-the-mill beast."
"As it would turn out, we're not even fighting a demon," Jericho elaborated. Speedy frowned in confusion. "It's a wraith."
"The difference between the two being…?"
"A wraith is a nonliving creature with only the purpose of feeding life energy from a host, whereas demons are immortals intent on using its victims to achieve its goals." Raven ended her flight; her booted heels hit the ground lightly. The party continued on but far slower than before. "The two are very similar except for their motivations."
"Care to elaborate for those of us who regularly skipped Demonology 101?"
"A wraith is a prisoner of the Secondary Negative plane who seeks to escape it by assimilating the life energy of other beings and consume their strength. A demon just wants to conquer and destroy civilization."
Speedy felt as though he was going to be sick. "Oh, that's all?" Raven looked at him glumly. Jericho pretended to be immensely interested in their environment rather than face Speedy.
"We need to be quiet. The wraith can be anywhere, and I'd like some notice if it turns out to be behind us."
"Not that there would be much we could do if it does attack."
"Shut up, Jericho."
"No, what does he mean by that?" asked Speedy. He turned and asked Jericho directly, "What did that mean?"
"Nothing, really. Just that it would be very hard to fight the thing. You can, but its most devastating attacks are of the mind, and there the only way it can be fought off is by willpower."
Raven elaborated, "The wraith will invoke images of your deepest fears in order to disarm you, then exploit the invulnerability to incapacitate your practical thought."
"You'll be a vegetable in a world of images that it creates."
The archer clutched his bow tightly. "So my arrows are scrap?"
"Not necessarily." Raven stopped in front of them shortly, surveyed their surroundings carefully and drew a heavy breath. "Speedy, look around. What do you see?"
"Messed up architecture, for one."
"Exactly my point. These buildings are contorted, it's dark, and everything is covered with soot. All dead giveaways to the evil manifestation growing in this otherwise beautiful mind." She scratched the surface of the cobble street with the toe of her boot, wiping away the blackness and revealing the pearly surface beneath. "In the unconsciousness everything is symbolic. Your arrows represent something: it's your job to figure out what, and to know when to apply them to the situation."
"And when the wraith attacks?"
"Jericho and I have barriers to keep the creature out. My power should be enough to keep you safe as well."
"I'm going to have to settle for 'should be', aren't I?"
"Aqualad knew what he was talking about when he told you to stay out of this."
The trio was interrupted by a heavy rumbling beneath their feet, shaking the ground and foundation of the buildings. In their sills windows cracked and shattered, sending shards of glass careening towards the ground. Raven summoned a dark shielf over their heads.
"What's going on?"
Jericho grabbed Speedy's shoulder. "The wraith must have found Aqualad! We've got to move!"
They took off around the corner of the block, but no sooner had they turned the right angle did the ground explode beneath them, sending all three off their feet and falling towards the earth. Speedy twisted like a cat in mid-air so at least he landed on his feet, but a few yards away Raven's back took the brunt of her impact. Whether it was a good thing or not, Jericho never had a chance to fall: shadowy tentacles had deftly wrapped around his waist, pulling him towards the sky.
"Jericho!" Speedy instinctively took off and lunged, trying to get a grasp on the blonde's hand before it was lifted too far away, but it was to no avail. The boy, dangling upside down by the legs, was torn away from the group too quickly to be caught. Not that Speedy would have been able to put up much of a fight over the boy once he saw the expansiveness of the beast holding him anyway.
He had never seen anything like it before. There was just nothing in the world with which to compare the wraith to; no words could accurately depict the obscure anatomy of the creature. No apparent eyes, but there were countless spiked tentacles with jagged, hooked blades. If he had to settle for something Speedy would say that the thing was so evil that it was painful to look at.
What killed him to see was Aqualad, who's wounded body rested on the soot-cloaked street with splotches of the black powder smudged along the blue of his uniform.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" chanted the witch instinctively, manipulating her dark energy so it took the form of two snake-like whips. The strands of darkness seemed to snake and coil about, attacking the wraith on their own accord, needing little motivation from their creator. As they struck the beast's side they flashed brightly, leaving spots in Speedy's vision.
The witch looked over her shoulder at the two boys. Her eyes were eerily black. "I'll get Jericho! You help Aqualad!"
The archer didn't hesitate, and took off running as the creature was distracted. He ducked and tumbled a stray limb as if flailed blindly at his head. Once he regained his footing he was about a yard away from Aqualad, a distance which he covered on foot.
Garth was on his side, facing away from Speedy. When the archer touched him he shuddered, rolled to his back and squeezed his eyes closed.
He scanned the area for possible escape routes. The door to one of the dark buildings had fallen out of is frame and rested on the broken road, giving them a clear path to shelter.
"C'mon," Roy took Garth by the hands, trying to heave him up to a sitting position. Once the Atlantean was able to sit up by himself Roy slung one of his partner's arms over his shoulder and pulled him to his feet.
It was a short run, and thankfully Aqualad was aware enough to support himself. If he hadn't been then Roy may not have been able to move him at all: Garth was deceptively heavy for his size, what with such dense bones and compacted muscle. He faltered every few steps, forcing Roy to acknowledge his weight every time he had to catch and support him.
After an eternity of dashing, stumbling and strafing to avoid the indifferent tentacles the pair finally managed to get into the building. It looked vaguely like a rundown hotel one might find in old Gotham. It was utterly filthy, support beams had dropped in from the ceiling, and a veil of dust stirred by the earthquake now clouded the air. Speedy cleared his throat and helped Aqualad as far away from the door as possible.
As soon as they had stopped Aqualad dropped to the floor, exhausted. "Roy, what the hell is happening?"
He rolled his eyes. "Like I would know."
A shadow loomed up from the floor abruptly, taking the shape of Raven, who was holding the hand of Jericho. From the sagging in her eyes Speedy could tell a good deal of her energy had been spent aiding in their escape.
"What are you doing?" demanded the Atlantean as he finally started to come to. He shook uncontrollably, but it was hard to tell if that was because of fear or anger. "I told you - all of you - to stay out of this! You're in danger!"
Speedy leaned in towards Aqualad and whispered near his ear dryly, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Garth: I don't follow directions very well."
"This isn't a joke," he was reprimanded sharply. "I can't say I'm surprised you would pull a reckless stunt like this, Roy, but I thought maybe you two would show some restraint!"
This pointed comment had been directed at Raven and Jericho, both of which looked immensely guilty of disobeying the rules and missed the free exchanging of real names. Jericho wondered if he should maybe try to explain their actions, but upon seeing that Raven wasn't about to offer up any excuses he decided to just keep his mouth shut.
"Don't get angry at them; I asked them for their help."
Aqualad glared at Speedy, then back at the others. "Yes, but they didn't have to comply!"
"Guys, we have seconds before that thing finds us," Jericho reminded them. He still had his hand over his thumping heart.
"Which is why you all need to leave, now," the Atlantean pleaded, "Raven, you're the only one who seems to understand the seriousness of the situation. Talk some sense into him."
The witch frowned. "I… am inclined to agree with Aqualad. This doesn't appear to be a fight that we, regardless of how united we are, can win."
"Pessimists."
"The spells I cast the first time around we enough to seriously injure the creature. This time I was barely able to pry Jericho away from it. The thing is getting too powerful to fend off."
"Okay, so we can't fight it directly. What are our other options?"
Speedy didn't get to hear any alternate ideas, for right then the floor dropped out beneath them with a thunderous crash. More of a reflex than anything, Speedy reached for the wall in hopes of finding something stable. His nails scraped against the wall, some bending backwards painfully, and he dropped in the cloud of dust with the other Titans. Through all the racket it was hard to tell just what was going on, but at least he knew where Garth was: in fact, he felt kind of guilty for landing on top of the Atlantean. Speedy rolled off him as soon as his senses returned.
On hands and knees on the cool concrete of what was presumably the basement of the building, Speedy leaned down and asked, "Are you okay?"
Aqualad moaned weakly in response. "You're a noble idiot, Roy."
It was too dark to see anything, what with the only light being the streams of grayness filtering in from the gaping hole in the floor above. Still, there was an enormous roar of noise that would seem to indicate that something big was moving about them in the shadows.
Sure enough, within a few seconds another great impact threw Speedy into the air - he hadn't any idea how high or far - and he hit a wall with a sickening thump. His elbow absorbed most of the impact, and from the intensely painful throbbing the archer had to wonder if maybe it was broken. In his pain he almost didn't hear some one coughed near him, but it was too gentle to be Garth. It had to be Jericho.
"It's attacking Raven!" he told anyone who could hear him. Raven was the only one who really knew what exactly was going on; naturally the creature would go after her first. Speedy grabbed his bow and pulled the shaft over his head. He couldn't see anything, but the moment he could he would fire.
"Fuck, damn it!" When he reached back to pluck an arrow from the quiver his right arm seared with pain. He dropped his bow and clutched his arm protectively.
Speedy moved to take cover behind a fallen section of wall as Jericho shielded himself from a vicious attack. Raven seemed to be completely out of the game as no dark energy was being employed in their defense, and another explosion ripped through their ranks, bringing the ceiling down on their heads. Speedy avoided any further injury by rolling out of the way of a monstrous block of stone, but he was too shaky to stop the dust from flying into his eyes. It burned something fearsome and he wiped his face with his dirty glove. Through the tearing in his eyes he tried to locate his friends.
Aqualad was was the first one he saw. His uniform was torn in several places and his legs had been hidden beneath a slab of stone. Speedy's heart about stopped when he saw the trickle of blood dribbling over his lip and pooling at his chin. Hey black eyes were wide open yet saw nothing. It was quite apparent that he was no longer alive.
Roy fell victim to a surreal coma in which his body and mind completely dissipated to nothing. He lost all cognitive thought in lieu of the idea that it was all over. The thing killed Garth. He was dead.
It looked like Jericho was the only Titan really putting up a fight anymore. Raven was missing. Roy was incapacitated. Garth was… God, he still couldn't accept it. It was incomprehensible. Roy sank to his knees in spite of all the chaos brewing around him. Garth was dead.
The wraith broke through Jericho's shield, and the blonde took a furious hit. The last line of defense and it was gone. They were all done for.
"Wait," he murmured, casting an evaluating glance at his arm. How could the bone be broken? He was unconscious: none of this was supposed to be real! Just… symbolic.
Cringing at the tingling pain, Speedy raised to bow shaft and drew the string, balancing the tail of the arrow between his middle and ring fingers. Christ, it hurt, but he refused to give in to the delusion this nightmare was inducing. If Garth was really dead then this entire fight would be over, right? So…
"This isn't real." He grit his teeth and notched an arrow to his bow. He remembered what Raven had told him: the wraith would invoke images to distract him, so he forced every thought of Garth being hurt out of his mind and let his bow do the talking.
The arrow whistled its familiar low tune as it soared upwards, and right when the tip kissed the black flesh of the creature its skin evaporated away, exposing layers of muscle, which then gave way to veins, fat and, finally, to the bone. The disintegration of the wraith had such a stunning effect that even the fairly adept archer didn't see the beast's reaction to the pain.
Speedy shook himself out of the haze clouding his mind and found himself not in some dark basement, but still on the street where he had first spotted Garth being attacked. Everything was foggy, but Raven's dark energy flashed, dragging him back to sense. But even when he heard Aqualad's voice screaming at him, but the words weren't registering in Speedy's mind until it became too late.
"Damn it, Roy! MOVE!"
He didn't have to figure out what that meant: accelerating quickly towards his face was a massive, skeletal hand bearing jagged claws (Speedy didn't know until that point the wraith even had claws), and just before the wraith would have been able to strike a lethal blow Speedy disappeared without warning from the unreality.
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It felt like he had been asleep for an year, able to hear the outside world but incapable of interacting with it. Speedy's senses drifted back painfully slowly, his sight coming in at last place, and he realized that he was no longer in the battle.
He was on the floor of the warded room, dragged off to the edge of the chamber. Starfire was at his side with his legs elevated and head resting in her lap. Her warm fingers threaded through his hair gently With no regard to her protest Speedy sat up bolt right.
"No!" he roared upon seeing Raven and Jericho recovering nearby. "Send me back! He needs help! We can still-!"
"Speedy," intoned Starfire gently, "You have been unconscious for nearly a droknarg. Time is… no longer of the essence."
He fell still, though this didn't last. Soon he was thrashing to escape her grasp once more, but the Tameranian wasn't going to just let him escape.
"Let me see him! Get off! I have to see him!"
Eyes all around the room fell downwards, some welling with unbridled tears. Perhaps the most impressive show of emotional strength came from Bumblebee, who had arrived not ten minutes before. She had made a point of not asking unnecessary questions, and upon sensing the urgency of the situation she hand sent the twins away to look for Silkie.
Somehow Bumlebee had become the foundation that held the Titans together. They saw her unwaveringly brush a black fly-away from Aqualad's still face and, despite the raging grief that Speedy was orchestrating in the background, she did not so much as flinch. Cyborg had to give her immense credit, for had it been he standing next to a dead Beast Boy he'd be, without a doubt, a total wreck.