Greeting all, I hope you are enjoying the last chapters as much as I enjoyed writing them. As you may remember, we last left off with lingering tension about what Strata claims is the coming of Ragnarok following the defeat of Punk Rocket at the hands (or more accurately, giant blue bowling ball) of Starfire and Strata. Raven has now informed the other Titans of Strata's strange revelations to her in Chapter 5. First time readers should review the recap introduction leading off Chapter 6 after reading the other chapters. So now without further delay, we rejoin our heroes following the victory at JumpMart…

"The Bird, the Boy, and the Mighty Beast"

Chapter 8: The Boy and The Bird

"You have grown suddenly quiet," commented Raven towards Strata, "You've been a chatterbox all day and now you've clammed up."

"Still suspicious of me, eh, Raven?" said the newcomer, turning his gaze from scenery outside the T-Car window. The Titans with Strata in tow were returning to the Tower following Starfire and Strata's victory over Punk Rocket, "I'm just hoping that store was insured."

"You have been at the center of a sizeable amount of commercial destruction lately. And, let's just say I'm being observant—though you are suspicious."

"Yes, well, you've been at the center of a lot of observing and suspecting lately. And may I remind you that the HIVE 5 were destroying the hardware store yesterday before I arrived. Besides, maybe I'd be more talkative if you had not kept me up all last night talking about the moon and hope and all that stuff," he added this last sentence with a wry smile.

"Excuse me, I kept YOU up last night? I remember you sneaking up on me in the pitch blackness, interrupting my meditation, and promptly keeping me awake until sunrise."

"That's your fault for being so filled with hope."

"Ah, yes, that riddle again. Don't you have any new mysteries now that the sun is out? Or would you like to explain how I'm supposedly the answer to your problem?"

"Nah, not going to, I can't really explain that one."

" 'Can't' or 'won't'?" Raven added that with a sideways glare in Strata's direction.

Strata chuckled, "Both really. I can't explain it, but I probably wouldn't if I could."

"You find fate funny?"

"No, I find you funny."

Raven rolled her forehead and turned her gaze fully onto Strata as she stared him down, "I'm not a funny person."

"Sure you are, you're just funny in a very serious way."

"You're suspicious in a very suspicious way."

Strata smiled again, "Raven, you have yet to realize the wonder inside of you that I so clearly see."

"You're watching me?"

Strata laughed a little louder and he lowered his voice to more of a monotone drone in imitation of Raven, "Let's just say I'm being observant." Beast Boy, sitting on the opposite side of Raven, broke into laughter.

"You really think I'm funny?" Raven turned a glare towards Beast Boy that would have made a blind man shiver.

"Deep down you are flat out hysterical, oh Dark One."

"I'm still watching you."

"Of course, I'm a very interesting person."

Raven pulled her hood back over her head as she sat and thought for a second. She was in the back seat of the T-Car, sitting between Beast Boy and Strata, who was behind Cyborg, who was driving. Starfire was perched between Robin and Cyborg in the front seat, still recounting her morning's adventure to the two boys.

"…and after Strata made a sword and cut the Punk Rocket's musical instrument in two, I blasted his machines with my eye-beams and they went BOOM! And then we won and you came."

Robin smiled to see Starfire so happy, "Sounds like it was a rough fight."

"It was, dear Robin, I landed in some rice cakes, though they did not have icing on them like any cakes at all. Strata landed in the lobsters. Strata," she turned towards the newcomer, "What do you think happened to all the lobsters?"

"I'm kind of envious of the lobsters; they don't have ears. They'll be fine. I put one in Punk Rocket's pants as the police took him away."

"Sweet!" said Cyborg and Beast Boy in unison.

After a few more minutes the Titans arrived back at the Tower, and the group exited the T-Car. "Home dear home!" exclaimed Starfire, "Did you all eat all the waffles Robin?"

"Uh…" stuttered Robin, remembering that Cyborg had burned them all with his built-in torch.

"They were taken care of in the most fitting manner possible," said Raven

"Is that a plane of some sort?" said Strata who had become distracted by the vehicle next to the T-Car.

"That, Strata, is the T-Ship," said Cyborg walking over by Strata and always glad to have a new person to show off his greatest creation to.

Strata gazed upon its orange exterior further, "So, it flies? Or is it just a model?"

"A MODEL!" yelled Cyborg, clearly offended, "Now see here! This is the T-Ship! It had quad ion engines, dual laser arrays, and the five pilot pods can separate into separate vessels! The armor is double-thick, and each pilot seat has a cup holder! No it is not a model!"

"Okay, okay, sorry," said Strata, "I was just wondering what it was."

"Well now you know," said Cyborg, "And just in case you want to know, it doubles as a submarine."

"A SUBMARINE?" said Strata, suddenly startled, "This thing goes underwater?"

"You bet," said Cyborg, beaming with pride over his baby. "The pressurization system is perfect; I'm still getting the torpedoes built."

"Very nice," said Strata, "I'm sure it swims great."

"Booyah! It's my swimming/flying baby!"

Raven glanced at Strata for a moment. "This is odd," she pondered, "This is the first real interest that he's seemed to show in anything. Is it the T-Ship? Perhaps he's a mechanic-loving-type like Cyborg. At least he is not rambling about the moon anymore." She paused in thought for a moment as Beast Boy belched unusually loud and laughed at his own grossness. She heard Cyborg yell something about giving it a score of nine. She returned he gaze towards their enigmatic newcomer, who was still gazing at the T-Ship. "What is it that drives him?" she wondered, "What is he hiding? And why, oh why, does he seem to keep wanting to bring me of all of us into his secret world?"

Strata turned from the T-Ship towards the team. Cyborg and Beast Boy were still laughing over Beast Boy's burp. Starfire was talking with Robin. Lastly, his eyes roamed and met Raven's gaze. With one hand still on the T-Ship, Raven felt his eyes bore into her, and she again wondered what he saw when he looked at her. In the brief moment their gazes met, she imagined that some kind of understanding was passing between them, that somehow she would find a clue to the mysteries that the Severing Strata had laid before her feet. Was he a wandering warden or just another boy who fancied moonlight with some strange stories?

Strata raised an eyebrow and looked at Raven. She noticed that his mouth began open and he seemed to be about to say something. Suddenly he stopped, and his eyes seemed to open fully. His face turned pale, and he staggered where he stood.

As his hand slipped from the T-Ship, Strata collapsed without so much as a word onto the floor of the Titans' garage.

"Can you sense what's wrong with him, Raven?" asked Robin.

"Yes, what is wrong with Friend Strata?" queried Starfire.

"He looks kinda bleached," said Beast Boy, which surprised most of the team as Beast Boy cleaned almost nothing and would surely be ignorant of what bleach was.

Raven gazed at her teammates. They were in the main room and Strata was laid on the large couch after having been carried there by Cyborg. "I can't really sense anything; It's very strange. Usually, I can almost always sense something on a person but not him. It's like I can't even find a solid piece of psyche to begin looking around. He is a total blank."

There were moments of silence. At last Cyborg spoke, "I'll ask since no one else is. Is he dead?"

"No," said Robin, "He has a pulse, and he seems to be breathing."

"That's what so strange," said Raven, "Usually I can sense organs or tissue or at least know what works so I know what to heal. This time there's nothing. I try to use my powers on sensing Strata, and all I get is a blank; I might as well be trying to read the mind of the couch."

"Or Beast Boy," said Cyborg. No one laughed.

"What should we do?" asked Starfire, "Tamaranian acupuncture?"

"I think we better just wait and see if he comes out of it before we try breaking bones, Starfire," says Robin.

As if on cue, Strata's eyes opened, albeit with a very vacant expression, the kind of an expression one's eyes would have had one been hit hammer, picked up off the ground, and carried to a hospital, only to be hit by an ambulance upon one's arrival. Strata's looked left at the couch cushion, glanced right at Beast Boy, then quickly glanced at the couch cushion again, as if finding it more interesting. His moving eyes, a sharp contrast to his rather pale, immobile body. He then sat up sharply and glanced right and left through with no expression to determine whether or not he was gaining anymore sense of presence then from the couch cushion. Without looking, he mechanically and suddenly reached out his left hand and grabbed Raven's hand and pulled her towards him so that her nose was only 2 centimeters from his own.

Raven gazed in his eyes but found almost no life in them, as if he was just staring forward without blinking, totally ignorant of her proximity. Strata then opened his mouth and voiced barely above a whisper, "He's close." He then stood up, and Raven backed away.

The team somewhat surprised at Strata's zombie-like recovery was stunned for a second. Strata in the meanwhile was beginning to get his color back and was checking his appendages as if not sure they would all be there.

"Who's close?" asked Robin.

Strata turned around and faced the team. He looked right, then left, then directly at Robin, "The Raging Ragnarok."

"What was all that fainting about? Are you okay?"

"I felt him. And, yes, I think I'm fine."

"Are you so familiar with him that you can feel him coming?"

Strata looked at Robin as if not sure how to take that question. After a moment's pause he simply answered, "Yes."

Starfire queried Strata next, "Does that happen often, you feeling the Ragnarok?"

Strata rolled his neck and stretched his arms as if he had been sitting for a very longer time then his three minutes on the couch, "No, I occasionally get a reading on his presence, but I don't ever remember hitting the ground like that before. So, I think he's close."

Beast Boy questioned next, "He's coming?"

"Yes, he's coming. We're very familiar with each other, though if I may say so he's seemed surprisingly overwhelming there a moment ago." Strata now seemed totally recovered.

Cyborg looked at him next, "You spoke with him, saw him?"

"No, I felt him surging here. Believe me; with Ragnarok, that's enough."

Robin just gave Strata a hard stare, "I thought you said he was in prison!"

Strata gave Robin a similar stare, "He is in prison!"

Robin gritted his teeth, finally becoming frustrated with Strata's riddles, "How can he be coming here if he's in prison?"

Strata turned from Robin and looked out a window, "Nice weather we're having today, huh? I hear there's supposed to be rain tomorrow night."

"Answer the question! How can he be coming here and be in prison!"

Strata suddenly looked somber, "He's that powerful, Robin.

"I thought you were supposed to be this guy's jailer!"

Strata smiled, "I am his jailer."

"You're not a very good one, not watching you're prisoner that well."

"On that point, I cannot disagree."

"How can you be his jailer, he be in jail, yet you know that he's coming? Did you let him out?"

Strata's look turned serious. "Ragnarok is a mighty beast, the soulless monstrosity that exists only to fill its own wrath, its own…rage. He…It has amazing power at its command. Yet, it cannot tell right from wrong, it has no reasons, no motives, no compassion. It is ever-destructive and all-dangerous. It seeks to fill a hole in itself that it has no capacity to fill. No, Robin, I would never seek to unleash him on the world." Strata looked crestfallen at this and sat back on the couch.

There were several moments of silence. Cyborg again broke it, "What can we do? How can we stop him from coming?"

Strata kept his gaze on the ground before him, "Nothing. We can do nothing."

Raven questioned him next, "You said there was hope when we were on the roof last night. Is there any?"

Strata looked up at Raven, and she felt his gaze meet hers again—and secretly wondered if this had been part of what made him faint. "There is one thing…" said the newcomer, "But as I also said on the roof, it's one in a million, last ditch, probably screwed anyway hope. That hope is in you, Raven."

The team turned towards Raven; she had obviously left out this part in her retelling of Strata's musings. Raven quickly spoke, "We've been over that; I'm not a person to be associated with hope."

"And as I already said, you already have hope in you. It's why I'm here, Raven. There's no Raven in Steel City or Gotham or in Metropolis. You're special; you don't like to admit it, but you are."

"But why…"

"…Because you are! It's just like that! If I always walked around asking 'Why me? Why was I cursed with the pain of watching Ragnarok's power grow all these years?' I'd have gone mad long ago. You are special because you are Raven; you are special because you are you. I suggest that you get over it and get used to the idea of you being Raven, the dark girl from Azarath who happened to survive a brutal slaying by a mighty beast named the Raging Ragnarok and who happened to send him flying away with out any logical reason as to how when this entire planet should have been well on its way to destruction as Ragnarok made his way around the world slowly destroying everything in his sight until he could not find one stone on top of another." Strata stopped to catch his breath.

Starfire spoke next, "How can Friend Raven help us? Last time we fought the Raging Ragnarok our powers, including hers, were no good against him."

Robin answered, "We lasted a couple rounds against him, but we couldn't really hurt him, only distract him."

Strata talked again, "I don't know how she made him fly away, return to his current prison. Ragnarok's psyche is a delicate balance of only two forces: rage and deep sorrow." Strata glanced at Raven, "Ragnarok's rage is foremost. Destruction is the only item that subdues his sorrow. Somehow, you found a way to bring the sorrow to the center and distract the rage long enough that he could not handle himself. Usually when the sorrow gets to him the rage only intensifies more to cover it, but you did something."

"I may have just been fortunate; I didn't really do anything."

"Yeah, but something happened and that's our hope."

Cyborg spoke next, "Our hope is to make it happen again."

"Yes."

"How do we do that?" asked Robin.

"I have no idea," asked Strata.

"When will that monster be here?" asked Beast Boy.

"Soon," said Strata, "If I had to guess, it's only a matter of days before his power swells enough to leave his current prison. I think what Raven did to him last time will cause him to come here; it'll be the last thing he remembers destroying."

"Lucky me," said Raven, "And this is supposed to give me hope? I'm the last person he couldn't destroy?"

Strata smiled a wry grin, "Nice being special isn't it?"

"Time for lunch," said Robin, "Even bad jailers and special people need to eat."

"Very funny, Robin," sneered Raven.

Lunch ensued, with Cyborg cooking hot dogs. Starfire insisted that Strata be allowed to stay another night since he had been the chief reason for the defeat Punk Rocket earlier. Robin agreed, wanting to continue observing Strata, who still had too many unsolved mysteries about him. And so afternoon drifted into the evening as Titand headed for bed. Raven took a nap during the afternoon to catch up on the sleep she had lost the night before talking with Strata. Strata did the same.

Strata awoke late in the evening, his watch telling him it was 11 p.m. He got out of bed, dressed himself, and put his backpack on his shoulders. Exiting the room, he headed for the front door of the Tower.

As Strata approached the front door, Raven descended from the ceiling, "Leaving so soon?" she cooed.

"You're still suspicious of me?"

"I thought we agreed that I was observing you."

"You should rest; you've been observing me plenty."

"I rested today to guard tonight; you have a history of evening redevouzes. So, where are you going?"

"I'm leaving, Raven. I came to a decision tonight."

"What's that?"

"I don't want for you to end up like Alisha. I don't want you to die. Encountering Ragnarok is fatal. You are special; I see that now. So, I'm going to leave and try to save you."

"I thought you said that Ragnarok is coming here. What will you leaving do?"

"I think I can draw him off for a time. Time enough for you to escape."

"I'm a Teen Titan; we don't run."

"Then you will die. I know you think you can stand against what's coming but I've been around this power too long to know that death is inevitable. If you stay, you will die."

"What would you have us do? Put on backpacks and run around the world like you—scaring whoever we meet with unverified stories about rampaging monsters?"

"Hey, that hurts."

"Well, it should. You can't leave Strata; I'm not leaving. I've put in too much time, energy, and blood into making this city my home. If you had a home, you would understand that."

"I did have a home, Raven, or did you forget my story about me being only one of three survivors of the war that destroyed it, Ragnarok being another. I know what it's like to see all you love be destroyed before you eyes. If you stay, for your sake I hope you die before Ragnarok subjects you to that horror."

"But you said Ragnarok didn't destroy your home."

"No."

"Why?"

"It was already in ruin by the time we met."

"Why must you leave?"

"To give a special person a chance to live, to give you and your friends a chance to find life elsewhere. This city's time has come; much like it came for mine."

"Don't go. You don't belong out there; you know that. There's no life for you to find out there either."

"There was never any life to find for me anywhere; that's my fate under the moon. You going to stop me?"

Raven thought for a moment, "No," she said with the tiniest, indiscernable touch of sadness in her voice.

"Raven, I just want to say this: get your friends, get in that T-Ship, and fly to another planet away from this one as fast as you can go. It's all the hope I think I have left."

"You said I had hope. You said I was filled with it!"

"I say a lot of things. Goodbye, Raven."

"Goodbye, Strata."

With that, Strata turned towards the door, pushed the release button, and strode out into the night. As the door automatically shut, Raven could only look out at the moon which was coming into view on the east side of the tower. She saw the stranger walk out into the night, with as little announcement as his coming just shy of two days ago.

"You'll be back Strata," thought Raven to herself…

"A bad check always returns."

To be continued…

So, with the success upon the defeat of Punk Rocket, the stranger quietly leaves with the ominous tidings of even darker days ahead. But is this the really the last of Strata? What is his full connection with the ominous threat of the Raging Ragnarok? Is Raven really the Titans' only hope? And where is Strata going? And how much of Strata's revelations are true anyway? And so, we give way to Chapter 9, already in the works.

Please R&R, it is a joy to read your responses; we writers put a lot of work into these things, and some feedback is always appreciated.