An Author's note: Some references to the episode Betrayel will be here. I do not own any part of the Teen Titans…unfortunately.

And thanks for reviewing, FireDitto!

Chapter Thirty-One

Morning After

Cyborg decided to be a nice guy the next morning. He did not mock either Raven or Beast Boy when they woke up, or even during breakfast. He had planned to launch his verbal assault on Beast Boy as soon as Raven had left the room. He figured he start by asking Beast Boy how much he had liked being a pillow for the night. Cyborg had thought that the two of them were rather cute last night, and he had a nice picture of the scene in his personal built in camera (perfect for blackmail, taunting and other forms of fun). He had no intention of pranking Raven, the girl simply had no sense of humor…at least not the kind that Cyborg had, and he did not want to risk life and circuit. Besides, Beast Boy was simply more fun.

However, Cyborg's sweet plans of Grass Stain Torture were rudely interrupted by a horrendous roaring that echoed from tower to tower.

"What the-"he bellowed as he shot up from where he was sitting. It sounded like the entire Nazlar nation was screaming at once.

In fact that was exactly what was happening. When Cyborg stuck his head out the door to find out what in the world was going on he discovered several Nazlar running around…well screaming was not really the word for it. Screaming suggests panic, and these guys, while loud, where certainly not panicking.

"What's going on?" he shouted.

"The monsters are coming!" one of the Nazlar replied as he charged in the opposite direction. "You might want to go talk to the king!" he said over his shoulder.

"Oh great." Cyborg muttered.

Although to the Titans the whole thing looked like chaos it was actually pretty darned organized. Apparently the whole running around and roaring thing was a kind of Nazlar version of rabbits thumping on the ground when they see a predator, although this was a call to arms, not a duck and cover announcement. The Titans found the king easily. He was in a room in the castle that looked like it was especially designed for the purpose of war, seeing as how it had a huge map of the surrounding lands on a big table in the middle of the place with markers indicating where the "Uglies" were.

The king was not the only one in the room; Kzaer was there as well as Nakla, the heir. There was also a rather large looking green…person with an almost boar like face (tusks and all) who the Titans had never seen before. The other two people, however, where familiar: Arucules and the General. Lightflight was peeking through the window.

"Wow," Raven smirked at the General "You're here. That must mean they actually made a decision in less than a years time. I'm shocked."

"I know, the moon must be blue today, even though we can't see it." The General replied. "You just wait; I bet when it rises tonight it will be quite a lovely shade."

"How does it look out there?" Robin asked as he approached the table. He hoped that no one would object to his right to be there, and thankfully no one did. Whether or not it was because they kind of knew about the Titans from stories from Earth or whether it was because of Robin's actions yesterday no one could tell. Only the green guy gave him an odd look, but then he didn't know anything about Robin and probably would not have cared either way.

Zarule gestured at the green guy "Robin, this is Marlgun of the orcs. Marlgun this is Robin, leader of the Teen Titans and my cousin by adoption."

Marlgun gave Robin an odd look "Hmmm, Titans, the ancient gods of the Greeks. Interesting name. Never really liked the Greeks, myself. My kind is more in tune with the Norse."

Robin decided to ignore that. Instead of being upset he just offered to shake the big dude's hand. The orc did not seem to have a problem with this, but it was obvious from the way he looked that this was not how his kind greeted each other.

"We do have a bit of a problem here." Zarule said, turning everyone's attention back to the map. "Technically the enemy is not that abundant in numbers," he indicated the little red scraps of paper that obviously represented the enemy. It was true. There were not that many there "normally this would not be a problem, except for this." Zarule tapped his finger right in the middle of a mark on the map in the shape of a claw mark, the Scratch. "I just got word from some scouts that say there is some sort of portal here, and the monsters are defiantly coming through. If it is true that they can be reborn after they are killed then that means they have an unlimited supply of reinforcements to throw at us even if we kill this entire bunch gathered here."

"We definitely need to take it out." Marlgun growled. "Unfortunately we orcs can't do it. You know how we get in battle. We're Berserkers," he said when he caught Robin's confused look "just don't have the attention span for something like that. Get us around the smell of blood and we go crazy. Can't think of anything else but battle."

"I can get there fast and easy." Lightflight said confidently "And I can probably take it out faster than any of you."

"What about the big one?" Raven said "I remember that Malachi mentioned that there is always a big monster guarding the portal."

"How big?" Arucules said.

"She said about as big as a 747 airplane. So pretty big."

"Shouldn't be a problem, I am a dragon after all." Lightflight said with a hint of arrogance.

"Don't be a fool!" Arucules snarled "You have never fought before, at least not in a real fight! If anyone should be taking that creature on it is me!"

"How much do you think you would be? A mouthful or half?" the dragon said condescendingly.

"Now look here you big alligator purse-!" Arucules bellowed, but Robin cut him off.

"Why don't you both go? In fact, maybe my team should go too. It sounds like we need this thing down as soon as possible. Wouldn't it be smarter to have some of us attacking the big one while the others destroy the portal?" That managed to shut them up. Neither looked pleased with this, but neither could they come up with a good argument against the plan.

Privately, Robin had been searching for a way to get out of battlefield action. He had not designed the Titans to be a war unit. They were protectors and that was what they were supposed to be. He had not forgotten the near disaster that had been the war with the Brotherhood of Evil, and he was determined to keep his team out of fighting another war. He knew that was nearly impossible here, but that did not mean he could not try!

"Good idea, I was wondering where I was going to put you anyway. Now I don't have to wonder anymore." Zarule said in a satisfied tone. "Now as for the rest of you…"

About an hour or so later the Titans and the three Azarathians that had journeyed with them where riding towards the Scratch with Lightflight soaring overhead and Arucules following on foot (apparently minotaur do not believe in four legged transportation. The plan, such as it was, was simple: Ride into the Scratch, take down the portal and most importantly try not to die.

Yeah, simple.

Oh, and did I mention they were being watched? Three guess on whom it was and the first two do not count.

"Man, can you say too quiet?" Cyborg muttered as they entered the middle 'claw mark".

"Great, you just cursed us!" Jinx growled "Nice going metal head!"

At that precise moment a million pairs of wings preformed the natural function of millions of pairs of wings: they blotted out the sun. It seemed that the Uglies could detect dangers to their portal, and like bees they were now swarming towards the Titans.

"See! He cursed us!" Jinx pointed at the monster swarm for emphasis. The others were so distracted that they did not notice the black furred blur until it was too late. Leaping out from behind a rock Sanath tackled Beast Boy from his night horse. Before the Titans could aid their friend Sanath produced a red rock from somewhere and pressed it. They vanished in a flash of red light.

Raven looked around frantically, and saw a similar flash appear on a tall plateau in the distance on the other side of the Scratch, a landmark commonly called Broken Nail. She wheeled Mithrah around and kicked him into a gallop.

"RAVEN!" Robin bellowed, at first wanting to tell her to come back. But then he realized that she would never obey that order, and something he had learned was that things got…awkward if a leader told his team to do something they know good and well that person is not going to do.

So instead of order her back he said "Good luck."

She nodded and galloped off. A strange urge came over Robin. For some odd reason he wanted to follow her. He suddenly realized that it was the familiar thing. It was telling him he had a duty to stand by his wizard, even though intellectually he knew his first duty should lay with his team. He shoved the urge away and led the others deeper into the Scratch, knowing it was the right thing to do.

Beast Boy fell to the ground then jumped to avoid the punch aimed at his back. He looked around and found himself on a big rock with only Sanath for company.

Just great.

"You little monster." Sanath growled "I'll show you,"

It occurred to Beast Boy that he could just fly off and leave this wacko here…but something stopped him. Maybe it was pride, or anger, or just an animal instinct that told him to fight for his potential mate. Whatever it was, Beast Boy's reply was not a hawk dive out of there, but a tiger's lunge.

The voices told Sanath that this green thing must die, that it needed to suffer and be destroyed and he obeyed the voices. The told he that the green thing was like his own father and like the human who had abused him. They told them it would condemn poor little Raven to a life of suffering and horror, and that they only way to prevent this was to fight and kill it.

He listened to the voices.

Except for the ones that screamed that this was wrong.

Mithrah was a very fast horse.

But not fast enough.

It seemed to Raven that the stupid rock was no closer to her than it had been ten miles back. She had a feeling that was an illusion, but it was a darn convincing one. She was riding over the top of the huge cliffs of the Scratch, and those cliffs were pretty darn rocky and steep. What was worse, the Uglies were attacking her as well. They were dive-bombing her at an alarming rate, and it was all she could do to stay on her horse.

In the end, however, they did knock her off the horse; they knocked the entire horse off a cliff.

One of the nasty things dived straight for Mithrah and collided with the huge animal. For once in his life he slipped. His hooves briefly scraped against the rocks as he slipped off the side of the cliff and fell backwards.

Somehow Mithrah managed to twist around in midair so that his head pointed downwards. Raven got a really nice view of the ground rushing up to her. She had never been afraid of heights…but then again she was able to fly…if she had her powers. Now she had no way to save herself. Ironic.

Something, an unknown instinct, stirred within Mithrah. It was the same instinct that told baby birds when it was time to leave the nest and fly for the first time. It was as old as his species, and as natural as eating or fighting. It told him that all he had to do was open his wings and fly.

Right before he hit the ground he opened his wings and gave a several mighty flaps. His hoofs literally stopped an inch from the dirt. Without any prompting from Raven he climbed the air currents to the sky…which was still full of Uglies.

Several brown and gold streaks where speeding towards them, and before Mithrah could reengage the enemy a flight of very pissed off griffins dove and attacked the Uglies. Apparently they had figured out who had really killed their young, and they were taking vengeance. Raven urged Mithrah to head for Broken Nail, mostly to help Beast Boy…but she also really did not want to reintroduce herself to irate griffins.

Fortunately they seemed to have no interest in her anymore and Raven gratefully urged Mithrah to fly. She could already see two shapes, one green and one dark.

She hoped that Beast Boy was not dumb enough to die, she was starting to get used the idea of a boyfriend.

A green claw whizzed through the air and slashed a black furred shoulder and cut it almost to the bone. A quick shift later and a bull's horns tried their best to gore and spit open a stomach. The opponent's counterblows where just as violent: Sanath's own claws slashed at Beast Boy's face, and his big hooves were used to try and stamp on his head.

Normally Beast Boy was not this savage, but something about this encounter was bringing back a really bad memory. A memory of a dark carnival and a man too cowardly to show his face.

And it really did not help when, in a break in the fighting, Sanath said "You're not worthy to be hers…you're not worthy of being anything to her…except maybe a pet."

Memories came rushing back, none of them good. The memory of a blonde traitor and her master, and what he had said about Beast Boy:

Perhaps she wanted to keep you as a pet.

Beast Boy roared and shifted to bear. He attacked Sanath, voices of his own now filling his ears.

You mean she didn't tell you? I thought you two were friends.

Claws, teeth and fists. That's all Beast Boy could see now except for red.

You think you know her. You know nothing. She never even liked you.

Blood…blood was flowing…whose blood? He didn't know.

She's not your friend. She's my apprentice.

Who was that in front of him, again? Slade? Sanath?

Terra?

The girl you knew was merely an illusion. A fantasy.

No! Raven was not Terra! Raven was not an illusion! Horns locked with horns and caught.

Tonight her orders were to strike. But I guess she took pity on you. Perhaps she wanted to keep you as a pet.

Pet…No! He was nobodies pet! He was going to prove it! He shoved harder on the horns, but he was the one flung back.

Another voice: Beast Boy...it's the truth.

Claws at his throat. Big ones. Big black ones. He was on the ground staring into the eyes of a madman.

Terra...why?

Because you could never give her what she needs.

An electrical bolt streaked through the sky. It struck Sanath on the chest. He released Beast Boy and flew backwards. Beast Boy felt himself being picked up by a very pissed looking Raven. Mithrah stood between his mother and this crazy man, snorting aggressively.

"Why didn't you fly away!? Idiot!"

"Ummm…Don't know?" Beast Boy replied.

"STEP AWAY FROM HIM SO I CAN KILL HIM!" Sanath bellowed.

"Sanath, listen to me." Raven walked towards her old friend, hoping to reawaken his good side. She strode past Mithrah. "You need help. I can help you. Please just come with me. It doesn't have to be this way."

At first it looked as if Sanath was going to do it. For a moment his eyes softened and his face relaxed, but then it wrinkled in fury again and he drove his claws into Raven's stomach.

Mithrah screamed and attacked, but Sanath grabbed the night horse by the neck and tossed him away like he was nothing.

Something inside of Beast Boy snapped. He was overcome with rage and anger, but he knew enough not to become the Beast. It was clear that he was no match for Sanath's raw strength, so for once he would have to use his brain. He could not match Sanath's strength, but maybe he could use an animal that did not rely on strength?

He did not believe he would ever do this, but he knew he could. He had been a snake before, but always a constrictor or something like that. He was unused to the sensation of venom sacks in his mouth or the strange feeling in his tail.

A scary noise echoed through the canyon. A noise guaranteed to send chills through anyone's spine. Heck it sent chills through Beast Boy's and it came from him.

Rattle-rattle-rattle

Azarath had no species quite like Crotalus adamanteus, aka the eastern diamond-backed rattlesnake. Perhaps that is why Sanath just stared at the green creature at his feet with a clear are-you-kidding-me look. So he was unprepared when the serpent at his feet struck with unbelievable speed and bit him on the leg, pumping deadly venom into his blood.

Sanath did not expect it to hurt as much as it did. He reeled backwards, surprised. He gripped the wound and stared as it bleed.

Beast Boy shifted from snake to human and checked Raven. She was bleeding, but the wounds where not as bad as they could have been.

Sanath roared in anger, and Beast Boy looked up to see him charging at them! Impossible! How could he shake off the venom that easily! Thankfully, Beast Boy did not stick around. He shifted to pterodactyl and lifted Raven high in the air.

Sanath's momentum carried him over the edge. Quickly Beast Boy set Raven down and ran to the edge. He looked over, his heart in his throat. Now that the anger had passed he was not so eager to kill, and he was now feeling terribly guilty. How could he have done that! He poisoned someone!

Sanath had landed on a cliff, semi-unconscious. Slowly and carefully Beast Boy slid down the wall of the canyon and reached out for Sanath.

"Come on, dude! Grab my hand!"

Sanath meet Beast Boy's eyes. The madness was gone again, replaced with terrible sadness "I can't. They'll win again. I can't stop them. I can't."

"Dude, of course you can! Just let us help you!"

"No…no…I killed one friend…I would do it again…"

"Dude! You can win against them! Just try!"

"I suppose…I could…but not in the way…you think…If I go…so do they."

With that Sanath rolled. He rolled right off the cliff.

Beast Boy shifted to pterodactyl. He dove, trying to rescue the fool. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Raven had mounted Mithrah as was diving as well.

They were too late.

Raven landed and jumped from Mithrah's saddle and ran to her old friend's still body. He was still alive…barely.

"Raven…I'm so sorry…" he muttered.

"You idiot! I could have helped you! We could have helped you! Why?"

"Better this way…you…don't blame yourself…You! Beast Boy!" Sanath looked over at the stricken teen "You better…take good care of her….I swear I'll haunt you if you do not…Raven…I love you."

"NO! You can't! You stupid…please don't!" Tears flowed freely from Raven's eyes as Sanath died, and she did not even try to keep them in.

"Er… Raven?" Beast Boy said, sounding scared "We've got company."

Raven looked up to see several hundred Uglies staring at the two, drool dripping from their horrible mouths.

An instant later Raven and Beast Boy's world was filled with stained, disgusting teeth.

A/N: So…how was Sanath's death? Good? Bad? Overly dramatic? Not dramatic enough? Lame? Please tell me!