Chapter 10

The First Mistake

GL was surprised to find out that Starfire could breathe in space. Without a ship they had a long way to fly and still had to get back in one piece. Starfire was quick to explain about her people and why they could. John was very impressed; despite the conversation he'd had Shayera.

"We haven't gotten along in years, but I'm surprised that they didn't go help my people when the gordaians attacked," she'd said.

"Why?" GL asked.

"Because they are always looking to help. They may be great at holding grudges until you apologize, but they wouldn't hold it against you if you were in dire trouble," Shayera explained.

"Do you ever wish you could've been there to help?" John asked carefully. Shayera paused and thought for a long while before answer.

"They made their choice to try and destroy a fully inhabited planet to help themselves. They made their choice and I made mine," she said before walking away. It wasn't really an answer to his question, but Green Lantern was wise to let it slip by as a "yes." She might be good at hiding her feelings about her people, but even she couldn't hide the regret in her voice.

John shook his head to clear it as they drew closer to the watch tower. Starfire noticed it and immediately asked.

"Is that our destination?"

"That's it," GL said. "That's the watch tower. Try to stay away from the windows as much as possible, we don't know who's up there." Starfire nodded and they began their inspection.

Flash, Cyborg and Robin had also made it to their location: the Metro Tower. To be quite honest, it looked very similar to the Titans' own tower, only it wasn't in the shape of a T.

"Nice place," Cyborg said.

"It used to be," Flash agreed.

"How do we get in?" Robin asked.

"I could probably hack in and get a door open for a few seconds, then maybe we can send Flash in to do a scout since he can move the fastest," Cyborg said.

"Let's do it quick, there's movement in there," Flash said. "Not that I'm surprised." It only took a moment for Cyborg to hot wire the door.

"Alright, you only have seven seconds," he said. "Think you can search the place in that time?"

"You know it," Flash said. "Go." Cyborg hit the final button and the doors opened. They were barely open when Flash shot through. Six and a half seconds later, he shot back out and the three of them hurried away. In an alley, they paused and let Flash tell them what he found.

"They've sent a lot of bad guys to keep it safe," he said. "Doesn't look like anything we shouldn't be able to handle, except the numbers.

"Good, we just have to wait for Star, Raven and Beastboy to call in so we can determine what to do next," Robin said.

Raven, Beastboy and J'ohn landed on top of the dome layer the villains were calling a base. After telling Beastboy to remain as small as possible and to shut up, the three of them entered the building. Beastboy immediately turned into a fly while J'ohn and Raven stayed close to the walls and roof so they could faze out at a moment's notice. Moments passed in silence as they searched for a plan outlined somewhere, but they finally decided quietly to go to the conference room and see if a meeting was being held and what they might be talking about. As it turns out, there was a meeting being held. Blackfire stood on the stage thingy next to Dark Seid speaking.

"We might've lost our prisoners, but our plan is still ready to be launched," she was saying. "As we speak a weapon is being prepared to annihilate all of them." Blackfire continued speaking but at that moment, Raven was struck with a massive headache and lost her concentration. She fell with a short cry and Beastboy was quick to shift back into a human and catch her.

"Intruders!" someone called. Over fifty villains stood up and prepared to attack. J'ohn acted quickly and incapacitated the first ones.

"Go!" he said. Beastboy shifted into his inner beast and carried Raven over his shoulder as he ran for the exit followed closely by J'ohn, who was rather impressed by his werewolf-like form. They made it out barely and climbed onto the buildings and continued away.

When they thought they had put enough distance between them and the villains, Beastboy shifted back to human form and placed an unconscious Raven down on the roof.

"Raven, wake up," he said, gently shaking her. Raven opened her eyes in shock and her gaze locked with BB's. "It's okay," he tried. "We're safe now."

"No…you're not…" she said, her voice weak with fear. "I can't control…something…something's wrong! Beastboy…don't let…they can't…please…" Raven passed out then, but Beastboy got the message.

"Let me know if she wakes up, I have to make a call," he said. J'ohn looked confused but didn't ask as Beastboy walked a little further away for some privacy.

"Beastboy calling Robin," he said to his communicator. Robin picked up in a second.

"Beastboy, glad you called. Did you find anything?" he asked.

"Later, we may have a problem," Beastboy said. "Raven is…she's losing control."

"Say what?" Cyborg asked, joining in suddenly.

"You heard me," Beastboy said. "It…it's been two years." Robin suddenly understood and from the silence, Beastboy guessed that Cyborg did too.

"How is she?" Robin asked.

"She's out cold right now, but I don't think it'll last for long. We need to get her out of here," Beastboy said.

"Beastboy, she's waking up," J'ohn called. Beastboy turned around and watched as Raven sat up, rubbed her head and opened her eyes. Beastboy gasped and J'ohn withdrew in surprise. Her eyes were glowing red.

"Get everyone here soon!" Beastboy said. "We'll do our best."

"Don't hurt her," Robin said, sending the message to everyone.

"What's going on?" Flash asked. Robin ignored him.

"Robin calling everyone," he said to his communicator. "Everyone needs to get to this location as soon as possible. Raven is losing control and we need to make sure that she doesn't hurt anyone. Robin out." With that, he and Cyborg ran off without Flash. Starfire gasped in space, turned tail and flew faster than GL thought possible back down to Earth. Everyone in the cave and on scouting missions didn't hesitate to run, fly or transport out and head to where they had been sent, with a confused Justice League trailing.

Despite the distance, Starfire was the first to arrive to Beastboy and J'ohn's aid. Raven was ten feet tall with tentacles flying in every direction as her rampage continued. Starfire gasped and grabbed Beastboy and J'ohn from her clutches first. That was when Robin and Cyborg showed up. Robin tried to wrap Raven in his grappling hook, but Raven just passed through it. Cyborg hesitated in shooting his friend, but when he saw that she was going for Robin, he shot right in between them. Kid Flash and Jinx were next followed by a few others, Kole and Gnark and Melvin, Timmy, Teether and Bobby. All, with the exception of the kids, did their best to make Raven come to her senses. Some of the Justice League arrived too and did their best to stop a situation they knew nothing about.

Buildings crashed to the ground, dust flew in every direction but nothing seemed able to stop her. That is, until Raven turned and saw her kids. They gazed at each other for a few seconds and Raven put her hands to her head as another screeching headache tore through her brain. Beastboy took this moment to crash into her and knock her out. Raven shrunk back down and lay still on the cracked pavement. It was then that everyone else arrived. The Justice League stood assessing the situation, while the rest of the Teen Titans hurried over to make sure that she was okay. Etrigan stood at the front.

"You see, I told you, that girl is a demon! She can't be trusted," he said, half triumphantly.

"Dude, she's only half demon," Beastboy said.

"You knew?" Batman asked.

"We've known for over two years now," Robin said. "She's our friend, what difference does it make?"

"I'll tell you," Etrigan said. "That girl is the daughter of Trigon the Terrible, the worst demon in all of history. Her demonic powers are beyond what we can comprehend."

"What's your point?" Cyborg asked. The entire Justice League looked at them.

"Like Robin said, she's our friend, what difference does it make?" Starfire asked.

"She can't be trusted! On her sixteenth birthday, she will end the world," Etrigan continued.

"Dude, that was two years ago and we ended up beating him," Beastboy said. "Two years ago today."

"That's probably why this happened, just a relapse of some sort," Robin said. "Let's get her back to Jump City and do some examinations just to be sure."

"If that girl's as dangerous as Etrigan says she is, then we can't let you leave with her," Superman said.

"You would prevent us from helping our friend?" Starfire asked.

"You can't have her," Melvin said, fiercely.

"Beastboy, keep Raven safe," Robin said. Beastboy didn't hesitate to shift into his inner beast again, grab Raven and climb up the nearest building, letting out a mighty roar at the top daring anyone to try and take her from him. "Cyborg, how soon can you get the T-ship here?" Robin continued.

"Not soon enough," he said.

"Try," Robin said.

"What do you think you're doing?" Diana asked.

"We're leaving with our friend and you can't stop us," Bumblebee said.

"But if you want to try, just go ahead," Aqualad threatened.

"We stand by our friends, no matter what," Kid Flash said.

"What's it going to be?" Robin asked. He eyes had never left Batman's. "Are you going to try and stop us?" Batgirl looked from her mentor to her partner, unsure of what to do.

"It doesn't have to be this way," Superman said.

"Yes, it does," Robin said. "You can't choose who your father is." Batman seemed to flinch as that comment was directed at him. Slade and Red-X stood on the side, unwilling to help either side as the battle drew closer. It would be the sidekicks verses the greatest superhero league on Earth. No one could've predicted the ending. It was their mistake.


Author's Note:

Oooh, who do you think will win? Message me and let me know. By the way, does Etrigan sound too uptight, or is it fine? He's not a major character, so it was hard to do a representation of him. Also, the characters definitely don't belong to me. Keep reading to find out the end! It's coming up soon...hehehehehehehehehehehehe :);)

P.S. You will have to wait a little while for the next chapter as I need to do some research into Batman: The Animated Series to further my knowledge on Batman and Robin's relationship and possible lessons that I can use in the next chapter. If anyone has any really good and relatively serious quotes from that series, I would be most appreciative if you sent them to me. Thanks for keeping up with me :);)