I do not own anything relating to the Teen Titans.
Opening the Closet Door a Crack – Chapter 30
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"GAR! NO!" Raven let out a scream once she realized what the green shapeshifter was doing. She began to fly toward Beast Boy as he was running towards the opening maw that held the remains of Cthulhu. Unfortunately, the cheetah is the fastest animal on the earth, the speed that he reached was far beyond what she was able to reach. Once he morphed to a dinosaur (she didn't know the particular breed) and disappeared into the deepest darkness of the tomb, Raven stopped and let out a wail of despair. The nearest stone pillar was enveloped in black energy and disintegrated into dust. The enchantress fell to her knees, staring at the spot where her love had left her.
Additional black auras began to form around various stone objects in the vicinity. Those that were closer seemed to crumble to dust before Starfire's eyes, others began to show the stress of Raven's overwhelmed emotional state. Throughout her life, Raven had had to maintain rigid controls over her rage, as that was the vehicle that her father would use to enter their universe.
Unfortunately, because Raven spent most of her life controlling her more violent emotions, the gentler emotions had been largely ignored as, at the time, they were not as dangerous. Consequently, she was completely unprepared for all the ramifications of the effects that love would have on her emotional stability.
Such as its loss.
Time stood still as the Azarathean stared at the slowly opening door.
Rage is an all consuming emotion, but so is love. More so as it permeates every pore of a person's being. Between love and rage, rage is the more violent of the two, yet love is the stronger, more encompassing. This is the glory of love. This is the also its weakness. In the blossom of its beginning, these feelings have not yet had a chance to settle, to become completely contained within a person. They are at their strongest, most turbulent, most unruly. This is why during the initial stages of love, people are driven to extremes in their behavior, either good or bad. They have not yet had time to process it all and make it fit comfortably in their lives. This is why Romeo and Juliet, when each saw the other was lost to them, made the ultimate sacrifice.
So, for Raven to see her newly acknowledged love disappear into the stygian darkness was crushing. The sorceress had no defense mechanism. She continued to stare at the spot Beast Boy had vanished.
Then, suddenly, an object at tremendous speed shot out from the depths of the tomb. It was limp and green. Raven's head shot up at the object flying past her. Turning around, the grey girl, eyes wide, sent out her black energy to catch the flying object and gently reel it in to her, setting it, with utmost delicacy, on the pavement in front of her. Starfire hurried over to her friend.
"Gar, please Gar, don't leave me." The sorceress had the limp body of Beast Boy in her arms. His eyes were closed. Tears were streaming down her face as she rocked back and forth in overwhelming sorrow.
"Raven, is Beast Boy…."
"I….I…I'm not sure." The uncertainty in Raven's voice was highly out of character. Even when she didn't know the situation, she acted like she did. In between sobs, she said "His….His….His mind is in shock. I don't know what he saw in there. Whatever it was, it's damaged his mind. I….I…don't know if he'll survive." Then, ignoring Starfire, she spoke to the boy in her arms, "Please Gar, please come back to me. I can't make it without you." She bent her head over her lover, the tears falling on his face. "Please, please, please…." She began to softly sob.
Starfire stood over the two titans, the green shapeshifter, lying prone on the ground, motionless, the grey enchantress consumed with grief. The orange girl straightened up and looked around.
She was alone. Surrounded by the hordes of the Deep Ones, in the midst of the ritual to raise Cthulhu, she was the last titan standing.
They had fallen one by one. To death, to madness, to injury, to grief. At the end, it was the warrior princess from Tamaran who remained standing. The last remaining barrier to the rise of dead Cthulhu. If she were to fail now, Cthulhu would rise from his eons long sleep to bring the Outer Gods back to the universe, resulting in the death and destruction of all who lived everywhere.
There was no one else.
It all depended on her.
Within the being of the warrior from Tamaran, two instincts fought. The first was the weaker. She was young, she was alone. Her friends had all failed or succumbed to the final horror. Against the greatest evil the universe knew, how could she hope to prevail?
But then the response. She was a warrior princess, leader of a planet, a race of warriors. People whose whole existence was dedicated to fighting, even against impossible odds. There was no giving up. She would find a way.
With that thought upmost in her mind. Starfire straightened up and looked around.
"Think Koriand'r, think. What has Robin said over the years, fight smarter, not harder. Use what he's taught you." The princess considered her position. "What else has he told you? When all else fails, reexamine the evidence. Well, Cthulhu is about to rise. NO KORIAND'R, forget that part. Remember the ceremony."
"OK, let me think. I read about the ceremony on the page of forbidden knowledge." And the warrior threw her mind back to the moment several weeks ago when she had been back in Arkham, reading from the Necronomicon. "It must be the right star configuration, they are performing the resurrection ceremony. There are thousands of them, so they must have enough, what was the word Raven used? Chi. There are too many to render unconscious and Raven said I must not kill any more otherwise it will hasten Cthulhu's return. So, I cannot change the stars, I cannot affect the participants. What else was left? Let me see, there was a focal locus, whatever that is. And Great Cthulhu."
The Tamaranean looked around. "Since the only thing left is the focal locus, let me concentrate on that. According to the book, it should be somewhere between the followers and Great Cthulhu." Over to the left of the great stone door was a dais, they had noticed it from above earlier but not given it much attention. On it was a figure. Starfire moved over to the stone alter. A man lay there. He looked grizzled, emaciated, face covered in weeks of beard growth. His eyes were open, but unseeing. Better yet, they were seeing something that she couldn't, for there was a look of horror and pain on his face. His mouth was open and he was drooling, gargling inarticulately.
At long last, the titans had found Randolph Carter.
Starfire stared at the remaining wreck of the man that had once been a noted anthropologist, one of the leaders in the field. What was left was barely human, starved and tortured by things seen and unseen.
"This is where the focal locus is supposed to be, but what IS a focal locus? I see this poor wretch; Doctor Carter has obviously been through more than any of us. What is a focal locus? Is this it? Is it the table? What is it supposed to DO? What did Robin always say? When you don't have enough facts, get more."
She looked around. The door continued to open slowly, it was roughly one quarter open now. Time was running out. "Dr. Carter is unable to help me. The Deep Ones will certainly not help me. Robin is mad. Beast Boy is unconscious." She looked over at her best friend, cradling her green teammate in her arms and hardened her heart against the task she knew she must do.
Raven must be brought to her senses long enough to answer a question.
With a purposeful stride, Starfire marched over to her two comrades. Raven was still sitting on the ground with Beast Boy in her lap. Only now she was hitting his shoulder. "You stupid, impulsive, imbecilic idiot. You don't always have to do everything yourself. You could have let me help. Why don't you THINK before you act!" Then, she broke down again and started crying. "Gar, I'm sorry. Please wake up, please don't leave me. I didn't mean it." She bent her head down over him and her tears once more fell upon his face.
Starfire considered. This would be a little difficult. She had to do something that would enable Raven to respond coherently, without doing something that would render her unable to speak. She was not used controlling her strength to this level of delicacy. Kneeling down in front of Raven, she very carefully struck the grief-stricken girl across the face.
She was careful, but maybe not careful enough. Raven's head was rocked back, although she stopped crying. Starfire could see her weaving back and forth as she attempted to clear her mind from the blow. The warrior princess did not give her a chance to fall back into the incapacitating grief.
"Raven, listen to me! I need your help."
"Huh, wah?"
"Friend Raven, I need you to tell me something. What is a focal locus?"
Still a bit groggy, Raven replied, "Focus, I told you what a focus was." She shook her head.
"NO! LISTEN TO ME! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT A FOCAL LOCUS IS!"
"Yes, focus, I'm trying to."
Starfire was ready to lose her composure at this. "NO! A FOCAL LOCUS!"
Raven's eyes cleared. "That's what I said, a focus. Focal locus is the old magical term for focus. Over the years, the term's been corrupted into focus. The focal locus is the focal point that is the geometric locus for the concentrated energies that people use to harness their magical abilities. Kind of like a magnifying glass focuses the sun's rays on one locus, a point to burn something."
The explanation set Starfire back a bit. This wasn't the kind of answer she had been expecting. "All right, that tells me what it is, I guess, but WHAT is one, what kind of THING is a focal locus."
"Oh, uhhh, usually some type of jewel or magical artifact. Something that could handle the concentrated energies without deteriorating, without overloading and exploding. It would then be concentrated on the task that needed to be done."
"And this ceremony is using one?"
"Yes, I told you before. Anytime you kill one of the Deep Ones, the magical surge goes through the focus they're using to hasten Cthulhu's awakening."
Starfire looked back at Dr. Carter. A hollowness began to form in the pit of five of her stomachs. "Could…could a person be used as the focal locus?"
"Certainly, it's grounded in their chi and focused through the mind. It's extremely potent but very dangerous. It tends to burn out the mind rending the person pretty much dead. The grounding uses up the person's chi at an enormous rate in order to keep the mind able to concentrate the magical energies on the task at hand."
The Tamaranean warrior sat back for a moment, staring, considering. She looked at the great door swinging open. It was now more than a third open and the pace accelerating. Time was running out.
Raven had turned her eyes back to Beast Boy, who had remained in her lap. Her face crumpled and the tears began to flow once more.
"RAVEN, PLEASE, I need to know one more thing. Will the destruction of the focal locus release all of the energy into Great Cthulhu and awaken him?"
There was no answer, Raven was rocking back and forth, crying openly again.
Starfire looked at her friend. Time was running out and she did not believe she would be able to rouse the sorceress again. A decision had to be made. She rose to her feet and hurried back to the side of the anthropologist. Staring down at the drooling madman, she considered.
"If I do nothing, Great Cthulhu rises and all is lost. If I destroy the focal locus, then either the energies feed straight into Great Cthulhu, waken him and all is lost. Or the energies dissipate and the ceremony is halted, giving us time."
Starfire looked up at the eternal stars. "My people, I will do the best I can to save you from this horror. X'hal, please, guide my decision."
"Doctor Carter, I am sorry to do this to you. I am certain you are a good man. But between you and the universe, I am afraid the universe must take priority. I do not believe you would wish to live like this in a world where Great Cthulhu lives. Please forgive me."
With that the warrior princess from Tamaran took several steps back and focused all of her power. Giving a final prayer to her god, she aimed the starbolts from both arms and both eyes at full power, incinerating Dr. Randolph Carter.
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Very well. All the pieces are in place. All the loose threads picked up and carefully arranged. You have the explanations present. Now we're down to one final, terrible decision that Starfire has made, for good or for ill. The next chapter is the final chapter, deciding the fate of the universe. Since I posted the last chapter only two days ago, I've had 55 hits on that chapter. A total of 4,550 since I began this long journey into madness and death. My most sincere thanks to everyone who has stayed with me through this, 30 full chapters and almost 100,000 words. I hope I have not disappointed too many.
Once more, my thanks to my reviewers. Fewer this time than before, but still, many old and faithful friends (and a few newer ones as well).
TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne – Hopeless, perhaps not entirely hopeless. But as you can see, the darkness grows with each passing moment. Only one desperate choice remains. Still, at least Raven got to see Beast Boy again. One side note, a tribute to your abilities. We had a reviewer for Ganguro that thought that Chapter 2 (or 3, can't remember) was so well done, it was either you or Sir Alwick. See, people automatically assume the good stuff is yours. (That's assuming what I wrote was good stuff).
Malconvoker – Difficult to remember EVERYTHING that's going on in Lovecraft's world. Don't beat yourself up on it. Remember, I had this all planned out from the beginning. How's this for a compromise, he got out of the tomb alive, if not completely healthy. At least Raven got to see him again. There's always hope.
Kenzie – No, Robin does not really know what he is doing. I guarantee that. You know, in all honesty it never occurred to me to bring in the other titans. Probably because my focus (focal locus?) was on the core five, as with most of my stories. In hindsight, Aqualad would have been useful against the Deep Ones. Score one for you. Glad you enjoyed the chapter.
Bluesummer2012 – Happy endings? As I like to say, I won't even guarantee the sun will rise tomorrow. You hit one of my primary issues squarely, the lack of fighting, battles. Very seldom in any of Lovecraft's works are there physical battles. Most of the action takes place in exposition and mood. I've tried to keep to this concept without disappointing the action fans too much. Hence the running battles between Robin and Beast Boy.
Novus Ordo Seclorum – Ah, my friend, yes, Beast Boy was bold and selfless (could he be anything else), but there are two other overriding traits that he has always displayed. Impulsiveness and a desire to go straight to the 'bad guy'. In this case, it didn't work. One of the reasons why Raven was 'yelling' at him for being so idiotic. As a result, you can see that, indeed, each titan's flaw brought them low: Cyborg's fear, Robin's curiosity, Beast Boy's impulsiveness and Raven's emotional control.
My friends, I hope to have the final chapter by the end of the weekend. Can't promise on the exact date, not like 'Too Young', which I had already written. I've yet to write it although I know every detail of the conclusion.
Until next time my friends, sleep well.