Down, Underground, where the Demons Lie

Two days had past since the murders at the pier. Little activity kept me busy. I either trained with an unstable Raven that only I was aware of and who never showed a lick of the essence from before. Or I went out on patrol with Robin to learn the layout of the city and to give the guy a means of letting off his steam since we could fight on par with one another. It wasn't like my options were real broad anyway, what with the cuffs hindering me and all. A very small part of me wished Red-X had stayed long enough for me to see him when he brought Beast Boy back to the tower. Of course I was not a fool. I still remembered my pact I made to myself: I was not allowed to be near Red-X. The guy was a living, breathing temptation.

But I was – but not really – human. I craved the man's company. But that was all I craved. I itched for a fight with him because he could give a fight that would be worthwhile, especially now that I had some blades on me and some dark matter up my sleeve. Oh yes, it would be a pretty spectacular fight. He was not like the Titans, which may have been why I yearned for this shadow-man.

And the little gift he left for me had nothing to do with my sudden desire to meet the man again. Absolutely not. Not in any shape or form. I did not find the dagger with the engraved "X" on it intriguing at all. No… Not…At…All. This did not stop me from keeping the dagger on me and refusing to take it off, even for training. It was beautiful. The detailing was lovely and the craftsmanship was gorgeous. How could I not fall in love with the weapon? I had it tucked into my red sash with the red and black hilt out for easy access. So the only reason I wanted to cross Red-X again was because he would be the only one I could test such a beautiful blade on. A blade as long as half my forearm with intricate swirls on the blade itself and the guard was really something I could keep for myself. It was a gift for me, who was I to turn such a beauty away?

No one else in the tower saw my logic. Starfire believed I was sick with "love." Which she deemed was a fatal disease that would be the death of me. I had to threaten her life just to keep her from keeping me bedridden. Cyborg pulled me aside and tried to give me "the talk." Which is a traditional conversation between fathers and daughters. Why he was the one talking to me, I'm not sure I'll ever know and it was probably more painful for him than for me since he couldn't finish every sentence he started. Robin was evident in his displeasure of the gift. He claimed that Red-X was courting me. Since I had never been courted I flat out denied his accusation. Raven refused to say anything about it. She did tell me once, however, that whatever I did was my choice and that she did not want to see me hurt. I am the oldest sister after all.

Beast Boy was the only one who never said a thing about my mysterious situation with the villain. He was the one who told me that Red-X had been looking for me and he was the one who gave me the box with the dagger inside. But he no longer appeared to have any harsh feelings towards the man. I completely understood his position considering Red-X carried the changeling home and left him in the infirmary. There was also the small fact that he never spoke a word of what Red-X said to him other than the part about me. Perhaps I shouldn't have asked him to track the doppelganger.

But a pact is a pact. I would not go out searching for Red-X. Not that I would, if I could anyway. With the cuffs it would be near impossible for me to try to scour the city for the shadow-man. Ok, so I had thought about finding him. I wouldn't actually do it. I couldn't do it. But if I could, I still wouldn't do it. Wouldn't I?

I had never been so mixed up about a male in my entire life! The thought had never even registered when I had been a Rokakas. It was forbidden for a Mother to have a favorite. So I didn't favor anyone. I enjoyed Arsenal's company, of course. But he was a trustful ally. He was not a potential favorite or anything. He had at one time swore he would never take his own favorite because it would be nothing more than a distraction. Arsenal's people were allowed one favorite in their lifetime. Humans could have multiple. If one died, it was acceptable to take up another. Humans could even fall out of love. Arsenal's people did not believe so. If their favorite died, then that was the end of it. They were not allowed another.

I wondered if I could have thought about Arsenal as a favorite had I been given the option. But whenever my mind drifted to the man I would only think of him as I last saw him; fighting vigorously against eight Rokakas. He could never be more than my right hand. He would have followed me no matter where I went.

But Red-X was completely different. He was unlike anyone I had met before. He went his own way and played by his own rules. That much was like the Rokakas way, but the villain could even become a good guy if the option helped him in anyway. It was almost like an addiction the way I would dig his files up from the computers and read the reports and watch the security monitors that could capture him. It was my secret pastime. When I was bored or couldn't sleep or when I merely had time by myself, I would take a portable communication device – or a lap top – and I would lock myself up in my room and immerse myself in the enigma of Red-X.

It was probably unhealthy. But I couldn't do anything about it. Our fight made me aware of him. His gift triggered my fascination with him. And when I was fascinated with something I wanted to know everything about it.

TheNewAbomination

"What happened?" I asked Robin as we stared at an enormous hole in the ground in the middle of Old Jump. Thankfully there weren't any innocents nearby, but that also meant there weren't any witnesses either. How could no one see what caused a ten-foot diameter hole in the ground? It was deep, traveling miles and miles into the planet. Cyborg's scans told us that it eventually did stopped and Robin wanted to do something called "cave diving."

It sounded intriguing-enough for me. Starfire would fly down first and provide light as Cyborg stayed on the surface to watch monitors that all of us would be hooked up with. Beast Boy was already morphed into a bat to check the cave while the rest of began attaching the ropes to our harnesses.

"It wasn't a drill, too noisy. My guess is that it came from below and traveled up." The team leader offered.

"But what was it?" Raven inquired, "There haven't been any kinds of strange activity up here and no one has reported anything."

I shrugged, "Maybe it's invisible."

Robin looked grim, "Can these doppelgangers turn invisible?" He already knew that couldn't be true. For the last two days Raven had pulled out every text she had on doppelgangers and Robin made everyone read everything they could to prepare themselves. There wasn't much to prepare against a creature that simply needed a touch, flesh-on-flesh, to learn everything about you. From your greatest fears to what your dead mother looked like, if it could aid the doppelganger then it knew it. The younglings that Trigon used against Beast Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg the last time did the easiest trick in the book: they copied their opponent exactly. Their memories and deepest emotions were at the doppelgangers' beck and call.

"All right. Are y'all ready to go?" Cyborg came up and rechecked our harnesses. "Remember, I've got visual and audio. But things will get fuzzy the farther you go."

Robin secured his helmet and I followed. We each held up a thumb – which was a form of agreement. Then we jumped into the gaping blackness. I cried out in pure adrenaline. It was a wonderful experience; it made me think of the Wild Section. Fresca would have loved this!

The fun was over too soon and we began to carefully drop farther down. Starfire had green orbs covering her hands as she floated downward at our crawling pace along with Raven. I didn't bother thinking on how silly she looked as she almost clung to Robin. He didn't seem to notice.

"So we just go in and look around, right?" I asked because I was tired of everyone's quietness. Which is an oddity for me.

"Yup. In and out. Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom." Cyborg's voice answered in the radio in my helmet.

"Whatever that means." I muttered.

"We'll be quick and try not to leave any trace behind." Robin clarified.

"Does it always work that easy?"

"No." Raven deadpanned but she didn't sound too worried.

"What will we do if there is some one at the end?" Starfire's voice quivered.

"What's the matter your majesty? Afraid of the dark?"

"Of course not, companion Maeve." She huffed, "we should be prepared for The Worst."

"Stop tormenting Star." Raven said offhandedly, as if she cared less what I did. That seemed to be the way she took now-a-days.

We reached the bottom and disconnected ourselves from the harnesses while Robin updated Cyborg. The ground was smooth; no drill could have made such an even cut, not from the Seventh or any other section. We began walking the only way to go, at a neat ninety-degree angle turning east. So back in the direction to the tower. Odd indeed.

We walked for thirty minutes without much excitement. The tunnel never turned off its path. It didn't even turn at the slightest curve so that we wouldn't notice. We were definitely heading in a straight path. Where did it lead to? What was at the end of it? Maybe Starfire was right, maybe there was something nasty living underground. We were trapped if it came in through the hole, and it would take far too long to reach the exit if it came from the direction we were heading for.

A shrill cry came from several feet in front of us and we rushed to the spot where a green bat greeted us. Beast Boy quickly shifted before he spoke, "It goes on forever. Like forever-forever. I don't even know how long it'd take us to get to the end. Dude, I don't even know if there is an end!"

"I doubt it can keep going forever." Raven rationalized.

"You want to turn into a bat and use your sonar and prove me wrong?" he eyed Raven with a heated glare. "That's right, I forgot. You can't turn into a bat, so you can't use sonar. Sorry, my bad."

"Beast Boy." Robin chastised. "Bickering is not helping. Did it keep going straight? Where were you when you stopped?"

"In the middle of the city. And yeah, it just kept going. There wasn't a chasm or a cave or anything. Just the one lone tunnel going forever that way." He pointed behind him and huffed a deep sigh.

"What do we do now?" Starfire asked.

"Did you get all that Cy?" Robin ignored her as he talked to the metal-man.

A small gust of wind whipped past my ankles. I raised an eyebrow as Raven came to stand next to me. "The portal that allowed Trigon out the first time came from underground. He used the heat in the center of the planet to gain energy to make the crossing." She said with a guarded expression, "In an underground system he talked to Slade and organized his minions."

"Are you saying that this tunnel might lead us to the doppelgangers?"

"I think we should check it out to be safe."

"Cause of what the next ingredients are for the ritual?"

"Yes."

I sighed. No, nothing ever went according to plan. I rarely ever used a plan for that reason alone when I was training under Fresca's guidance. "Alright. But how are we going to get there faster?" My little sister pondered that for some time while the other began deciding to leave. "How about my ship?" I offered.

"What about it?" Raven was still thinking intently.

"We can travel in my ship down here. It was designed for stealth. It's small enough to fit in here and all of us will be able to fit into it." I slammed my fist onto my palm. "That's it!" I immediately turned and proceeded to leave the tunnel. The others heard what my plan was though I wasn't really talking to them anymore. Although plans had never been my forte, it wasn't like I didn't know how to use them properly.

TheNewAbombination

"I can't believe you 'updated' my ship!" I growled for the twelfth time. Cyborg had been so fed up with my baby that he simply started taking parts off and replacing them with parts he was more "familiar" with. I couldn't understand why he couldn't have just asked me what to do. Apparently it's some sort of disease all human males carry. They cannot ask for directions and they cannot ask a woman for help in the garage…

And there wasn't a cure for it!

"I told you, it runs better and it doesn't shock the living daylights out of me!" The metal man countered again.

"Better, according to whom?" I snarled under my breath, loud enough for him to hear me though.

"Look, you wanted it fixed-"

"Yes, fixed! Not remodeled."

"Are they going to do that all the way there?" Beast Boy whined to Robin from the makeshift seats in the back of my baby. It hadn't been made to carry more than a pilot and a co-pilot, so some more alterations had to be made. It wasn't made for underground traveling either, but it was small enough and fast enough. All of us finally were able to explore the tunnel and find what it really was.

Since no fire of death was coming to claim my soul, I figured it could possibly have nothing to do with Trigon and leave the matter to giant earthworms. But just because I couldn't see or feel the fire, didn't mean it wasn't on its way. The ritual to open the Void was a tricky one that took time and patients and precision. All of the above are not things Trigon has at his disposal. He was royally pissed at the Titans and beyond so at his daughter. He would want to get out as soon as possible.

That would mean that the doppelganger would need to acquire a sacrifice to take his place in the Void. Willing or not had little to do with the ritual, so long as someone was in the Void when Trigon got out. Raven was worried the most about this part. She knew Trigon would try to use one of her friends to take his place. He was a sick and twisted bastard after all. He might even have his own daughter be that sacrifice.

It was first believed there was no way out of the Void. But from hours of research later, my sister and I were able to scrap up enough information to lead to a loophole of sorts. Trigon couldn't get out unless someone from our side opened the Void for him and dumped something else inside. He could use that portal to get out. But with the ritual the doppelganger was using, he didn't need someone like Raven to open the Void. All he would need was for his doppelganger buddy to do the job and dump someone else in to take the terrible Trigon's place.

One nightmare at a time, I always say.

"Is it soon that we reach our destination?" Starfire asked.

"We'll get there when we get there!" Cyborg snapped back. It had been the forth time someone asked if we where there yet. What an impatient group humans were. It seemed it was contagious to Tameranians too.

"Dudes! This tunnel has gone on for hours!" Beast Boy whined some more.

"Forty-five minutes, actually," Raven corrected. She was gripping the edge of her seat pretty tightly. I accelerated a bit more. Cramped conditions did not bode well on me either. I wanted to get out and kick something now.

"There!" Robin shouted. Ahead there was a soft light; I accelerated some more. We rushed into a cavern of some kind. It was vast. The ceiling was at least twenty, maybe thirty, feet high. And there were stalagmites everywhere. It took all my life as a pilot to steer clear of them.

Finally we got out. The air was damp but I couldn't sense any danger nearby. "It's a dead end." I assessed when I took a quick look around. "Whatever made that tunnel started here."

"Is it still here?" Beast Boy asked as he stood at his full towering height next to me.

"Spread out," Robin commanded. For some strange reason I didn't move. There was something… not right about this place. Although that was painfully obvious, it still irked me to no end why I was frozen stiff. It wasn't fear; that made me move far faster than this. No… something was watching me. And it was me it was watching. As the others began checking for signs of life, I could feel eyes on me. Waiting.

And then Raven let out a cry of alarm. It wasn't a scream, she would never scream. When I turned I saw the doppelganger standing over my little sister with nothing but claws and fangs. How could it not have wanted me? I was sure it was waiting for me. So sure…

Without thought I charged the creature before it could touch me sister. That was all it needed to use her fears against her. But it wouldn't have time to find me fear if I rushed it. When my body hit the solid object, we flew past my sister and tumbled in a mess of limbs. I kicked it away with a cry of anger and it hissed in pain.

Seconds later found me with my feet planted firmly under me and a doppelganger thirty yards away. Its back to me, it changed. One will never understand how disturbing a change is unless one witnesses it for oneself. My skin crawled and my stomach heaved. The doppelganger had been a four-legged creature of all black skin when it attacked Raven.

Now, its black skin was melting into a coppery-orange, its spine cracked and separated as it grew from four legs to two. Slowly the creature turned to face me, and it no longer was a creature. The doppelganger had pulled a memory from me in our brief struggle and was now the spitting image of Arsenal. My old comrade was staring at me with sadistic hate brewing in his eyes.

And his namesake was strapped to every surface of his body. The bazooka on his back with the spear hook; he had made that himself. There were submachine guns and pistols attached to his belt and a small laser-blade too; the one I had purchased for him when he "misplaced" his old one in some senators chest. Those dark orange, black-slit eyes stared at me for two whole seconds. Right before they slid over to Raven who was somehow behind him and not me.

"No!" I shouted, as if he'd listen to me. It didn't matter though, I didn't make it in time before he had backhanded Raven so hard she flew feet off the ground and several more away from me. Running wildly I was able to at least do something right. Arsenal's spear hook was stuck in my left arm. Stuck good, the bastard wasn't going to be getting it back anytime soon. Quickly, before the searing pain set in, I withdrew one of my sais and broke the chain connecting the hook to the gun.

I could kill him. He wasn't Arsenal. He was a doppelganger who was wearing Arsenal's face. Yes. I could kill him. Arsenal was dead. I watched him die. This was not Arsenal.

For a second there I really did think I could do it, until he talked.

"Maeve, what have you gotten into this time?" It sounded so much like him, like that was something he'd really say to me. He did at one time or another. He would always ask me that when I was little. He had always been there to get me out of trouble.

But this wasn't him…

It wasn't…

He had tried to kill Raven. Arsenal wouldn't have done that.

It was too late. I hesitated when I heard Arsenal's voice. The doppelganger used that moment to its utmost advantage. He charged me and slammed the bulk of his bazooka into my stomach, getting me out of his path for Raven.

Before the creature could touch him, a roar unlike anything I'd every heard resounded in the expanse of the cavern. The high roof crumbled slightly from it, pebbles fell on us. When I glanced from under an arm I saw a great beast guarding Raven. Its white fangs snapped dangerously at the doppelganger, its yellow eyes glared with human anger, its enormous body sheltered my sister from the rocks and from the creature trying to do her harm. I knew it was her guardian.

Beast Boy cared deeply for my sister.

The doppelganger did not find the beast to be a threat. He taunted and gloated as he fired his missiles at it. Not one hit Raven, all hit Beast Boy. He howled in angered fury as blood gushed from several of his wounds.

Get up!

I ran for the doppelganger with Arsenal's face, at the last second he turned towards me, but he was too late. I slammed him down and kicked the bazooka away, within the next second I grabbed a handful of his hair and smashed Arsenal's face into the smooth surface. I did it again, and again, and again. I didn't stop until Robin pulled me by force from his battered body. There were four slashes across its chest and its face resembled nothing like my old comrades. They were not the same. This was not Arsenal. I knew that before, but my body didn't. Now I would have no problem trying to kill it.

It chuckled under its breath and I hissed at it, "What's so funny?" Robin pushed me behind him and I felt more than a little upset by the action. This was not his fight.

"You forget," he still sounded so much like my comrade, it wasn't fair! "I don't have limits to my body." He became a blur as he dove for Beast Boy and Raven. The beast deflected the monster.

Arsenal was healed. The claw marks were gone, its face restored. Not a scar remained for proof of the damage we caused. Robin shouted something about an attack at full strength, if they hadn't already been there then what the hell were they doing? These heroes were supposed to keep monsters like that thing away from innocents. Raven was being targeted and it was using Arsenal's essence. It stole my memories of Arsenal and was using them against me.

Cyborg and Starfire shot Arsenal simultaneously and he flew into my range; I attacked without hesitation. We dance the Death's Waltz and it felt like I was back among my people. I found myself enjoying to small familiar feeling fighting Arsenal brought me. So caught up in my foolish thoughts I didn't see the doppelganger grin with sharp fangs. He backhanded me. Arsenal would never use such a pathetic move! But this wasn't Arsenal. How many times had I said that? How could I have been so stupid?

The walls weren't as smooth as I had originally thought; when my back collided with the side of the cavern I could feel the bruises overlapping each other a second later. My head was screaming and the spear hook in my arm reminded me it was still there, agonizingly so. Moving at all caused a shrilling sound to echo in my ears. When I stopped trying to get up I realized I had been screaming…

The doppelganger stood above my prone form with that same sick grin, twisting my comrade's appearance. There was the sound of fighting going on behind him, some kind of fire creatures without feet were keeping the Titans from getting close to me. I made eye-contact with Robin for a split second before I gave my full attention to the doppelganger. It kneeled down and roughly yanked my hood back so it could remember my face before it killed me.

Fear caused me to shut my eyes tightly. I shouldn't be afraid of death. Like I told Robin, it was apart of life. It happened and no one could stop it. But in that cavern while a monster wore Arsenal's face as it tried to bring back one scary-as-hell guy from the void, I was frightened.

Nothing happened though. I waited for the cold pain of its claws, but nothing happened. Cautiously I peaked between my lashes and I saw the doppelganger staring at me with a look of utter horror. That took some consideration, it was more afraid of me than I was of dying. I stared at it fully and tried to move again to gain the upper hand and attack while it was preoccupied. But my body was still in too much pain to move. And that one chance I had at getting out of here alive swept out from under me in a flash.

With a mixture of horror and disgust the doppelganger pulled out a dagger from behind and held it high above my chest. "Spawn of my lord!" It hissed, sounding like the nightmareish creature it really was, "you must die so that he may live!" This time I grit my teeth to the idea of death. I was still scared like nothing else, but I would not show it. Seconds before the blade touched my skin a red blur collided with the dagger sending it flying out of the monster's hand. It hissed again in frustration, turning away from me to fight whoever disturbed its kill.

Against my body's wishes I forced myself up and moved. I kept myself up by leaning on the wall as I moved so slowly to where Raven and Beast Boy were. The most of the fire-creatures were gathered around them and I was too tired to do anything clever about it. Instead I started hacking at the creatures with a makeshift form of a whip made out of dark matter. Soon I grabbed my little sister's cloak and forced my weight on her.

"What happened to you?" She stared, wide-eyed at my appearance. I could taste blood in my mouth and I was sure I didn't look any better than I felt.

"Just got my butt handed to me." I heard a small huff from the green-furred beast beside us; he was keeping the hoard at bay. "Did he just laugh at me?" I groaned and almost fell to the floor. Raven held me up. "Never mind. Look. I know what the doppelganger wants. It needs to kill you or me to open the portal."

"Are you sure?" It wasn't the ritual we were expecting. "How could it know you-"

"It knows I'm your sister," breathing was becoming a chore.

"Alright, but-" She looked up to check our progress but something stole the words from her mouth. I followed her stare of dumbfoundment and was shocked at the scene before us.

There he was, all black stealth and deadly grace, as he threw a fire creature at the doppelganger. Nothing seemed to faze him as he didn't wait for the monster to get up; in the next instant he was before the doppelganger and punched it straight in its face. Bone and cartilage tore and shattered and the monster screeched in agony as he grabbed it by its throat and threw it over his shoulder. Like a great cat he stalked his wounded prey with the utmost attention. All sharp focus and murdering aura he pulled out a long red blade and without warning struck the doppelganger twice before jumping out of its maddened rage.

Red-X was a predator. That was no doubt to me now. I couldn't kid myself out of admiring his skill. And helplessly, I would no longer be able to run from his poisonous charms. As he played with the monsters life I could feel the need to fight grow within me. I stood away from Raven and walked with measured steps towards the two.

Now the monster was blinded and missing an arm. It hissed and screeched and no longer made any attempts to be Arsenal. When it finally felt my presence, it snarled and shifted from Arsenal's essence altogether. It looked like the shadow that attacked the boys days ago. It was ten-feet high, its body the color of a pit, faceless, with one hand longer that the other and displaying six five-inch long claws that shined like cold metal. A mouth emerged as the doppelganger roared at me.

I was ready for it when it charged. My dark matter blade cut the harmless arm off, the one it shouldn't have but regained it in its shift. That's all I was capable of doing. Without any hint it passed me by, ignoring its wound, and headed straight for Raven. I was screaming again as everything seemed to move in slow-motion.

Beast Boy got to him a centimeter before its claws touched Raven. He had his jaws locked on the monster's neck. Blue-gray blood spurted from the wound, most drenching the beast. The changeling didn't seem to care though, his grip tightened and the terrified screeches from the doppelganger intensified. In a vain attempt to free itself, it raised its claws to pierce Beast Boy.

Four, red, Chinese throwing-stars were lodged into his spinal cord in the time it takes to blink. The doppelganger fell limply, paralyzed by Red-X's weapons. Beast Boy gave it one final shake to be safe, and then tossed it to the floor like a doll. The beast turned to Raven who had been standing behind him the whole time. I doubted she saw a thing, but she probably knew well-enough of what happened.

TheNewAbombination

I stared at Beast Boy without fear. I knew exactly what he had done for me. The bullet holes, the blood, it had been to protect me. I raised my hand to stroke his fury face but he flinched from my touch. It shouldn't have hurt me as much as it did; I tried not to let the rejection show. Instead I patted his arm and moved away from him to stare at the carnage of what was left of the doppelganger. There were four red stars in its spine and I raised my head to find Red-X.

He was standing close to Maeve. He didn't seem in any hurry to leave. I could fathom a reason for him being here, other than the theory that he might be infatuated with my older sister. Great.

"Is that it? Is it over?" Cyborg asked.

"Oh, I wish for it to be." Starfire shook her head, as if she were shaking off the remnants of a nightmare.

"It should be over." I said. They turned to look at me and I gave them my best smile. "With the doppelganger dead, no one can complete the ritual. My father won't be coming for Earth." I relished in the collective sigh from my friends.

"Well, alright then! Let's go home!" Cyborg exclaimed.

We turned to get back on the ship, but Red-X was in our way. With my sister passed out in his arms. "Let her go." Robin snarled at his enemy. But Red-X said nothing. A second later he disappeared with his teleporting device, taking Maeve with him.

"She will be safe," his voice echoed against the walls of the cavern. We pilled into the ship and Cyborg began flying us back home. I frowned at Beast Boy as he laid his mass against my feet.

"Why won't you change back?" I asked quietly as I reached to scratch behind his ears. Again, before I could touch him, Beast Boy flinched away from me. "Fine." I huffed. "Be that way."

"Raven," Robin said as he sat next to me. "Is it really over? That thing is dead and your father isn't coming back?"

"Yes. It's all over."

"So, Maeve came here to warn us of a great destruction and we stopped it? That's it? A final showdown with the one doppelganger?"

"Yes Robin. I can't see what else can be done. If Maeve hadn't warned us, then we wouldn't have known what was happening all this time. We would have blamed the deaths of those boys on some human psycho and we would have probably been too late to stop the ritual." I eyed him suspiciously, "why? What's wrong?"

"It's just there's a lot I don't get. The strange weather in the east, and there was the prophecy Maeve mentioned when she first showed up. She said your mother said he was going to get out. Like it was a definite thing."

"She said that if he did get out, things would be worse than the first time. But he didn't get out. And blame the weather on global warming." I turned away from Robin. I didn't want to talk about this right now.

"Raven." My leader's eyes softened, "I'm sorry. I guess I worry too much. I'm glad you're OK."

I smiled, "Thanks. I just wish Red-X hadn't taken off with her."

"Should we go after him?"

"I'm sure she'll be fine. He has one of the cuffs after all. Besides, he likes her. At the very least, intrigued by her."

"I don't like it."

"You don't like him."

"You're right about that." He gave her a chuckle, "I suppose since we saved the world again, this calls for pizza?"

"No way, man! I'm makin' waffles!" Cyborg called out.

"Oh glorious!" Starfire giggled, "I will consume a great many with mustard and chocolate syrup!"

A huff of agreement came from Beast Boy who still lay at my feet. "We should get him checked out first." Robin said quietly as he ruffled the beast's fur at the nape of his neck. So he let Robin touch him, but she couldn't?

So what did you think? Is this the end? Is Trigon still locked up for good? And what about Maeve?! Red-X has her now, what will become of the two of them? Poor Beast Boy won't change back and Robin is paranoid! What will become of the Teen Titans?!

Please continue reading this! It's coming close to a close though so watch out!