Disclaimer: RT and I don't own Teen Titans.
Author's Note: For once I haven't lied about a quick update, but I did still lie a bit, there's one last chapter after this; just how it broke down.
You have to do it yourself, no one else will do it for you. You must work out your own salvation
-Charles E. Popplestone
Raven could see the waves of emotional energy cascading from the abandoned building. It looked like an amusement park long since forgotten, overgrown and rusting. To her, the whole place was lit up like a flood lamp. She landed in front of the building which was glowing the most spectacularly and looked up at the sign above the entrance, now hanging haphazardly by only a few rusty nails.
"Hall of Mirrors, this just keeps looking better and better." She mumbled to herself as waves of energy poured off the building; tendrils of light crept into the sky like promenades off the sun—flaring up dramatically and then collapsing just as quickly inward. She shivered at the frosty conditions that had seemed to follow her to the ground. As she walked closer, she saw a puddle of rainwater frozen over on the broken, weed-strewn pavement.
The door was boarded shut, and she had to pull hard on one of the looser planks to get it to dislodge. Slipping inside, she was stunned by the drastic difference in temperature. There were ice crystals hanging in the stagnant air, and she drew her cloak tighter about her. The place was arctic She knew for certain this was where Beast Boy was, but she couldn't pinpoint him, there was far too much energy to focus on, and she feared it would overload her senses the instant she dropped her guard against it.
"Looks like I'm searching the old-fashion way."
"What are you doing here?" A voice called out to her. She spun around, but found only her startled, shivering reflection surrounding her. The glass of the mirrors all seemed to be one continuous sheet as it moved and shifted as though it were liquid, stopping only momentarily, then quickly swirling about again into another shape. It was very disorienting, but she continued forward, trying to match the waves of emotional energy to her sense of direction.
"Get out. You've got no right to be here." The voice called, it seemed familiar somehow, but angrier, raspy, and…sad. She stumbled forward in the darkened halls, her hands out, groping at every mirrored surface, trying to figure out which was the next turn and which just the reflection.
She turned right and found herself at a dead end; she faced back the way she came, and down at the far end of the hallway she saw a small, crouched shape.
"Beast Boy!" She ran forward as fast as she could, but after only a half-dozen steps came colliding into the icy surface of the wall, sending her collapsing to the equally frigid concrete floor. "Mirrors, mirrors everywhere. Right, forgot that." She rubbed her forehead and stood back up. The figure was still there and she turned to the open wall on her left. The mirrors became fluid and warped all around the large room as she stepped in. Its ceiling was at least twelve feet high and from the center, she could count eleven different doorways, only one of which she could be sure was there, having just come through it.
"I have to pick one." She was thinking out loud as she spun on her heels trying to which one that was. She moved to the wall and ran along the perimeter of the near-circular room, figuring out which were real, and which were reflections. "Seven, seven doors. Shit, which one is it?" She decided there was only one way to be sure. She lowered her mental block against the emotional energy and it hit her like a tsunami. Her knees buckled and she collapsed to the floor as the raw emotion coursed through her:
I'm not good enough. I've hurt so many people. Cause them all so much pain and trouble. So cold. I can't ever redeem myself for all that I've done. So many people. Hurt them all so much. Why, why did I do it? Can't. Won't. No more pain. I've caused so much.
Raven was fighting to regain control of her thoughts as the torrent rushed over her, drowning her out of her own mind.
Too much pain. So little time left now. So very cold. I killed her. Might as well have pulled the trigger myself. She's gone because of me, and now she's gone too. Left me. Why? Why did she leave me? I'm not good enough. I never can be. I'm not a hero. I'm so cold.
Raven beat back the tidal wave and reestablished her empathic defenses. "Beast Boy…" She gasped as she sat up from her prone position on the hard ground. She staggered to her feet and stumbled towards one of the open hallways. Hoping the information she got out of the assault was the right direction. 'He's in so much pain.' She thought, moving through the reflective halls as fast as she could manage, nothing to guide her but her subconscious. 'I have to get to him. I have to get to him.' She kept repeating in her head, focusing all her remaining strength on moving as quickly as she could.
The barrage of emotion had weakened her, almost overloaded, and her defenses were starting to feel the strain. The thoughts of sorrow and despair came in bursts, along with pain of every sort. She was getting hit by them with increasing frequency, and if she didn't find him soon, she knew she'd be overcome by his unrelenting emotions.
--
Robin looked out at the virtual army before him. Every single villain they had captured tonight had been freed when the mob of criminals had stormed the police station. Starfire stood beside him, close enough that he could hear her breathing in raged gasps. The Titans were standing in a close-packed line in the middle of Jump's largest street. Eight lanes of battlefield. Eight lanes solidly packed with villains and criminals, some armed, and the non-super powered simply relying on their massive numbers and a few improvised weapons.
Speedy was at Robin's right, an arrow fixed to the string of his drawn bow, Herald and Bee readied their weapons, while Starfire's eyes and hands glowed green with raw power. Aqualad eyed the fire hydrant on his left, a few yards up the road, while Mas Y Menos simply stood there, their hands clasped together. Seven Titans against an entire city's worth of super villains and thugs.
The villains had stopped their rampaging at the arrival of the Titans. They observed the haggard and beaten looking heroes with a small amount of trepidation, but then they remembered their odds and quickly regained their confidence. They were steeling themselves for a battle they knew they would win. Individually, none of them would have stood and fought against such a large group of the teen heroes, but together, they knew they would finally destroy them, and make the city their own. The Titan's leader tightened his grip on the metal staff in his hands, his eyes narrowing at the center of the villain line, where Cinderblock, Plasmus, Overload towered over the rest.
At once, as if on some battle signal formerly reserved for the ancient wars long ago retired to history books, the two forces cried out and charged towards one another.
As they charged, those with ranged weapons all lobbed their projectiles. The Titans aimed all their initial volleys at the few criminals with guns, putting them and their weapons out of commission before they had time to fire a shot. Arrows flew from Speedy's bow three at a time, some exploding, some freezing their targets, and others simply knocking the victim down.
Robin's own discs had much the same effect as the teens covered the twenty-five yards between the two groups. Mas Y Menos cut a line straight through the mob, throwing grown men high into the air as they sped by. Bee fired a shot at the fire hydrant Aqualad had been eying, and the water-born hero sent a solid stream of H2O into the villains, which immediately shorted out Overload, and Control Freak's remote. Starfire poured starbolts into the mass rapid-fire, concentrating on the super villains first. As she glided close to the Earth, she picked Robin up as the groups closed; careening over the wave she launched him straight into Cinderblock.
--
Cyborg wrung his hands nervously—no easy feat for a cybernetic man—as he stood over his two unconscious friends. He desperately wanted to go and fight alongside Robin, but he had to stay here in case anything went wrong.
But as the minutes wore on, he became more and more concerned. Beast Boy's vitals were shifting dramatically up and down, while Raven's began doing so in very short bursts that were quickly becoming more frequent.
He had just started to zone out in the midst of his worry, when the loud steady beep he so feared aroused him. He once again dashed over to Raven, but as soon as he got to her bedside, she stabilized and he was forced to pace the medical room floor, agitated by his inability to help.
He turned towards the coffee pot, it still had the remnants of a cup in it, and he poured it for himself. He brought it to his lips and took a sip. It was burnt from having been on the heat for so long, but he just didn't care at this point. Just as he downed the rest of the cup, his communicator beeped.
--
Beast Boy was no longer concerned with his bitter cold. He couldn't feel his feet or his hands anymore, despite his best efforts. His lips were cold, and almost frozen against his tongue. He welcomed the slow loss of feeling. Anything to get rid of his pain, anything to stop the onslaught.
He was still here, still in the corner; he couldn't get up. He couldn't get out. His thoughts raced, but he was so tired, so tired and so cold, all he could do was return into his mind, the very place he least wanted to be.
'Beast Boy, you don't deserve anyone. You deserve death. Perhaps the world would be a better place.' The voice cut through him shrilly. It again melded into his own and he fell back into his dark malaise.
--
Raven stumbled along in the ever increasing darkness, now only dim light from an unknown source barely lit the seemingly endless hallways as she navigated them by rote. She could see Beast Boy's reflection everywhere, but each turn only brought her more mirrors, more hallways, more rooms. She felt she was making no progress, but her will compelled her forward.
Another blast of emotion struck her like a hammer and she stumbled heavily, nearly falling to the ground. She was weakening fast. But with each attack on her senses, she gained a better feeling for the direction she needed to take. With a second wind she moved faster—now nearly at a full run—down the twisting and turning halls, the mirrors solidifying less and less frequently as she ran. "Beast Boy!" she shouted the only thought running through her head.
--
The green changeling coward under the voice's renewed assault, only half-aware anymore of its existence. He felt every word it and he were saying to be true. They crushed him. The silence and the sorrow pressed down upon him like the weight of an entire world.
Out of the darkness in his head a single pinprick of light flashed, only for an instant. He heard his name, as faint as the most quietly breathed whisper. Then again, he heard it, still faint. His mind lifted out of the shadow, he once again became aware of his physical surroundings. This voice, he knew it, just like he knew the other, only this one was not tearing into him, it was lifting him.
--
Standing atop Cinderblock's shoulder was an experience Robin had had many more times than he felt was normal in the years he'd been a crime fighter. But then again, when was his life was ever normal? He was brought out of his momentary musings when the concrete villain tried to swipe him away with his massive opposite hand. Robin deftly flipped over his opponents head, while he tossed an explosive disc into his eyes.
The animated building material stumbled backwards, dazed and blinded; which left him nice and open to a devastating kick with Robin's steel-soled boot to his face, which pushed him into unconsciousness as he fell backwards on top of several thugs not paying enough attention to their surroundings. The Boy Wonder turned his attention to Johnny Rancid and threw himself back into the fight.
But just as the red, green, and yellow hero neared his opponent, a seemingly unconscious man in a ski-mask reached out a hand and caught the teen's ankle, sending him sprawling onto the pavement. Rancid took advantage of his good fortune, and moved in as it was happening to finish off his foe. He had stolen a Japanese Katana from the city museum, and he raised it for the final strike before Robin would have a chance to recover.
"I've finally got you bird-boy…" he laughed.
Rancid's misfortune, however, was that someone else had seen this unfold; and Starfire used the loud mouthed criminal's tunnel vision to her own advantage as she melted the priceless relic in his hands with a blast from her eyes.
"What do you have?" She asked, her voice seeping fury. The disoriented biker tried to flee from the raging Tameranian, all thoughts of battle replaced with fear and a desire to not be bashed to pulp—he was given help at his first notion when Starfire darted forward and punched him squarely in the jaw, sending him flying more than a dozen yards back into the mass of villains.
The redhead leaned over, her hand extended.
"Thanks Star. Guess I owe you one." She beamed at him and he returned the smile as they both dove headfirst back into the fight.
--
Beast Boy struggled to open his eyes and found out they were frozen shut. He could see a shadowy figure running towards him. But his blurred vision combined with the mirrors prevented him from judging anything else about the shadow.
'There's no one out there Beast Boy. Just us.' He heard his name called again, but this time more strongly, he tried to speak but found his throat as dry as a desert and he made no sound. The voice was desperately trying to hold him back. He tried again to speak but he couldn't form the words. The voice was stopping him at every attempt, preventing his thoughts from becoming sound.
He coughed violently, and finally his will surged up throughout his body and managed to croak out a single word: "Raven."
--
Raven kept running as fast as her bitterly cold muscles allowed her, she felt she was getting closer and she kept calling out Beast Boy's name, hoping desperately he could hear her in his mental nightmare.
Suddenly she was again struck by another burst of emotion, but it wasn't as strong as the others, there was something else in it, something like…hope. She pressed forward even harder, letting her emotions guide her as she ran.
She called out again, and to her great surprise, she received a very faint response, heard more in the wave of emotional energy than her ears. She turned another corner and at the end of another long hallway, the reflections of her friend were doubled, no, tripled up. She'd found him.
