I'm sorry for the slow updates recently. I meant to have this out sooner, but my life as usual has been pretty busy. This chapter was actually supposed to be out sooner, but the site wasn't uploading documents for a while. And then for some reason, it wasn't sending out emails, so I waited a little longer. My apologies, and I hope you like this chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 14: Calabos

The three Titans (and pink-haired sorceress) stared blankly at Worek for a few seconds.

"Wait, what did you say?" Robin asked. "Does that mean we're…"

"Yep. Welcome to Pantara," Phanos said.

"You've gotta be kidding," Cyborg said.

"Wish I was."

"What are we standing here for? We have to go back there!" Robin shouted at the rest.

"Oh it's too late for that, Robin," Worek said. "There's no rescuing them now."

"I don't give a damn!" Robin said directly to his face. "You can stay if you want, but the rest of us are going to get them back." He turned around to face his teammates. "Alright guys, get ready."

"STOP!" Phanos shouted so fiercely even Robin froze. All heads turned to the fire mage. "Listen to him," he said more calmly.

Worek timidly cleared his throat before continuing. "Look Robin, I want to back there as much as you, but if we try to go back there, we'll only meet the same fate they did. We barely escaped with eleven, and six of us won't stand a chance."

Robin's masked eyes widened. "Wait, you mean…"

He nodded. "That's right. We are all that is left," he said sadly. "The others…all captured."

Robin looked at the other Titans, then back at them. "But we have to do something! How can you ask us to sit here while our friends are captured?" Robin shouted.

"I'm not asking you to do that! I'm asking you to think about this! You're their leader, you should know that!" Worek paused while he allowed himself to calm down. "Maybe rushing in works on your world, but over here doing that is suicide. Besides, you saw a just few of his servants back there. I guarantee you though, Calabos controls more terrible things than what we saw back there."

"What were those things back there, anyway?" Cyborg asked. "Those hyena mutant things?"

"Gnolls," the water mage answered.

"And those flying things?"

"Necrowings. Not that big, but very fast."

"So what do you propose we do now, then?" Jinx asked him.

"We should go back and follow them," Starfire suggested. "They may have the others, but we could try to find them and see where they are taking them. Then we could try and find a way to rescue our friends."

"I agree with Starfire," Jinx said. "We were lucky back there. That guy only expected five of you to be there, and he certainly didn't expect people like us to arrive with you. I'd bet that's the only reason we were able to escape."

Worek nodded. "That's right. Unfortunately, we've lost our two flyers, and I know you have lost one of yours. We can't all go at once, so…"

"I shall go," Starfire said firmly.

Robin faced her, again with wide eyes. "Starfire, you can't go back there by yourself!"

"I can take care of myself, friend Robin. We cannot all go along, and only I can fly. Now please, let me go. I must do this."

"But Star, what if you're caught? We can't risk that!" Robin said with concern.

Starfire took his hand in one of hers and smiled calmly at him. "I will not be discovered, boyfriend Robin. I promise. Now please, let me go. I shall follow the river, and you can follow behind me. I will return back soon if I discover anything, I promise." Robin frowned. He still didn't want her to go, but the look in her eyes told him nothing was going to change her mind.

"Alright, Star. Just…be careful," he said. Starfire smiled and pulled him into a short, but suffocating hug. A soft peck on Robin's cheek finished the job.

"I will be. Farwell. I shall be back." The Tamarianan waved good goodbye to the others, and in a flash was off like a green shot.

As the others started following the river back upstream, Cyborg's eyes widened and he suddenly shouted.

"Wait a minute! How am I gonna charge my batteries?!"

Beast Boy had no idea how long he was unconscious for, but when he finally did come to, he was being carried. It was pretty painful, too, since he was slung like a sack over one of their shoulders. Gradually he opened his eyes, praying the last few minutes of his life had been just a nightmare. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Beast Boy couldn't see clearly, but he could just make out the shapes of the horrible monsters jogging on both sides. At least it was daylight out. He looked around briefly to see if he could find Raven or the others, but no luck. As Beast Boy started contemplating his escape, everyone around him stopped, and a deep guttural voice started shouting.

"Alright you maggots, take a breather!" it barked. Without warning Beast Boy was dropped painfully to the ground like a sack of potatoes. He kept in a cry of pain, not wanting them to know he was awake. For the first time, he noticed a funny feeling in his wrists, like something was wrapped tightly around them. He glanced down, and saw some kind of metal bracers wrapped around both his wrists. They were a blackish tint, and had several strange symbols inscribed on him. They were also pretty tight, and dug into his skin if he moved the wrong way.

"Hey! Watch what you're doing with the prisoners!" a gruff voice shouted.

"Why? He's not broken," a high-pitched voice replied, the one who had been carrying him.

Beast Boy felt a thud next to him, and he opened one of his eyes to see what it was. His heart leapt when he saw an unconscious Raven lying just a few feet away from him.

"Raven? Raven?" he whispered, hoping that she could hear him. She gave no reply.

"I'm starving! I want some meat!" the high-pitched voice moaned. A chill ran up Beast Boy's spine as his animal instincts felt it gazing intently on him.

"Hmm…they look scrumptious," it said while licking its lips.

The one with the gruff voice growled. "They are not for eating! The master wants them back alive and unharmed!"

"Hmph! 'The master' this, 'the master' that. I'm sick of carrying these two around. Besides, we got the templar anyway. Let's just carve 'em up now!" the high-pitched voice said hungrily.

There was a loud 'THWACK!', and the high-pitched voice gave a cry of pain.

"Orders are orders! Maybe you'd like to deal with the master's wrath when we get back, but I sure don't! And if you think you got a nasty hit this time, just keep it up!" the gruff voice yelled.

One standing nearby gave a hyena-like laugh, and Beast Boy could hear it approaching.

"Besides, I don't know why you'd wanna eat 'em anyway!" it said with a laugh. "This one looks like she's been dead for a week, and this one looks like 'e's going rotten!" it said while pointing at Beast Boy.

"Hey, look!" one of them shouted. Following that, Beast Boy heard the flap of wings approach and settle down.

"What do you flying rats want?" the guttural voice asked.

"We'll take them from here," a raspy voice hissed. Beast Boy opened one eye, and saw a necrowing talking to one of the gnolls. He had no idea how it was talking though, seeing as it had no mouth.

As they talked, Beast Boy started racing through his options. He could wait here, and see where they were taking him. Or, he could try to escape now. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure Raven was still knocked out, and he had no idea where the others were. There was no way he would be able to take all of them on by himself while trying to get Raven out of there. His options did NOT look good right now.

"I don't take orders from a mutant bird! The master ordered that I take them, so you and your flock can fly on out of here!" the gnoll shot back.

It glared at him with its large red eyes. "These orders don't come from me, they come from the master himself, so hold your tongue. He fears that since we did not catch all of them, they will try to follow us back to our lair and rescue the others. We must take them back ourselves, or they might catch up."

The gnoll growled at it, but didn't argue. Turning to the rest, it started barking out more orders.

"Alright! Give the prisoners over! And make sure they're put under!" it shouted.

One of them roughly jerked Beast Boy up by the collar, and the changeling gagged again as they forced an awful-tasting liquid down his throat.

"Ha! This one was awake! Well, this'll fix that up real fast!" it laughed.

Sleeping potion, that's what they were giving him. That's why he was out for so long. He gave another groan as his vision blacked out once again.

Starfire flew fast as she could, but very high as to avoid being seen. With her alien vision she scoured the landscape, hoping for a sign for her friends. She continued up the river, past the ring of stones where they had first arrived and been attacked. She continued for so long but still did not see any of them. However, Starfire's heart leapt when she saw a dark, moving mass moving on the ground below. She then swooped down behind it, keeping quiet so they wouldn't hear her. As she descended, she could gradually make out the shapes of the monsters moving below, the same ones that had ambushed them.

She quickly ducked low behind a tree to get a better look. She could make out the enemies easily enough, but she saw no signs of her friends. She frantically looked for any sign of Beast Boy or Raven, but had no such luck. Even the others who had been captured were gone.

"Oh no…" she whispered.

Beast Boy awoke from being unconscious for the second time. He opened his eyes, but saw nothing but blackness. He started to panic, but quickly realized that this was because he was blindfolded. Giving himself a mental slap, he tried to move around, but was unable. His hands were still bound, but thankfully not his feet, and his back had been propped against a cold stone wall. He listened closely to see if there was anyone around, but heard nothing except for faint breathing beside him.

Raven.

Since he couldn't move in his current form, he decided to try shifting into something small to escape his bonds. He was relieved to find that his powers were still working, and after briefly turning into a mouse he morphed back into a human to get a good look at his surroundings. This time however, his surroundings were very different. He was in some kind of cell or dungeon. It was very dark and dank and smelled pretty bad. Straw littered the floor, and off near a corner was a little sewer hole covered with an iron grate. The only piece of furniture in the room was a single wooden "bed" suspended from the wall by two chains. It was also rather chilly, and the cold bit through the thin fabric of his uniform. A heavy iron gate blocked the exit, and the only light came from what had to have been torches from the hall outside.

"Beast Boy? Is that you?" Raven suddenly whispered from the other side of the cell. She was awake!

"Yeah!" he whispered back while rushing to her side. She was tied up and blindfolded like he was, and she was even wearing those strange metallic bracers Beast Boy had on his wrists.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered as he removed her blindfold. In fact, to his surprise, the wounds he had received earlier had now all healed up. Whatever they used on him must have worked. "How about you?" he asked.

She looked up at him. "I'm okay. I think my arm's healed-" She was cut off when Beast Boy hugged her in an embrace that would have made Starfire envious. As he pulled back she gave him a surprised look.

"I'm sorry," he quickly apologized. "I'm just glad you're okay. I was pretty worried back there."

"It's alright," she said calmly. "Where are we?" Raven asked as she looked around.

"Some kind of dungeon I think. I'm guessing we're in what's-his-face's lair," he answered sadly.

Raven looked around apprehensively. She didn't like this situation one bit.

"How are you feeling? Are you okay to get up?" he asked.

"Yeah, I said I'm fine, Beast Boy."

"Good, because we gotta get out of here, Raven. I'll get you out of these bonds and you can phase-shift us outta here," he said as he worked on her cuffs.

"No, I can't," she said.

"What do you mean you can't? Raven, we have to get out of here!"

"I know!" she whispered harshly. "But I mean I can't! My powers aren't working!"

Beast Boy froze and stared at her in shock. "What do you mean they're not working?"

She rolled her eyes. "They're just not working, Beast Boy! Don't you think I've already tried to get out of here? My powers aren't doing a damn thing!"

Beast Boy was about to say something, but his heightened hearing picked up the sound of someone approaching.

"Quick! Blindfolds!" Raven said. Beast Boy didn't need to be told, he was already working on putting back Raven's blindfold. Once that was done, he quickly went to work on putting back his own bonds. He barely got his hands back into his cuffs when someone, or something, arrived at the cell. From the sound of it, he guessed it was one of the mutant hyenas. Even worse, there was more than one of them. The metal door groaned loudly as the one in front opened it.

The leader of the group gave an evil chuckle as he looked at them. "Get up!" it ordered roughly.

One of them picked up Beast Boy, and the other Raven, then lead the two Titans down a myriad of hallways. Beast Boy tried to keep track of where they were going, but found it very hard. After a while, they came to a stop and were both shoved in a chair. Their blindfolds were then removed, but not before ropes were tied around their chests to hold them to the chairs. Wherever they were, it was a large, long room lined with eerie-looking gargoyle statues on both sides. Behind them was a large, elaborate chair on top of an elevated section of floor, and at the other end was a set of large doors. A throne room. Once again, the light came from rows of unusually bright torches.

"Just sit tight, the master's on his way right now," one of them said mockingly.

Beast Boy gulped and started sweating nervously. If it was one thing seeing this demon in a vision, it would be a whole lot different to see it up close. The memories of his appearance ran through his mind…the gnarled black exoskeleton, the long black horns, the metallic fangs…everything about it sent a chill up his spine. Just then, Beast Boy's ears picked up the sound of someone approaching. It had to have been him.

Beast Boy wanted to close his eyes, but forced himself to look. If he could handle Trigon, a pure demon, he could handle this. The footsteps came to a stop outside the door, and the handle started to turn. Beast Boy braced himself for a tall black monster to appear through the entrance any second.

But it never came. When the doors opened, a small, black-cloaked figure stepped through and slowly approached. It looked like a normal person from afar, but its face was hidden beneath its black hood. Once it came to a stop in front of them, it finally removed its hood, and both Titans stared in shock.

It was a man. A young man. From what the Titans could guess, probably in his early twenties. Like Raven, he had pale grayish skin. Also like Raven, his hair color matched his eyes, which were a shade of dark blue. His hair was rather long, and hung down to his eyes in front. On top of that, he was rather…handsome! Had Raven not sensed the evil coming off of him, she would have thought he was very dashing.

The three creatures bowed their heads respectfully, and slowly walked past him out of the room. The metal doors shut with a loud clang, leaving the Titans alone with the newcomer. The young man said nothing, but continued to examine them with a small smile on his face. For a few seconds, they stared at each other, not saying a word. As usual, Beast Boy was the one to break the silence.

"Um…we came here to see Calabos?" he said, sounding unsure if he was saying the name right.

"What?" the young man asked in a low voice, almost like the one they had heard earlier.

"Calabos!" Beast Boy repeated, growing frustrated.

The young man smirked and bowed his head. "And you have succeeded, little boy." Both teens looked perplexed, though Beast Boy much more than Raven.

"What, you?" Beast Boy asked, even more confused. "I don't get it. I thought-"

"Silence, changeling!" he ordered. "You were not brought into this world to 'get it'."

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Come on, Calabos is a-"

"Nothing your little mind could understand," he said condescendingly. His gaze shifted over to Raven. "Anyway, I didn't come here to argue with you. I came here mostly for her."

He walked closer to Raven, and gazed down at her intently with what looked like curiosity and admiration.

"So it's really true. I had to see it with my own eyes. Yes! The one and only 'Raven' has come to my world!" he said in awe.

"Yeah, and that's another thing! How the heck do you know Raven's name?" Beast Boy asked angrily.

Calabos shot him a dirty, condescending look. "Oh please, shape-shifter. Anybody who wanted any information on daemons would know of the daughter of Trigon!" He turned his attention back to Raven. "And here she is, right in my domain. I must say, I am honored."

Raven's eyes widened briefly, but quickly went back to normal. "I wish I could say the same for you," she replied coolly. At this, the other half-demon only laughed.

"Ha ha! And you have defiance as well. You truly are your father's daughter, Raven." He slowly backed away. "But I am being rude. Let me introduce myself. Yes, I am indeed the Calabos you heard of. Are you surprised?"

"Well, kinda. The last time we saw you, you were a 15 foot monster," Beast Boy said. Next to him, Raven rolled her eyes.

The half-demon smirked. "I see my 'friends' have told me about you. Yes, changeling, you no doubt saw me as that, but I'm sure one such as yourself knows that a being can have more than one form to choose from."

As a matter of fact, he was right. Raven herself had a "demon" form that came out whenever she lost total control of herself. Beast Boy figured that Calabos's other form must have been a similar thing, and what he was looking at now was his normal form. He gave himself another mental slap for not thinking of that earlier.

"-Anyway, I'm sure both of you have a lot of questions, especially concerning where you are, how you got here, and what I want with you," the male half-demon continued. "And I won't leave you in the dark on the first two," he said with a grin.

"In case you haven't guessed, you're in my hidden lair right now, and I'll warn you now - don't try to escape. It's heavily guarded, and chances are next to none that you'll find a way out, especially without your powers. Even if you do escape, I have ways of finding you. And even if, heaven forbid, you do evade me, there's nobody around for miles that will be able to help you. However, I assure you there are lots of hungry beasts out there that would be more than happy to have you for a meal." As he said this he flashed a wide toothy smile that, to Beast Boy's shock, made his mouth look almost like it did in his demon form.

"Speaking of which, do you like those devices on your wrists?" he asked. "In case you haven't figured it out, they're the reason your powers aren't working."

Beast Boy's powers however, were still working, but he decided to play along. "What are these things, anyway?" the shape-shifter asked.

Calabos chuckled lowly. "They're called 'purging bracers'. They strip the wearer of any magical ability at all, and are impossible to get off unless you know the right spell. They're actually the way I was imprisoned during my childhood. They're supposed to be very rare, but I found a way to make them. Very useful devices, I must say."

"Soo, how did we get here?" Raven asked calmly.

"Ah, yes. That crystal that opened the portal that brought you here was a tainted one. Cursed, if you will, but of course you didn't know it. It was bound to me. When the templar fell into your world, I could have made them arrive at any place I wanted. All I had to do was wait until they came back. Of course, I would never have dreamt in a million ages you would have come back with them!" Calabos said excitedly to Raven.

"Alright, that's fine and dandy. Now cut the crap! What do you want with us?" Beast Boy asked angrily.

The dark man flashed Beast Boy an evil smile. "You'll know soon enough."

"You can't do this!" Beast Boy protested. "You don't know us! We're not your enemies! We've never even seen you before! You can't just grab us and imprison us like this!"

"Of course I can. I'm doing it now, aren't I?" he asked mockingly. Beast Boy was now growing very frustrated, and shot forward in his seat. Unfortunately, the ropes prevented him from getting anywhere.

"Where are the others, huh? What did you do with them, you blue-haired freak?" he spat from his chair.

"Beast Boy, stop it!" Raven cautioned.

Calabos was now getting noticeably irritated, and he frowned at him. "They're safe. Now be quiet," he ordered in a threatening voice. Unfortunately, as usual, Beast Boy didn't listen.

"Where are they? In this place? When I get out of here, I'm going to-"

Calabos's eyes suddenly shifted to a dark, merciless black, and his fangs grew longer. "I said be QUIET!!!"

His voice seemed to pierce both Beast Boy's ears and his head. Suddenly the changeling's body seemed to lose all control, and his body stiffened as if he had just been given a huge electrical shock. His world spun, and an intense pain shot through his entire body as the deafening voice echoed over and over in his ears. When the horrible feeling finally passed, Beast Boy collapsed in his chair and panted heavily.

Calabos walked over and stood over him menacingly. "There. Maybe next time you'll listen." He then walked back to the middle and stared the two Titans down. "We'll talk again real soon. I'd love to finish this now, but I have important matters to deal with."

The half-demon clapped his hands loudly, and a few seconds later the servants came back in to take Raven and Beast Boy away. Neither of them spoke as the blindfolds were reapplied and their wrists were tied together. Not long after, the two were thrown back into the cell they had been in earlier. This time however, their blindfolds and bonds were removed.

Once she was sure they were gone, Raven crawled over to Beast Boy's limp form.

"Beast Boy? Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. Beast Boy gave a soft groan.

"Ugh…my head," he moaned.

"Sorry you had to go through that," she said apologetically.

"What did he do to me back there?" he asked while rubbing his head.

"I think that was a 'power word'. I've read about it before. It's dark magic," she explained.

"Did affect you?" he asked. Raven shook her head.

"No, he was only concentrating on you. I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it wasn't your fault," Beast Boy said as he sat up. He looked around disgustingly at his surroundings. "I hate this place. I tell you, the whole place feels evil, even the freakin' bricks! We have to get out of here."

"I know, but we don't even know a way out yet. Plus my powers being defunct isn't really helping," Raven said frustratingly as she looked at the bracers on her wrists.

"And that's another thing. How come these things aren't affecting my powers?" Beast Boy asked.

Raven shrugged. "I think it's because your abilities aren't magical in any way. They're a part of your anatomy, unlike mine. This place is way behind earth, scientifically, so Calabos knows nothing about DNA. That's a good thing for us, though. If he doesn't know you can shift, we can take advantage of that."

Beast Boy nodded understandingly. "In the meantime, we can try to find a way out of here."

"Yeah," Raven said quietly.

There was a short pause as the two stared down at the ground.

"Raven?" Beast Boy asked out of the blue.

"Yes?" she asked, turning toward him.

"I'm scared," he said while staring forward at the wall. The empath frowned sadly. She understood perfectly - being thrust into a strange place, far away from home, cut off from your friends - it was very scary. Slowly, she picked herself up and sat down right next to him.

"Me too, Gar," she said softly. Without thinking, Beast Boy reached and took Raven's hand in his. For once, she didn't protest, though a blush did form on her cheeks. The pair stared at the ground as they held each other's hands, both confused, cut off from their friends, and above all, scared out of their wits.

But at least they weren't alone.

Down in a dark, cruel-looking dungeon, the three Templar were chained to wall with their wrists above their heads. In front of them stood an angry Calabos and three gnolls. Eutonos, Evad, and Lekim, all powerless, could do nothing but take whatever the demon threw at them.

"I'm tired of your antics, and I'm not going to ask you again!" the demon threatened. "Where are your friends?"

"You can shout and scream all you want, Calabos. You won't get a thing," Eutonos said calmly.

"Oh really? Trust me, I have ways of finding things out. I might be a shadow of my former self, but I still have ways of getting what I want," he replied menacingly.

"Calabos, you can torture me or kill me, I don't care. Just don't bore me," Evad said sarcastically.

The demon silently motioned toward him. One of the gnolls smiled, walked up, and swiftly socked the templar in the face.

"And if you think that hurt, trust me, that's nothing," Calabos said. He walked over to Eutonos and looked him straight in the eye. "Oh, how I wish the other two were here. This would have been much more satisfying with all five of you, but I'll do my best."

"Enough," Eutonos gasped, beyond tired and in a world of pain. "Just kill us if that's what you're going to do."

Calabos grinned sadistically. "Kill you? After all the pain and misery you've brought me, you think I'm just going to give you the peace of death? I have a better idea."

"What are you going to do?" Lekim asked from the side.

The half-demon's eyes narrowed, but his grin stayed. "Ever since you killed my captain, I've been in need of somebody to help command my servants," Calabos said.

Eutonos put two and two together, and his eyes widened in fear. "You wouldn't…"

Calabos's grin grew wider as his eyes turned black once again. "Wouldn't I?"

Hope you liked it! Just as a recap, BB and Rae are both captured. Starfire flew after them, but they were taken away by the necrowings just before she arrived, so she missed them by a hair. D'oh! And to Agent of the Divine One: yes, I did use your review for the villain's line of dialogue about Raven. Hope you don't mind. :) And just FYI, from this point on you'll be seeing very little of my OC's (except for the villain). So if you liked them, well…tough. This is supposed to be TT, after all.

Oh, in case any of you are wondering, yes, that opening scene with BB and Rae was heavily inspired by the scene from LoTR: The Two Towers. Which, amazingly, I don't own (that includes the books and movies)! So yes, that was intended. I am a huge fan of the books and movies, so I admit that stuff does sometimes influence what I write. Please forgive me!

As always, please leave a review. Any feedback is appreciated.