Side Effects

Chapter 3

Batman's POV

"So are all bets placed?" Flash asked.

"Yes. Quiet, here they come…" Replied Superman.

I couldn't believe that under circumstances like this, we would be taking bets on what the Titans would do. At first, it was hectic when everyone wanted to bet on Robin's reaction and rant on recent events, but things went even further downhill once they realized that Robin wouldn't be the only one that was livid.

The door was already open (so that it wouldn't be flung off of its hinges) and in marched three quite unhappy Titans. Starfire led the charge, with her eyes glowing green, and Robin was not far behind. Around the room, everyone had their clipboard in hand, ready to check off anytime someone's bet came true; everyone had copies of everyone's bets, so we would all know who the winner was. The whole thing just seemed unprofessional.

"I DEMAND TO KNOW WHY YOU PERSECUTE ONE OF MY FRIENDS AND LET ANOTHER BE ABDUCTED FROM YOUR OWN SAFEROOM!" Starfire hollered while bringing her fist down on the metal table. The table had been built knowing superheroes were likely to get angry around it, so it withstood the impact; still, the accompanying 'thud' did not sound good.

Everyone checked off "Starfire—scream, bang fist" from their lists.

Robin pulled Star aside to let her cool off, and he took up the soapbox next.

"There had better…" he spit out slowly through clenched teeth, "…be an excellent explanation why half of my teammates are now missing." Robin did his best to sound calm and speak in a normal voice, which only highlighted his threat.

Everyone checked off "Robin—Calm, make threat, clenched teeth, speak slow" from their lists.

"HOLY COW! That's absolutely perfect through two Titans! How does he do it!?" Flash exclaimed. Despite how furious the Titans were, this dumbfounded them.

"WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" Cyborg yelled, truly confused and frustrated that he was left out of the rants.

"…and check of 'Cyborg—confused, yells a question, wants to know what's going on' also." I declared.

Oh yes, this bet taking makes me sick to my stomach. That doesn't mean I won't try my hand at it…

"Unbelievable! Batman swept the bets! A perfect prediction…how does he do it?" Flash replied, grinning from ear to ear. They slid the pot [AN: as in the betting pool] to me, and someone forked over twenty bucks to Flash. Apparently, he put money on me winning the bet; smart man.

"Wait a minute…did you all put bets on what you thought we would do?" Robin asked. A few people gave him a sheepish nod.

Robin looked as if his head was going to explode, but Cyborg beat him to the punch.

"That's…" Robin started, before being cut off by Cyborg.

"GENIUS! Why haven't we ever done this with Raven?" Cyborg exclaimed, effectively killing Robin's burst of rage before it started.

Superman stood up, and everyone else (myself included) sat down. It was a debate tactic we used to subliminally force our opponents (or whoever we were debating with) to sit down, become calm, and argue without blinding rage. We weren't necessarily going to debate the Titans, but the calming effects would smooth things out.

"Titans, I understand your frustration in not having a say, but you also haven't had all information. There are some things that, before now, were not for you to know. In an almost even vote of the members here, we decided to bring Robin alone up to speed on everything, so we would ask Starfire and Cyborg to wait elsewhere."

The two Titans both looked at Robin, who in turn looked at me. I nodded, and Robin hesitated but turned and nodded to dismiss the Titans. They walked out the door, and closed it behind them.

"Alright, you have my attention. What don't I know?" Robin asked in an annoyed tone.

"We think that this wasn't necessarily the work of 'Slade,' at least not as you know him. His dealings with the Titans were personal to him. Currently, we think that this was a matter of 'Deathstroke,' his professional persona." I opened.

Robin wasn't buying it.

"Then why did 'Deathstroke' take Beast Boy!?" Robin demanded.

"We think it was a…try out…of sorts. An audition—something to catch our attention. One week ago, we put out word that we were willing to hire someone as a strategic consultant for the near future. Slade's résumé and skillset are by far the most impressive, but we sent out word that we would take the best of five names. We think that this was to show us that he feels insulted the other names were even in contention, and that he would be willing to talk…"

Robin's eye twitched.

"So, in conclusion, Slade kidnapped Beast Boy because you want to hire him to work for you whilst you spend all of your other resources hunting Raven! In what universe does this NOT piss me off!?" Robin demanded.

To be fair, he had a point. I decided it best to tell him such.

"Fair enough, but there's one more thing you don't know. The reason why we sent your teammates out…" I explained.

Robin interlaced his fingers and tilted his head, saying with his body language in the most sarcastic way possible 'oh, please, do tell.'

"Darkseid is back. We don't know how, but he's alive and has already amassed an army."

Robin literally flinched when I said Darkseid. It was after Darkseid's last raid that he left Gotham, angry at how everything had went down. We made some mistakes in our defensive strategies that Robin had called out numerous times, yet was shut down because he was still a kid. Thus, when things went awry, he became furious and left to form a team of kids like himself to prove their worth.

Well, he's sitting here now, so that part worked.

Robin didn't speak; instead, I recognized a glassed look on his eyes which told me he was considering the implications of what I had just said.

"That's why we're hunting Raven now. We can't afford for her to be evil and align with Darkseid, nor will we have the ability to bring her in after a battle with Darkseid. In a perfect world, she would come in peacefully and help us fight Darkseid, but we don't think even that would be worth risking her succumbing to her demonic influences (if she hasn't already)…"

Robin continued to think things over, and I looked around the room to see grim faces. Everyone had appointed it my job to break this news, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. I knew I could get through to Robin, and I have.

Robin suddenly snapped out of his stare.

"What are you doing differently this time around?" He asked.

"I knew you'd ask that. We're implementing your old suggestions, namely the employment of villains in the defense of earth."

"And that's how…" Robin trailed off.

"Yes. We took your advice and hired your nemesis to help organize everything…"

POV BREAK (Raven's POV)

Since he 'arrived,' things with Beast Boy have gone great. The beach house was originally built for five (incase for some reason I brought the whole team) and was somewhat modeled after the Tower, so Beast Boy didn't have any problems moving in. He picked the room with a high ceiling and a hammock, which had been designed for him in the first place: plenty of places to take a literal cat-nap. Like every room, it was customized for a specific Titan but had basics like a TV, air conditioning, facilities, etc. It wasn't anything like my own room, but it was definitely good enough to be a vacation house.

True to his form, Beast Boy set up his gaming consoles as soon as he stepped through the door. With that out of the way, he started to unpack whatever he had and make himself at home. I waited for him in the living room, which was actually a large patio under the same roof as everyone else. It didn't have an outside wall half-way around and was themed like a tropical hut, but it was set up almost identical to the Tower's living room. There was even an option to close off the open wall for privacy (and to let the air conditioning do its magic).

I let Garfield know that when he was finished, I'd be in the living room (and gave specific instructions on how to get there) waiting for him. It was only 20 minutes before the hinged-door creaked open and out he walked. His face made a rare expression as if he had been in deep thought for that whole twenty minutes, and it made his entire persona seem weighed down (not to mention the heavy emotions he felt). I couldn't bear to see him like that; I am the one here who's a fugitive and he's supposed to be the happy one.

"You want to talk about me, don't you?" I asked.

Beast Boy's eyebrows arched and his face instantly molded into mild shock.

"Uh…well, yea. How'd you know? I thought you didn't read peoples' thoughts without permission!"

"I didn't. What else would you want to talk about?" I asked.

He shrugged after pausing to think about it.

"Eh, good point. So…where do we start?"

Beast Boy plopped down on the couch next to me. The sun had recently set, and I had walled up the patio. Currently, the lights were up high as I had been reading with them before Garfield came in.

"Well, you don't have to start. I started all of this, so I'll explain it all. Sound fair?"

Beast Boy shrugged and waited for me to start.

I took a deep breath to sort my head. With something like this, where do I start? There's so much that I don't even understand yet. I guess I should give him some background first; not like he's an expert in inter-realital affairs.

"Alright, do you know why Trigon even needed me if he is the most powerful being we know of?"

Beast Boy shook his head no almost without thinking about it.

"It's because he's from a different reality. There are numerous dimensions in a reality, with each of them varying from highly packed to empty and abandoned. It takes portals and significant energy to get from one dimension to another. My home, Azarath, is in a different dimension. Trigon was in a completely different reality altogether, one that he had completely and fully conquered…"

I trailed off as I noticed Beast Boy's eyes glaze over while he was looking at me. I snapped my fingers and asked him if he got any of what I said.

"Yea, uh portals, dimensions, realities. Got it…"

"Anyways, it is next to impossible to send even something as small as a penny from one reality to another, and larger objects such as Trigon himself simply aren't possible by anyone's means."

"Then how did you open the portal? Or how did you even get here?" He asked. I was pleasantly surprised that he was not only paying attention, but also retaining some of it.

"Because there is a loophole, Gar. The only thing that can be sent to different realities is pure energy as long as someone on the other side is receiving the energy. That's how everything was done. He sent energy to Slade's corpse to revive him, and then Slade summoned minions with that energy. But his real accomplishment was 'Scath.' There was a cult following here that worshipped him without ever receiving contact from him, so he gave them as much power as he could spare. They used that power to cast a spell that would ultimately allow me to be the portal. Normally, when someone tries to send something through realities, they die because they are too weak; my curse allowed it that my death during the process would ensure that the portal opened. Basically, they poked a hole in the fabric of time by killing me…"

Beast Boy's eyes had widened until I felt like I was reading a bed time story to a little kid (again). But he didn't interrupt.

"The thing is…I was never supposed to survive. There shouldn't have been any way for me to survive. But I did. And Trigon's power had created a void in between realities where it was waiting to be claimed. But when I claimed his power, the curse that caused me to be born was completed. And because I was supposed to die, no one knew what would happen when I fulfilled the curse. No one knew the side effects of dying to open a portal to a different dimension…"

His eyes had glazed over again, and I realized what had happened: he had got distracted from staring at me. I blushed slightly and snapped at him again, causing him to panic.

"Reality, curse, side effects! I was listening!"

I shook my head whilst rolling my eyes, then resumed my 'bedtime story.'

"Now that I am the 'New Trigon,' I have more energy than anyone. But that's not even the most significant thing. I can open…portals…" I said that last part more quietly, as if making it seem more important.

"OOooh. Watch out, Rae's got even MORE portals guys!" Beast Boy mocked.

I reached out and hit him in the arm, and he found it extremely funny and started to giggle like a school girl.

"Not just any portal. I can open portals into other realities." I said, my voice heavy with implications.

"Ooooh. Look out for Rae's portals…" he mocked again.

"R-e-a-l-i-t-i-e-s. Without even thinking about it. It takes less energy than anything else I do, and it's supposed to be completely IMPOSSIBLE."

He finally stopped mocking me, but still didn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation.

"Untraceable. Unheard of. Unstoppable. There's no spell that can stop it because this is the first time it's ever been possible. I could just disappear in front of the greatest sorcerers around, and they would never have a clue what happened. Beast Boy…I have Trigon's power and a physics-defying spell both built into me!"

"Okay, so you can go anywhere at any time without anyone knowing and have all of Trigon's power. Is that it?"

As much as it frustrated me that he didn't immediately see how groundbreaking this was, he did effectively sum what I said up.

"Not just Trigon's power. In Trigon's dimension, I now am the new Trigon. You don't think that he ruled an empty reality, do you? He had trillions of lifeforms enslaved, and massive armies on top of that. I've spent most of the last month doing what I can to free them, but there's so much to do…"

"So you started freeing them?"

"Yes. I didn't want Trigon's legacy of terror to reign any longer. Most of them have been slaves their whole lives, and don't have anyone who can lead them, so I spent three straight weeks setting up millions of governments…"

Beast Boy shivered when I said that. I guess he wouldn't want to set up millions of governments in such a short time; it does almost sound like torture…

"You can do that?"

"Why not? I'm the new Trigon, remember? It turns out that a lot of them wanted to join my armies just because they wanted steady protection. So now I have massive armies with demonic powers just waiting to be released. And I also have a 'specialist' should I ever need his services."

"In other words, don't come into your room without knocking?" He asked with a grin.

I couldn't help myself. Before I could stop, I let out a laugh. I quickly recovered by slapping a hand over my mouth, but it was too late. I knew what was coming.

"AH HA! ADMIT IT! You do think I'm funny!"

"You idiot! We're dating! Some of the things you say had to be funny or that wouldn't have happened..."

"Admit it!"

I crossed my arms and looked away as if I was too snobby to reply.

"Admit, or you'll be sorry!"

I gave a small shake 'no.'

Suddenly, his entire demeanor changed into a more…mature tone. As if he suddenly remembered something important.

"Hey, uh, so how does Slade work into all of this?"

"Oh, I forgot him. Remember how Trigon revived him from the dead, and how he stole his flesh back from Trigon? That basically means that I own his body. I leave him free to keep up appearances, but whenever I need him, he's mine."

"So you made Slade your servant? SWEET!" He exclaimed. Some part of me relaxed; I was nervous that association with Slade would be a breaking point, or that he would have second thoughts about me inheriting trillions of people chained like animals.

I guess my boyfriend is pretty easy to convince; Robin? Probably not as much.

"So can your emotions cause you to lose control anymore?" He asked? He said it as if he had been waiting to ask this for a while, and finally found the right time. He was almost giddy as he asked.

"No. That only lasted until I accepted my father's power. It's gone for good…" I told him.

Suddenly, he grinned. It was no ordinary grin; it was a grin that made me freeze, because it meant something was up.

"Good!" he commented before leaning over and kissing me.

I froze. I mean for a moment, I wasn't certain that time was still moving. I am capable of that, you know. Then I realized what was happening, and I decided not to fight it. I decided to give in savor the moment, because it was bound to happen from the moment my emoticlones forced me to admit I like Garfield. It started to feel amazing, but just as I closed my eyes and began to enjoy the bliss of the moment, he pulled away.

"Told ya you'd regret it!" He said while wearing that goofy, ear-to-ear grin.

"Why would I regret it now?" I asked, with a small, sly, happy grin of my own.