Chapter 6: Nevermore
The plan had failed. All the preparations had failed. She had failed.
It was unacceptable to her. Raven had gambled nearly everything on this plan to succeed. But it had not succeeded, it had gone straight down the drain instead.
Raven continued to leap across the rooftops, fuming to herself. Anger coursed through her veins, hatred boiled in her blood. It was all undone to her, she had lost. The element of surprise was no longer on her side. Next time the Teen Titans would be ready for her.
The Teen Titans, the mere thought of them caused Raven to scowl. They ruined it all for her. Oh, how she wished that she could have someone to beat up right now. Anyone would suffice. A scream from a nearby alley drew her attention.
Walking up to the edge, she peered down to see five punks encircling a young girl. Now normally Raven would never even consider playing the hero type, but she was in desperate need of a punching bag about now. And those five punks were perfect candidates.
Raven quickly jumped down, flipping from balcony to balcony, until she landed with a soft thud behind the gang.
"Why don't you big boys pick on someone your own size?" she questioned menacingly. Already she could feel rage building up inside of her. Her need to break something grew stronger with every moment.
The five punks turned around in surprise. But their surprised looks quickly turned into scowls when they saw it was not one of the local heroes.
"Get lost, girlie! This does not concern you!" one of them, the leader most likely, snarled at her. Raven just placed her hands on her hips in a challenging pose.
"You're absolutely right, this does not concern me even the slightest. However, I've had a very bad day and I'm in need of something to vent my frustration on, and you five just happened to be nearby" she stated. The five guys now began to grin lecherously at her.
"Did you hear that boys, she needs to vent her frustration" their leader said, gaining a few wicked snickers from the others as they abandoned their earlier victims "Now why don't we help her with that, eh?"
The others said nothing, but they began to surround Raven. Their eyes travelled over her form with a hungry glint in them. Internally, Raven began to wonder why they were not more cautious. Could they not see her sword and guns strapped to her form?
Three of the five assailants suddenly pulled out a wide variety of knives while the fourth retrieved a crowbar. The leader meanwhile pulled out a revolver. 'Oh, that's why'.
Deciding that waiting around was too boring for her, Raven made the first move. She rushed one of the punks, grabbed the knife-wielding arm and broke it with a quick jab to the elbow. The poor man roared in pain before a vicious jab broke his windpipe.
Raven quickly snatched the knife from his now useless arm and kicked his body away before she spun around and stabbed the knife into the knee of a second punk. She grabbed the arm still clutching a knife and sidestepped a third punk sneaking up from behind.
Before he even knew what had happened Raven had dragged the arm of the second punk forward, causing him to impale his own comrade in the gut. Raven quickly kicked both of them away from herself.
She suddenly bent backwards to avoid a wild swing from the crowbar before backing away. The man did not relent and pushed onward, swinging his crowbar like a drunken idiot in front of him in the hopes of scoring a hit.
Raven meanwhile was lazily dodging everyone one of his swings, looking thoroughly bored out her mind. But behind her, the one she had stabbed in the knee earlier had somehow managed to get back to his feet and was glaring murderously at Raven's back.
He ignored the wound he had sustained and did a feeble rush at her, hoping to skewer her from behind. Raven had however easily detected him and just sidestepped him. The one with the crowbar had not been so observant and with another wild swing, ended up crushing his partner's skull.
It seemed to take a few moments for the idiot to realize he had actually hit something this time, and another few moments until he realized it was not the one he had been aiming for. He stared at the bashed in skull of his friend, completely dumbstruck.
"Do you get extra points for team kills or something?" Raven asked innocently. This seemed to anger the man as he narrowed his eyes at her and with a savage war cry rushed her with the crowbar held high over his head.
Raven just stared impassively at the lumbering brute bearing down on her. She had truly hoped that these guys would give her some form of relief. Sadly, that was not the case, she still felt the anger swirling beneath her skin.
"Pathetic" Raven muttered as she pulled out one of her Desert Eagles and shot the man straight between the eyes.
"Now, wasn't there a fifth member as well?" she questioned. The sound of a gun being cocked behind her was all the answer she needed. Though before she could do more than widen her eyes, a bullet tore through her shoulder.
Raven for her part did nothing more than grunt in pain, but still fell to her knees while clutching her wound. She felt so stupid right now, a mere nobody had got the jump on her and actually wounded her. It was embarrassing, and that embarrassment fed her anger.
Rage bubbled up inside of her, slowly overcoming her senses. Only now did Raven realize that she was doing something she had not done in a long time; she was losing control. 'Dammit, I need to calm down. I can't lose control, not now' she thought frantically.
If she could not reign herself in soon, there would be hell to pay. Unfortunately, the punk did not get the memo and was casually approaching her with a sadistic smirk on his lips.
"Don't come any closer" Raven hissed out in a deadly whisper, but the idiotic punk ignored her warning.
"What's the matter, girlie? Afraid of the big bad boy?" he taunted as he aimed his revolver at her head. That did it for Raven. She could no longer control herself and snapped.
With a deadly growl on her lips, she spun around to face her unfortunate victim. Her eyes, glowing redder than the fires of Hell itself, were fixated murderously upon the punk. Her cloak enveloped her whole body and she grew to the size of two full grown men.
She towered over the punk, who was now covering in terror. Black tendrils lashed out from within the dark abyss of her cloak, ensnaring its victim even as he screamed and begged for mercy.
"What's the matter? Afraid of the dark?" Raven taunted in a raspy and daemonic voice while smiling maliciously down upon her screaming victim. He finally grew quiet as he was dragged into the darkness of her cloak.
For how long it lasted, Raven was not certain. But once her daemon side had been sated enough, Raven was able to wrestle back control. Her eyes and body returned to normal, but the punk she had dragged into her cloak was gone.
She was left panting and leaning against the wall for support. Battling with her daemon side was always taxing to her. A soft whimpering drew Raven's attention to the girl the punks had tried to rob earlier. She had not taken the chance to run away and was now cowering in fear behind a dumpster.
"Please. Please don't hurt me! I just want to go home!" she kept whimpering in fear. At first Raven was not overly concerned, but when Raven looked into the poor girl's eyes she almost felt her heart break.
The girl was staring at her in absolute terror. Not the usual fear a human feels when facing someone who can kill you, but the type of pure horror when you stare at what you feel is terror incarnate.
It hurt Raven more than what she dared to admit. Back on Azerath, they had always taught her that she was the spawn of evil, that she was destined for nothing more than evil and cruelty. She could still feel the looks of fear she received when she used to walk down the street.
That was not how Raven wanted to be seen. If people wanted to be afraid of her, then Raven wanted them to be afraid of the deadly mercenary Raven, not the hellspawn Raven. That was not what Raven wanted to be, that was what her father wanted her to be.
But now, looking upon the frightened girl, Raven was once again reminded of how people would always see her first and foremost. This was why she hid her powers; this was why she wanted people to think she was at best a human, at worst a simple meta-human.
"Just leave" Raven ordered as she turned her eyes away from the girl. She could hear rapid footsteps leaving the scene in a hurry.
"Kill them all. Let rage consume you" a twisted and insidious voice whispered in her mind. Raven gritted her teeth in frustration as she tried to block the voice out.
"Not on your life" Raven snarled out in contempt as she staggered away. It seemed that with her resent loss and the anger following it, Raven's more darker side had begun to break loose again. She would need to get it under control again, and fast.
If there was one thing that upset the Teen Titans more than anything, it was seeing a friend getting hurt. As such, in just under 24 hours, Raven had managed to climb all the way up to the second worst enemy the Titans had faced, right behind Slade.
It was for that reason that Cyborg had occupied the seat in front of the computer that was normally reserved for Robin when he went into detective mode, which was almost all the time.
Since Robin was out of commission after the beating he took at the hands of Raven, it left Cyborg with the task of tracking her down and to bring her in. needless to say, it was a painstakingly slow process, considering there had not been so much as a peep from her.
She was laying low for the moment. But Cyborg had other leads to follow, namely delivery orders and possible thefts in a certain region that involved guns. The girl was obsessed with those things.
"Anything?" Beast Boy asked from where he was lounging on the couch.
"Nothing yet, but I'm closing in. I'm sure of it" he answered without turning around. The door to the living room suddenly opened and Starfire came walking in. both Cyborg and Beast Boy turned their attention to her the moment she stepped in.
"How's he doing?" Cyborg asked in concern. Starfire gave a tired sigh before answering.
"He is currently resting in the infirmary. I am sure he will make a speedy recovery" the answer seemed to bring some measure of peace to the duo. Not enough that they would not track down Raven and kick her sorry butt, mind you.
"Yeah, nothing could keep him down for long anyway" Beast Boy said jokingly. Cyborg was about to say something, but a beeping from the computer drew his attention. As he began typing away, both Beast Boy and Starfire crowded around him to get a better look.
"Dude, you got something?" Beast Boy asked in anticipation. Cyborg said nothing at first, but then his face was split in half by a huge grin.
"Bingo! I've got a location!" he burst out triumphantly.
"Glorious! We shall finally bring this vile enemy to justice!" Starfire exclaimed in happiness. She was about to fly and get the others, but Cyborg stopped her.
"Whoa, take it easy here. We should not all rush into this. For all we know this could be a trap, or Raven might not even be there in the first place. Besides, Argent is pretty busy on the other side of town" Cyborg reasoned. Starfire looked a bit skeptical.
"Then what do you suggest?" she asked curiously.
"Me and Beast Boy go in and check the place out. You stay here and look after Robin in case she decides to pay you a visit. If we find her, we'll call you guys in" Cyborg explained rationally. Starfire still did not look fully convinced, but she reluctantly nodded her head.
"Very well then. If you are certain that this is the best course of action, I shall abide by it" she said. To ease her discomfort, Cyborg flashed her a cocky smirk.
"Don't worry about us, we'll handle this in no time"
Not fifteen minutes later, we find the pair in the process of stealthily entering an abandoned apartment complex.
"Why do villains always go for the abandoned buildings?" Beast Boy asked quietly as he and Cyborg slowly crept up a staircase.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because they're abandoned?" Cyborg asked rhetorically as they reached a door on the fourth floor. They both took up positions on either side of the door and on some unspoken command, Cyborg stepped forward and kicked the door in.
Beast Boy immediately rushed in as a wolf while Cyborg stepped in with his sonic cannon leveled at the insides of the apartment.
"Freeze!" he shouted angrily, but no response came. It took the pair a second or two to realize that there was no one home. The place was crammed with weapons, explosives and ammunition. But there was no sign of Raven.
They had missed her.
"Aw man! And we were so close this time!" Cyborg cried out in irritation. Though Beast Boy was not as torn up by it as Cyborg was as he morphed back to his human form.
"Well, she's not here, c'mon" he said as he strolled into the apartment, his eyes taking in all the sights around him. It was a very rundown place, no furniture other than a couch and a table.
Of course, there were weapons all over the place, enough to arm a small gang. Not to mention enough explosives to level the whole building.
"Talk about weapon obsession" he muttered to himself.
"What are you doing? This is a botched mission, we should head back and start our search again" Cyborg stated from where he was still standing at the door, but Beast Boy paid him no heed as he had spotted something different on the table.
"But this is our chance to find out more about her" he argued back as he reached the table and picked up the item he had spotted.
"For instance, check out this beauty mirror. Who would have thought Raven spends time sprucing?" he asked in disbelief, not that you could blame him of course "Is that a zit?"
But as he inspected his face for signs of that zit in the mirror, four baleful eyes glared back at him from the mirror's depths. Beast Boy let out a terrified yelp as he dropped the mirror to the ground, just as a massive talon of black energy rose up from the mirror and grabbed Beast Boy in a crushing grip.
"C'mon B, we should really get out… Huh?" Cyborg said from the doorway, but stopped mid-sentence when he saw his friend's predicament. He immediately rushed to his aid, just as the talon began to drag Beast Boy into the mirror.
He grabbed hold of his legs and tried to pull him out, but the talon was stronger and managed to pull both of them into the mirror. The two comrades fell through a spiraling tunnel, screaming in fright all the way.
Finally, they were deposited on a floating rock in the middle of space. As they staggered back to their feet, the portal closed behind them. For a while, the two of them just stared at their new surroundings in stunned silence, then…
"I told you we should have gone back!" Beast Boy burst out. Cyborg paid him no heed and instead focused on checking his scanners.
"Uhhh… where are we?" Beast Boy finally asked as he eyed his surroundings wearily. Cyborg however could not bring a satisfying answer.
"You're asking the wrong robot. My sensors must be on the blink, 'cause they're saying we're in Jump City" Cyborg admitted in surprise. He had no idea what could be wrong with his systems.
"Riiiight…" Beast Boy dragged out sarcastically "So how do we get back?"
There were a few moments of silence after his question, until Cyborg came up with the only solution to their problem.
"Guess we start walking" he said. Beast Boy immediately rounded on him with a livid and disbelieving look in his eyes.
"Come on, I'm serious! We're on a rock in the middle of…" he never got to finish that sentence before several rocks came together to form a path for the two of them to walk on.
"Oh" was all Beast Boy could say in response before the two of them began walking.
"If sending us to Weirdsville is Raven's idea of a joke, I am so not laughing" Beast Boy commented grumpily.
"Hey, she didn't send us here. We're the ones who broke into her home and you started popping zits in her magic mirror" Cyborg argued, though internally he wondered why he was even defending her in the first place.
"Who booby-traps a mirror?" Beast Boy argued back.
"Maybe it wasn't a trap, maybe it's Raven's way home" Cyborg reasoned as he looked around the desolate world "Maybe this is where she's from"
Beast Boy gave the place a critical look over as he contemplated his words.
"Add a few hundred guns, and I think you're right. Definitively creepy enough" he commented offhandedly.
"Turn back" a childlike voice suddenly spoke up from nowhere, causing the two boys to halt in terror and spin around in rapid circles, trying to locate the speaker.
"Like I was saying" Beast Boy stated.
"Turn back" the voice from earlier repeated, though this time they managed to locate the speaker. It was a small black bird with big red eyes that was standing on top of a stone archway, along with two more of its kind.
"Turn back" it repeated yet again.
"Turn back" the one next to it repeated.
"Turn back" the last one repeated.
"Turn back" the first one repeated again.
Though by now Beast Boy was smiling widely at the birds, obviously thinking that they had stumbled upon something good here.
"Sweet, bet ya they can tell us how to get home" he reasoned as he approached them. Cyborg however was a bit more cautious concerning the birds.
"Careful. How do we know they're not a threat?" he asked cautiously. Beast Boy did not look the least bit concerned as he spun around to address Cyborg.
"Helloooo, remember me? Beast Boy? If they were dangerous, I'd know" he stated proudly. Cyborg just folded his arms over his chest while giving him a skeptical look. He was obviously not assured. Not that it stopped Beast Boy in any way.
"Hey little guys, my buddy and I were wondering if…" once again he was unable to finish his sentence as he found that the trio of birds he was talking to had disappeared from their earlier spot.
They had apparently decided to migrate to the ground right in front of Beast Boy. And they had also decided to call in some more friends as there were now dozens of them, all staring at Beast Boy.
"Turn back, turn back, turn back" the whole flock kept repeating in synch with each other. That is, until their two eyes split into four, their beaks grew longer with razor sharp teeth in them and their size expanded.
Beast Boy gave a surprised gasp at first, and then it turned into a terrified scream as he bolted from the now murderous flock of birds. He even bowled over Cyborg in his haste to get away.
In desperation, he morphed into a hippo and tried to swallow the attacking birds. All it did however was hurt his own tongue as the wicked birds bit and clawed at it inside his mouth, forcing him to spit them out.
Cyborg was faring no better however as the birds swarmed him like locusts on a field.
"Get 'em off me, get 'em off me! Cut it out!" he shouted as he tried to shield his face from the unrelenting picking the birds unleashed on him. He was forced to flee in all haste, closely followed by Beast Boy morphed as an ostrich. The birds were not far behind the pair.
But they soon managed to turn the tables as they counterattacked with Cyborg riding on Beast Boy, morphed as a llama, while wildly firing his sonic cannon.
The birds began circling the pair, trying to attack from different angles, and Cyborg just kept blasting away at everything that so much as moved.
"If this is Raven's home, I can see why she left!" Cyborg shouted out in irritation as a bird flew underneath him and Beast Boy, prompting Cyborg to attempt to score a hit on it. He did hit something, but it was not he bird.
The sonic blast cracked the pathway they were walking on and it began to crumble under their feet. The two of them had enough time to give each other a goodbye look before the ground underneath them disappeared.
Fortunately, Cyborg managed to grab hold of the edge. Unfortunately, he was left dangling over the edge while holding on to a llama. He struggled to maintain his grip, but he could feel that he was slowly losing it. Sooner or later they would both fall.
"Hey guys" a familiar voice said with unfamiliar cheerfulness. Looking to where the voice came from, Cyborg found a pair of pink boots standing upside down on the stone pathway. Letting his eyes travel further upward (or was it downward?) along the figure's body, he found Raven looking back at him.
"What's up?" she asked while waving happily to him. Cyborg could only gape at her.
"I don't know anymore" he admitted in confusion. It seemed though like this crazy world had heard his statement and decided to rectify the confusion as without warning, gravity reversed for Beast Boy and Cyborg.
So instead of plummeting into the eternal abyss below, they instead crashed headfirst into the pathway they just a second ago was dangling from. Raven just laughed at their misfortune.
Beast Boy was the first one to get back on his feet. Though the instant his eyes landed on Raven, he assumed a battle ready stance.
"Raven! I don't know what kind of sick place this is, but I'm…" but it was at that moment he became aware of a new factor concerning Raven, one that he most certainly had not expected "Why are you wearing pink?"
And it was true. Raven was not dressed in her usual blue cloak this time, instead she was wearing a pink version of it. What was more, Raven was not wearing any weapons whatsoever. Well, not anyone they could see at least. Raven just laughed even more at his question.
"'Cause it's my favorite color" she answered while smiling widely at him. Beast Boy looked dumbstruck and even dropped his fighting stance.
"It is?" he asked in confusion. It was at that point that Cyborg got up as well, and he was not so diplomatic at the moment.
"Look, I'd love to stay and talk fashion, but we're here to bring you in and you better have a way home for us!" he stated coldly as he leveled his sonic cannon at Raven, who looked completely untroubled by the threat and simply shrugged her shoulders.
"The Forbidden Door, it's the only way out" she answered while gesturing down a pathway "But you don't wanna go there, not now"
Her statement was met with deadpanned expressions from the two males.
"Uh, yeah we do" they retorted in synch. Raven just spun around while holding a finger up in the air.
"'Kay, but don't say I didn't warn you" she stated with a sing-song voice before she began running away while making plane noises.
"Hey wait a minute! Get back here! We're supposed to arrest you!" Cyborg shouted after her, being completely ignored. He could have just shot her then and there, but for some reason it felt just wrong to do it now. She was so… happy for him to shoot her in the back.
"Have you ever seen her this happy?" Cyborg questioned his friend as they ran to catch up with their supposed enemy.
"Dude, I thought she was only happy when she had a gun pressed against someone's head" Beast Boy answered grumpily.
"Still holding a grudge, I see" Cyborg commented as they passed under a stone column. Before Beast Boy could come up with a retort, they found themselves in a completely different landscape.
"Now where are we?" Cyborg asked in hopelessness. And that was a good question, for they were now surrounded by golden grass and pink trees under a shining sun. The very epitome of weirdness.
Heck, you know a world is screwed up when a strawberry suddenly floats past your face, as it just did with Cyborg.
"I think this might be where air refreshers come from" Beast Boy joked lamely. But surprisingly, someone found it amusing.
"Good one!" Raven congratulated next to him, having seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"Okay, since when do you find me funny? Weren't we supposed to be mortal enemies?" Beast Boy asked skeptically. Raven never once lost that happy smile on her face.
"So? That doesn't mean I can't find you funny, BB!" she countered before walking away laughing. Both Titans were in too much of a daze to even consider the thought of stopping her. This place was seriously messed up.
"God dammit!" Raven cursed as she threw away her half assembled Desert Eagle in anger. She had tried to use her preferred method of calming down, by tinkering with her guns. She had even moved to the roof of the apartment complex she lived in to get some peace and calm.
It had been for nothing, the daemon in her was still loose, and Raven was growing desperate now. She needed to regain control again, for there was no way customers would hire her if she turned into an unhinged killer.
There was of course the option of using the meditation techniques she had been taught by the monks of Azerath, but she detested them. They required too much restrain on her emotions, something she had grown to discard a long time ago, plus it required far too much patience.
Sure, Raven could be patient, she could be patient for hours. When she had a sniper rifle in hand and a target to eliminate. Other than that, she was more of a girl who liked things to be done quickly with little waiting around.
In other words, no meditation.
But something was feeling a little strange inside her mind. Happy had been way too much active all of a sudden. It was as if she had stumbled upon something that had triggered her. This required investigation.
Raven had already worked hard for years to suppress as much of her powers as possible in order to be able to express feelings. While it limited the amounts of her power she could call forth when needed greatly, it was a fair tradeoff in her eyes.
But still, with just enough coaxing, her powers could still explode forth if she as not careful with her emotions. Exemplified by her daemon side recently making a nasty comeback.
When Raven reached the door to her chosen apartment, she immediately tensed up when she saw it had been kicked down. She slowly drew out her other gun and edged forward towards the entrance.
Peering inside, Raven found no immediate trace of the intruders so she slowly entered, eyes constantly peeled for danger. But everything else suddenly lost importance when Raven's eyes landed on a single object lying on the floor.
Her mirror.
"Well, this can't be good" Raven commented to herself.
"Okay, where the hell did she go now?!" Beast Boy asked in irritation as he and Cyborg trudged along a path, approaching another stone archway.
"I mean seriously, she just keeps coming and going all the time! It's as if she doesn't even realize we're trying to arrest her!" he kept on rambling as they stepped under the archway, finding themselves back in a very creepily familiar space.
"Hey, I know where we are! We're in that place where I didn't know where we were before!" Cyborg burst out while throwing his arms wide out. Suddenly, Raven appeared right in front of them, scaring the shit out of the two.
But she was different again. Now she was wearing a grey cloak instead of the pink one and she had a sorrowful look on her face. But Beast Boy seemed not to either care or notice.
"Where were you? Shopping for ropes?!" he demanded angrily while staring murderously at her. To both his and Cyborg's surprise though, Raven cowered under Beast Boy's wrath and even began to cry. She looked thoroughly miserable right now.
Now, Beast Boy may be many things; a superhero, a jokester, a prankster, an idiot. But if there was one thing he was not, it was a bully. Even if she was the enemy, Beast Boy had a hard time not cracking up with guilt.
"Whoa… easy, I didn't mean it. Please don't…" his attempts at soothing her were interrupted by Cyborg as he had spotted something.
"Hey! That's that Forbidden Door, right Raven?" he asked while pointing towards a large cliff floating in space with a doorway built into it. Raven meekly nodded her head in affirmation. Cyborg was instantly off in a sprint.
"Come on y'all, we're almost…" and now Cyborg got a taste of being interrupted as a stone wall suddenly rose up right in front of him, followed by more walls all around him and his companions.
Beast Boy tried to morph into an eagle and fly over the walls but all he received for his troubles was an electric chock that forced him back to the ground, groaning in pain.
"Aw man, we gotta get out of here!" Cyborg exclaimed in a panic as he transformed his arm into a sonic cannon and began blasting the walls with all that he had. He did not even manage to scratch them.
"It's a maze. You can't get out, you have to go through" Raven spoke up for the first time meekly "I can show you the way. But when we reach the end, you won't like me anymore. Not that it really matter anyway, since you already doesn't like"
With those depressing words, she began walking deeper into the maze, leaving the two Titans befuddled over her behavior.
"Gee Raven, moody much?" Beast Boy asked sarcastically while Cyborg scratched his head in confusion.
"Yeah, she's like a whole different person" he stated.
The journey through the maze was not one of the most pleasant ones the two Titans had experienced in their lives. But there was one aspect of the whole trip that had been slowly driving them to the brink of insanity.
One aspect that made them sure that it was some form of psychological torture, meant to break the most stoic of individuals.
"… and remember the time when I threw a grenade at you, I'm sorry for that too. And also…" the damn girl would not stop apologizing for everything she had ever done! Both Beast Boy and Cyborg were close to hanging themselves, just to put a stop to this torment.
"For the hundredth millionth time…" Beast Boy began before both he and Cyborg finished together with "WE FORGIVE YOU!"
Whether they were seriously forgiving her or not was up for debate, they were probably just saying it to get her to shut up. Raven had meanwhile approached a wall and after pressing her hand to it, the wall split in two and opened up, showing the exit out of the maze.
There were two large statues standing at the entrance, each of them sporting a four eyed parody of the comedy and tragedy mask. Off in the distance, the Forbidden door was visible.
"That's the end" Raven simply said.
"Sweet!" Beast Boy burst out happily.
"Alright! Freedom at last!" Cyborg shouted enthusiastically. He was more than ready to leave this nuthouse. But as fate would have it, nothing was ever that easy. Exemplified here by the two statues coming to life and slamming into each other back to back, becoming one entity.
Two swords suddenly materialized in two of its hands and its grinning side was facing them. So now the two Titans had to battle a four armed statue at least three times their size that was wielding a pair of swords larger than themselves.
All they could do was groan over how the universe seemed to be against them. Well, at least this crazy universe.
"Told you both you wouldn't like me when we got here" were the parting words of Raven before she disappeared, leaving Beast Boy and Cyborg to fend off the monstrosity on their own.
Now, Robin had had his fair share of trips to the infirmary during his hero career. But no matter how many times he ended up in one, he never got used to them. Right now he was sulking in his bed, angry that he could even get up on his own.
He had tried, but the pain had been a real hindrance. However, it had not been the pain that had been his greatest obstacle, it had been a certain Tamarenian who had taken it upon herself to be his nurse/nanny.
He had nearly been tied to the bed when he had refused to lie still.
Speaking of Starfire, she just entered the infirmary, carrying a plate of food. Robin could not see just yet what was on the plate, but he prayed to whatever deity that would listen that it would not be Tamarenian food.
"Hey Star, where are the others?" he asked to try to distract his mind from the boredom.
"Argent just came back from stopping a bank robbery. Beast Boy and Cyborg have gone out to investigate a lead concerning Raven" Starfire answered as she set the plate down on Robin's lap.
He found to his mounting horror that it was indeed Tamarenian food on it, and it just moved. 'Dear God, why have you abandoned me in my hour of need?' he thought in despair. Though he kept a poker face in place so as to not offend Starfire.
"Perhaps we should follow them as well, and see if they require assistance?" Starfire suddenly asked. Robin just waved her off.
"Nah, not yet at least. Those two can handle it" Robin stated with conviction.
The four armed statue approached the two menacingly while brandishing his double swords. Beast Boy took to the air as a falcon while Cyborg tried to blast the statue with his sonic cannon. Not a scratch was made.
The statue swung a sword down on Cyborg, but he sidestepped it. Beast Boy took his chance and tried to dive-bomb the statue. It merely plucked him right out of the sky with one of its massive hands.
Beast Boy was left dangling in the grip of the statue as it brought up one of its swords, making ready to cleave him in two.
"Yo, Hey guys!" Raven suddenly shouted as she came down on the statue with a karate kick right to its face. The statue went down like a falling… well statue.
Once again Raven had changed, this time she wore a green cloak. But most importantly, this time she actually carried her broadsword.
"Whoohoo! In your face!" she shouted enthusiastically before she leapt to attack again. The statue tried to cut her down with his own swords, but she skillfully evaded them all, smiling cockily the whole time.
Suddenly, she leaped high into the air, drawing her broadsword in the process. As she came down again, she cleaved the statue right in two. When the two halves collapsed to the ground, all Cyborg and Beast Boy could do was stare in disbelief.
"Hooaaa! Hive fives, c'mon!" Raven burst out while holding her hands in the air. Beast Boy looked like he was close to a mental breakdown before shaking his head and giving her an accusing glare.
"What is your deal?! First you try to kill Robin, then laugh at my jokes, then you're a weepy and now you're a marine! Make up your mind, who are you?!" he burst out in fury, clearly tired of all of these drastic changes in personality.
Though the answer was not what he was expecting, as suddenly the pink cloaked Raven and the grey cloaked Raven joined the green cloaked Raven.
"I'm Raven" the three said unanimously. It seemed that was the last straw for Beast Boy as his head spun in confusion and he collapsed to the ground. But Cyborg seemed to make more sense of the situation.
"Happy. Timid. Brave" he counted down the three Ravens standing in front of them.
"You forgot Dopey" the pink one said while pointing at Beast Boy before bursting out laughing yet again.
"Different sides of Raven's personality. We're not in Raven's home…" Cyborg realized.
"… We're in her head" Beast Boy concluded in shock. At least now things were making more sense to him.
"And I want you out" Raven suddenly stated as she landed in front of the three other Ravens, who promptly faded away. Now this was the real deal, dressed in blue cloak and armed to the teeth.
"The mirror you stumbled upon is a relic from my old home, serves as a portal into my mind" she clarified calmly to the two Titans.
"Well, now that we have that cleared up, I think it's high time we bring you in" Cyborg stated as he leveled a sonic cannon at Raven. Beast Boy seemed to take the hint and made ready for battle as well. Raven looked completely untroubled.
"While I would normally love to go a few rounds with you, I've got bigger problems to deal with at the moment" she retorted. Cyborg raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Oh yeah? What could possibly be more important than two Titans ready to pound you into the ground?" he asked tauntingly. His answer came in the form of a bestial roar and a massive giant appeared out of nowhere.
This giant had skin as red as fire, long hair whiter than snow and four infernal eyes. And he looked pissed.
"Hatred shall rule!" the daemon nearly roared.
"Let's just say that I have issues with my father" Raven answered as the three of them backed away from the monster. That did not sit well with the daemon as it unleashed a blast of energy from its eyes at the group. That got them running.
"Run for your lives!" Beast Boy shouted as he rushed towards the Forbidden Door. He was quickly followed by Cyborg and Raven. But as they neared the exit, another energy blast hit in front of them forcing them to take cover behind a pile of rocks.
Raven peered around the edge while turning the safety off on her P90. The daemon seemed to be looking for them for the moment.
"Alright. You two, get out of my mind while I deal with him" she said over her shoulder to the two Titans.
"What?" Beast Boy asked in surprise. Clearly they had not expected Raven to help them in any way. Raven turned her gaze back to the two males to give a quick explanation.
"Don't get any funny ideas here. That thing is my problem, as such my responsibility. And I don't need you idiots running around making a mess of it all" she stated icily. They never got a chance to answer before Raven sprinted out and began firing wildly at the daemon's back.
The daemon roared, not in pain but in anger, as he turned around and tried to blast Raven. She nimbly leaped clear and continued to fire while running circles around him.
Though eventually her luck ran out and she was hit by one of its blasts, knocking her out. The daemon promptly picked her up in one of its massive fists.
"Rage shall consume you!" it declared to the unconscious girl in its grip.
"Yo! Sounds like somebody needs a timeout" Cyborg suddenly said from behind the monster before he blasted it with his sonic cannon. The surprise attack was enough to cause it to drop Raven while stumble over the edge and plummet into the abyss.
Beast Boy quickly swooped in as a falcon and grabbed hold of the falling Raven, who was awakened by the commotion. As she was gently put down on the ground again, she looked at Beast Boy in astonishment.
"You stayed? Aren't we supposed to be enemies?" she asked in confusion as he morphed back to his human self, smiling widely at her.
"Hey, we may be enemies, but nobody deserves to left alone with such an ugly thing" he stated. Raven was still looking at him in disbelief. Had their roles been reversed, Raven had most certainly not come to their rescue, they must have known that. But still they saved her.
Heroes really are strange people.
"Yo, if you two are done over there, get your butts over here!" Cyborg shouted at them as the daemon climbed back up on the floating rock, looking absolutely livid.
"Feel my fury!" it shouted as it blasted away at the trio, who spread out and began attacking it from every direction. But no matter what they threw at it, they only managed to anger the daemon further.
Slowly they were being pushed back by the unrelenting fury of the daemon. Eventually they were forced to take shelter in a crater, well out of sight of the daemon. Robbed of its opponents, it began to indiscriminately blast everything around it.
"He's too strong. Even with your help, I cannot defeat him" Raven admitted while reloading her P90.
"So call for back-up! What about all those other you?!" Cyborg demanded angrily.
"Yeah, the green one kinda kicked butt!" Beast Boy piped in. Raven was still looking grim.
"It still wouldn't be enough, none of my other sides have the kind of power we need" she stated. But Beast Boy was not convinced just yet.
"Not alone, but what about together? They're all part of who you are, right?" Beast Boy reasoned. Raven gave him an inquisitive look in response, causing him to fidget nervously.
"What?" he asked when her gaze began to unnerve him.
"You actually came up with a good idea. I was under the impression that you were the idiot of the group" she answered calmly. Beast Boy looked thoroughly insulted and grumbled something about "smart-ass chicks".
"Go for it, we got your back" Cyborg stated as he and Beast Boy leaped over the edge and into the fray again.
Raven meanwhile moved to a more open spot and called forth her other emotions. Soon Raven was surrounded by dozens of different colored Ravens as they began to levitate into the air.
The emotions began to spin around in a rapid pace before all of the Ravens disappeared in a blinding flash of white light.
The two Titans meanwhile were faring less than good against the daemon. None of their attacks were doing any harm to it, and it had decided to call in some back-up of its own in the form of those pesky birds from earlier.
But the daemon stopped its attacks when it sensed that someone was behind it. Turning around, the daemon found a white cloaked Raven standing just as tall as him. Raven raised her hands and black energy shot out, binding the daemon.
"You're going back where you belong" she stated to the daemon, which growled back.
"Never!" it snarled back in contempt as it broke free from its bindings. Raven just raised her hands again an unleashed a blast of dark energy at the daemon, which unleashed a blast of red energy in response.
The two opposing forced clashed with each other, both trying to press the other one back. For a while, none of them seemed to gain an edge. But finally, with a last push of strength, Raven overpowered the daemon and blasted its form away.
Left behind in the wake, was a small red cloaked Raven with four eyes. She had time to give one last hateful glare at Raven before she disintegrated into red energy and merged with Raven. And in another blinding flash, Raven was back to her normal size and color.
She allowed herself a content smile before exhaustion caused her to fall over. But to her surprise, the two Titans stood ready to catch her.
"Easy, we got you" Cyborg said as they helped her back to her feet. As she stood on her own feet again, Raven gave them a grateful nod.
"I can't believe I'm saying this to you of all people, but… thank you" Raven begrudgingly said. Cyborg smiled cockily at that.
"Don't think you're out of the woods yet, little lady. We still have to take you in" he revealed smugly, obviously thinking she was too tired to fight back. To his confusion however, she just smiled at him.
"And how, pray tell, will you accomplish that?" she asked rhetorically. Before he could answer that, he felt himself sinking into the ground. Looking down in chock, he found that the ground they were standing had turned to quicksand. The only one unaffected was Raven.
"You forget, Cyborg, that this is my mind. And now with that nuisance dealt with, I'm in complete control again" she clarified as both Cyborg and Beast Boy were buried neck deep in the ground. She calmly strode over to them as they struggled to break free.
"I could easily kill the both of you here and now. It would save me the trouble and it would mean I would have two less enemies to contend with" Raven mused as her hand gripped the hilt of her sword. Both boys held their breaths as they awaited the deathblows to come.
"However…" Raven said as she let go of her sword "… you saved my life, so I'll spare yours"
She then crouched to eyelevel with Cyborg to stare directly into his eyes.
"But make no mistake, this is simply a one-time deal. Next time we meet, old bets are off" she stated. Cyborg grunted in affirmation.
"I wouldn't have it any other way" he answered. The last thing he saw was a fist descending towards his face, and then everything went black.
"Argent calling Cyborg, Argent calling Cyborg. Do you read me?" Argent's voice awakened Cyborg from his sleep. As he groggily got back up again, he found himself back in Raven's hideout, though it had been cleaned out this time.
Not too far from where he was, Beast Boy was still lying unconscious, mumbling something inaudible in his sleep.
Cyborg looked around the abandoned room in confusion, his mind going over the craziness that had transpired. 'Was it all real, or was it merely a dream?' he thought to himself.
"Cyborg, are you there?" Argent called yet again over the communicator. That seemed to snap Cyborg out of his daze as he answered.
"Cyborg here" a relieved breath was released on the other end immediately after.
"Thank God, I've been calling for fifteen minutes! We were beginning to worry that Raven had gotten to you!" Argent said. Cyborg smiled slightly at that.
"Don't worry about us, we're fine over here" he reassured her.
"That's good. Did you guys find any trace of Raven?"
That was the million dollar question. What had they found here? And more importantly, was it something that should be discussed? He was quiet for several minutes before he finally responded.
"No, we found nothing"