*looks back at the last time she updated* SORRY GUYSSS! I've been dealing with school craziness so much that I didn't realize how much time has passed since the last chapter o_O I haven't ditched this story! Thank you all so much for supporting it even while I was gone.
This chapter took much effort to write x_X Yes, it starts off in the middle of an actual episode again heheh, but things are starting to head MY WAY! Which is both fun and challenging at the same time. asdfjadjflkadf I've run out of things to say xD
Without further ado, I'll let you read the chapter now :) Sorry again for the delay.
You know what feels the worst? The moment you realize that a person you hate (and who hates you back) happens to know your closest companions better than you do. Or in this case…just one companion.
There are really no words to describe that horrible feeling. All of your faults as a friend suddenly throw themselves in your face, like a pile of bricks. Even as you're writhing in pain though, you ironically wish that the bricks had come sooner. Maybe then, you could've proved your worth as a friend before everything was lost. Maybe then, you wouldn't feel so damn useless as your unfortunate companion becomes manipulated and twisted into someone you no longer recognize.
Of course, though, the realization doesn't start with the bricks. It starts with confusion. Then anger. Lots of anger.
…
Cyborg stood atop a pile of rubble, inspecting a nonresponsive red monitor on his forearm. We'd barely had time to make ourselves at home in Jump City before (what a surprise) a berserk creature came out of nowhere and decided to try killing everyone. Of course, compared to the Brotherhood of Evil that we'd just kicked into place, the enemy couldn't be too hard to bring down this time.
…It was still pretty annoying, though.
"I don't know what to scan for!" Cyborg frowned at his monitor. "Brick, metal, concrete – It could be anything!"
Yep, our enemy had the convenient ability to completely transform into any substance it touched.
Raven placed a hand on her temple, concentrating for a moment before opening her eyes, which looked as confused as the rest of the team. "I'm not able to sense it either."
Oh, and that reminds me that the stupid thing apparently didn't have a mind, either.
"I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but…" Raven sighed. "I wish Beast Boy were here. Maybe he could follow the scent."
"We've just gotta keep looking," I sighed back. We began to walk through the ruined alley, glumly examining our surroundings.
Beast Boy had very personal issues to attend to. For the first time ever, he'd ditched the team in the middle of battle. It was understandable, though, after we found out the person responsible for his attitude: Terra. The former Titan who turned to stone, the girl he was still in love with – the high school student who was suddenly roaming around the city. We were still wondering if he wasn't hallucinating, though.
Starfire walked by my side, her bright green eyes darkened by anxiety. "I am concerned for Beast Boy," she said, voicing all of our thoughts. "Do you think Terra truly has returned?"
My face hardened as I recalled the moment our team stared at the impossible sight, at the back-from-the-dead Slade charging towards us with fireballs shooting from his fingertips. "Anything's possible…"
"But how?" Starfire retorted.
"Maybe she freed herself," I replied, taking a wild guess.
"Or there could've been an earthquake while we were gone," Cyborg added.
"Maybe the effect just wore off…" Raven added, rather dismissively.
"If she is back, why would she not locate us?" Starfire continued, looking at the rest of us almost sadly. It always upset Starfire whenever someone didn't care for friendship, especially if that someone had once been a part of our team. She'd accepted Terra with open arms and was literally repaid with boulders to the face. Even now, though, she was willing to welcome Terra back with no regrets. If only the earth shifter would stop being so complicated for a change…
"The last time we saw her, she wasn't exactly one of the good guys," Raven remarked, her expression darkening. "Maybe she didn't want to be found." She wasn't going to let the boulders in the face slide so easily. In fact, I wasn't sure if Terra would ever earn Raven's trust without a thorough mind scan this time – which, chillingly enough, Raven is fully capable of. It's her personal law not to use this ability on her friends, out of courtesy and respect, but I could tell that Terra was probably far from her friends list after what happened…Well, in all logic, I wouldn't feel safe around someone who can secretly plot our deaths without anyone having a clue until Raven gives the OK. (I'll keep that to myself, though)
O/O
Unsurprisingly, we were still following the creature around the next morning with absolutely no progress. It clashed with us in many annoying forms, ranging from wood to aluminum to oil. With our luck, we somehow ended up in a factory, where the creature had all sorts of substances to choose from.
I couldn't explain it, but there was just something about our all-absorbing enemy that really ticked me off. It would sometimes attack us, and other times it would run away. It would take several hits from all of us, and then turn around and blow us a back with a single strike. It was running around the city destroying things with no particular goal. To me, it almost seemed as if the creature was just trying to annoy us. However, the moment I caught a glimpse of its eyes, mechanical and camera-like, a nasty feeling told me that the thing was trying to find out something about us…but what? What, dammit? I hated being so clueless about the enemy's motives.
Everyone seemed to pause for a few seconds when the thing decided to turn into molten lava. That was it. "We need Beast Boy," I declared. No one protested.
Beast Boy arrived surprisingly fast, though his expression was uncharacteristically glum. He glanced at the boiling red creature. "Great…"
I couldn't help feeling bad for him, but we were all in too much danger for any comforting words. "Beast Boy!" I yelled. "Fly up to the ceiling and check to see if there're any sprinklers! We have a better chance against that thing if it transforms to wat -"
The creature wrenched one of the lava pots from the ground, flinging it right at my face. The steaming red liquid splattered in all directions, moments away from burning me alive.
"Robin!" Starfire screamed from across the room, shooting through the air towards me as fast as she could.
But I'd been too close to the creature when it attacked. I felt death staring me right in the eyes as the molten lava covered the world around me in boiling red. It was physically impossible to for anyone to avoid an attack at this speed and range.
…Anyone except Raven, that is. Defying all the laws of time and space, she materialized out of nowhere before my eyes. It took me a moment to realize that it was her, though, since the first thing I saw was just a pair of huge, glowing black wings that stretched themselves wide, deflecting the shower of lava away from me. The wings faded and took the shape of two slender arms, and the black energy flowed along them before finishing the formation of Raven's body.
I hadn't even registered what just happened before the creature swung its steaming arms wildly towards me yet again.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
The creature slammed hard against the wall all the way across the room, the black energy still crackling throughout its body.
I finally had a chance to take in the sight. Raven glanced back at me, her eyes almost blinding me with their white intensity. Her hands were still outstretched for attack, the dark matter radiating from her fingertips. Wow, I really owed her one. "Thanks, Rav –"
She gave a curt nod before I could even finish, charging through the air towards the creature, which had begun to regain its balance on the ground.
I didn't need to think twice. "Titans, go!"
Beast Boy transformed into a bat, immediately heading towards the showerheads on the ceiling. The rest of us kept the creature occupied, keeping our distance from the lava. Raven and Starfire hovered about its head, landing blows here and there, while Cyborg and I threw crates and any other objects we could find at its feet to keep it off balance.
Our tactic worked, and Beast Boy went unnoticed by the creature when he set off all the showers in the room. Immediately, the red of its skin faded into light blue, then became transparent altogether. "Alright!" I yelled. "Let's give it everything we've got!"
Of course, fighting water is easier said than done, but it still beats lava any day. The creature had trouble landing any blows on us, since its unstable form was continually distorted by our attacks. The water sloshed about as the enemy reached clumsily towards me, and its arm splattered apart before it could get a grip, having been detonated by one of my disc grenades.
As the creature's arm regained its shape, Raven and Starfire remained above its head, landing any blows they could. I pulled out another grenade as it fixed its eyes on me again, positioning its arm as if preparing for a punch.
The creature hadn't been aiming for me at all. Right when its fist was inches away from my face, it suddenly threw both its arms up, seizing both of its real targets into its hands.
Raven and Starfire's cries were muffled as water flowed over their faces. The creature was holding both of them firmly in its fists, the water engulfing their entire bodies. It simply held them like that as they struggled, and its camera-like eyes focused on me.
They were going to drown.
"Starfire!" There was just something so horrible about the sight of the Tamaranian thrashing desperately in her water prison, screaming silently as her lungs began to give out.
Without thinking, I launched myself into the air, jumping up a mountain of crates until I was eye-level with the creature. It stumbled as Cyborg continually blasted its body with his cannon and as Beast Boy tackled it in all kinds of forms, but it stubbornly held its grip on the girls.
The very idea of Starfire drowning was too appalling to even think about. With a final leap, I hurled myself towards her, throwing my grenade at the creature's body where its arm connected. The water became loose for a split second as it exploded, allowing me the chance to reach inside.
Starfire coughed and sputtered as I pulled her out, and I jumped back towards the safety of the ground as I carried her. Looking back up, the awful realization suddenly hit me.
Raven.
She was holding the water off on her own pretty well, actually, with her body protected by a field of black. Even so, I could see her hazy figure inside, hovering about as she tried to figure a way out. Her gaze suddenly met mine as I landed on the ground, still carrying Starfire.
Something was wrong.
As I placed Starfire down and joined Cyborg and Beast Boy in their efforts to help Raven, the black force field suddenly began to flicker and fade.
Something was definitely wrong. Raven hadn't teleported away, and her indestructible force field was suddenly…destructible? What was she doing?
I suddenly felt the color drain from my face. Her powers…it couldn't be… "CYBORG! BEAST BOY! We need to get her out of there now!"
They honestly didn't need to be told, because anyone could see that Raven was now completely vulnerable in the water, the agony of suffocation twisting her face as her hands waved about feebly.
I tried to jump back up towards the arm again, another grenade ready in my fingers, but the creature hit me back this time with its free hand. The undetonated grenade clattered uselessly across the floor. Cyborg cursed out loud as I crashed against the ground, firing more shots from his arm. Starfire joined in, but her starbolts seemed to dissolve as soon as they hit the water. "Raven!" she cried, the despair starting to take hold of her eyes.
A small green shape suddenly dropped down from the ceiling. A second later, it was a massive green dinosaur, practically cannonballing itself towards the creature. Instead of landing flat on top, however, the T-Rex swung down its huge tail – right at the creature's shoulder.
Beast Boy's wide tail swung straight through the arm, cutting off its connection to the body. The water around Raven finally lost shape, and her limp body followed the shower that rained back down. Beast Boy was quick to react, however, transforming into a pterodactyl and grabbing onto her shoulders with his talons before she could hit the ground.
Resuming his human form, the changeling gently placed Raven down while all of us gathered frantically around her, forgetting the rampaging creature for a moment. He had to help her sit up as she choked and wheezed awfully, spitting out water. Clumsily pushing her soaked violet hair out of her face, she finally opened her eyes with heavy lids. The creature watched us with its mechanical eyes from the distance.
I felt too numb with guilt to even move. I hadn't saved her when I had the chance, and we were almost too late. But it was either her, or…Why the hell did the creature inconveniently choose to capture both Raven and Starfire at the same time? Nothing like this had ever happened before. Why…
"Friend Raven, you are…unharmed?" Starfire knelt down with her, looking worriedly into her eyes.
"I'm…I'll be okay…It's fine…" Raven was still breathing heavily, taking deep breaths between every sentence. Her dull eyes suddenly focused for a moment, narrowing as she lifted a shaky finger into the air.
It took us a few seconds to realize that she was pointing behind us. The creature had somehow found another source of fire, and its body was lit ablaze as it began to approach us again, preparing to attack.
"Titans, go!" My command sounded more like a scowl. Seriously, that substance-absorbing freak was the most annoying enemy by far. As the rest of the team turned around to attack it, however, I stayed behind with Raven, who was still struggling to keep herself up. Offering my hand, I helped her to her feet, but I couldn't bring myself to look into her eyes. "Raven…I'm sorry…for…"
"Don't be." The surety of her tone made me look up again. Even though her voice was still raspy, she managed to crack a small smile. "I should've been able to handle it on my own. It's just…" her eyes grew dark for the briefest moment. "…My stupid powers. I don't know what's going on with them. But you did what you had to. It's not your fault."
Her compassionate words somehow made me feel even worse. "But…"
"HEADS UP, YOU TWO!" Cyborg yelled from the distance.
The flaming creature was charging right at us, with the rest of the team trying to catch up. Raven stepped ahead of me, even as she was still struggling to catch her breath. She stretched out a palm. "Azarath…" the black energy began to materialize around her fingers. "Metrion…" The energy grew into its typical, spherical shape, glowing brightly. "Zinthos!"
The energy flickered and died. Raven looked down at her palm as if she could murder it. "What -"
I grabbed hold of her before she could finish her sentence, pulling us both of the way a split second before the creature's arm slammed down on the spot we'd just occupied.
Raven didn't seem to notice as we both skidded across the ground, her eyes still glued to her palms. I quickly stood back up, pulling her to her feet as well. "You okay?" I asked.
Her eyes seemed to flash with so many negative emotions at once that I couldn't even describe what they looked like. Frustration, confusion, anger…despair… "Shouldn't be happening." Raven's flat tone startled me.
"Huh?" It took me a moment to realize, with a pang, that she was actually talking to herself – or her powers.
"Should not…be happening…" her voice was low and dangerous as she closed her eyes, seeming to concentrate. "Needs to stop…"
"Um, Raven?" The creature had stopped being distracted by the rest of the team, and it decided to try attacking us again.
I was fully prepared to carry Raven to safety again, but she stubbornly stepped forward once more, stretching out both her palms this time. "Raven, don't!" I yelled, trying to reach towards her.
A loud crack filled the air, and I suddenly found myself sprawled across the floor with a sharp pain in my stomach.
Everyone in the room – including the creature – stared at me (I still had no idea why the creature would even care). Raven's eyes grew wide with horror as she looked back at me. Her powers had acted on their own again…and struck the wrong person.
Raven began to grow frantic, her breathing beginning to sound even worse than when she was half-drowned. She tore her face away from me and faced the enemy again, her eyes searing white. "A-Azarath! Met-Metrion!" The energy shot off to her right this time, exploding a nearby barrel. Her face began to grow as white has her eyes. The water she'd been soaked in earlier was still leaking through her hair, dripping down her face…but I began to notice how strangely similar it looked to tears.
"Stop it!" Raven screeched to no one in particular, her desperation quickly growing into livid rage. The rest of the team wanted to help her, but even they had to stay back because of her powers' sudden instability. The creature watched her with, if I could say so myself, curiosity. Stupid, annoying thing.
In one final attempt, Raven forcefully threw both arms forward, glaring straight at the creature. I'd seen that look before. Her eyes had been glowing red last time. Even though her father's spirit was absent this time…
Her eyes somehow looked even more terrifying without the red.
Raven slowly lifted her arms, making a low sound that resembled a growl. As her hands rose, so did the creature. It was trapped in a sphere of black energy, suspended in the air. The dark field was airtight, and the fire covering the creature's body burned up all the available oxygen in no time, shrinking and flickering away. The enemy was forced back into its original, plain white form.
As I stumbled to my feet, watching the scene almost fearfully, Raven gave a shrill, agonized cry. Blade-like shards of black energy suddenly formed around the force field. One by one, they began to slice straight through the sphere, through the creature struggling helplessly inside. Soon, they moved so fast that all we could see was a blurry mass of black in the air, accompanied by unearthly screams inside.
Raven seemed to decide that the enemy was dead enough for her at some point, and the black energy flickered away. She was breathing heavily, with her hands balled tight into fists at her side. Out of nowhere, however, she suddenly dropped to her knees, her body shaking as she leaned down on her arms.
We were all a little stunned for a moment, but I was the first to regain my composure, although slightly. "Y-you guys go check out the remains over there…go see what that thing was made of…" The rest of the team nodded slowly, heading off towards the obliterated enemy. I knelt down next to Raven.
"I'm sorry, Robin." When she looked back up at me, her desolate eyes shot straight through my heart. "I…I just felt so frustrated because…a-and I don't know why –"
"No, I'm sorry." I moved in front of her, placing both hands on her shoulders. "I already knew that you had issues with your powers before, and I should've found a way to help you when that thing almost…" I closed my eyes. "I almost lost a good friend today. I'll never let that happen again."
Raven's eyes were downcast again as she nodded silently. Her expression was pained, and she bit down hard on her lip. It was the kind of expression you'd see from someone when they're trying their hardest not to cry.
Even I couldn't bear it any longer. Without thinking twice, I leaned forward and wrapped my arms tightly around her. "Come on, Raven…" I held her close. "Don't be like that…We can figure out what's going on with your powers. We'll help you. Don't be sad." I'd assumed back then that she was distraught over her powers, so it felt like the best thing to say…In reality, it probably had to do more with the word "friend."
Raven seemed to freeze up for a few seconds before growing accustomed to the feel of my arms. Hesitantly, she brought her own arms up around me. "Thanks, Robin…" Her voice was almost a whisper.
We broke apart as the rest of the team approached us again, and I quickly stood back up, with Raven joining soon after. "Find anything?" I asked casually.
All three of them seemed too scared to talk to me. They nudged each other for a several seconds as I watched with raised eyebrows. Finally, Starfire decided to step forward, her head low. "Robin…we have discovered this among the creature's remains." She held out her hand, which had been hidden behind her back.
It was a core. A mechanical, central core that Cyborg and I were accustomed to working with, in fact. This one, however, had been altered to give the creature its supernatural abilities.
But this core was the worst possible kind on earth. Why? Because a burnt orange circle was displayed boldly on its surface, outlined in black and forming the sharp edges of the letter S.
"SLADE!" I threw the core against the ground as hard as I could. The rest of the team sighed as I sharply turned around and stormed towards the factory exit.
The bastard. I was going to kill him this time. No – I'd break all his limbs first and make him spit out whatever stupid scheme he came up with. What pissed me off even more was that, like always, I had no clue what the scheme even was. Or if he even had a scheme.
Well, knowing Slade, of course he had a scheme. I'd just have to find out what it was, and then kill him. Maybe I'd tear off his mask just to see his face as I killed him. Stupid scheme…what the hell was he planning this time?
Ironically, the very heart of his master plan was trailing right behind me as I left, keeping her hood pulled down over her broken eyes.
Okayyy, I feel like there's one thing I should point out before anyone goes bashing on Robin lol. Yes, I know he basically ditched Raven to save Starfire, and yes that's why her powers went wacko again, but remember the circumstances here! He was NOT being a jerk. Both of the girls were in equal danger, but at this point STARFIRE is the one in his heart. As painful as the choice is, I believe most people would naturally do the same if we had to decide between the life of a good friend and the life of a person they love. No one wants to run into that issue. (but of course, Slade created the situation anyway for his evil plans)