49. Scattered Raven part 4

Raven stumbled backwards, a hand to her mouth. "N-No…..it can't be…"

"Out of thhhhhe shell, dearessssst," the voice came out of me as I grinned and marched over with trailing red smoke from my limbs. "Out of the mossssst miserable, disrespectfullll SHELL!!"

I swung a glowing red fist through the counter, causing debris to fly.

SMASH!!!

Robin winced and shivered behind Cyborg.

Beast Boy watched curiously, lowering his spectacles.

"I don't know how…..I don't know whyyyyyyy, but I've beeeeeeen freed from that insufffffferable brain of yoursssss," my four red pupils twinkled inside the two black eyes. "Here I have falllllen delightfully into this haphazarrrrd soul."

"What have you done to Noir?!" Raven shouted.

"He's riiiiiight heeeeere," I grinned. "Heh heh heh heh. IN THE FLESH!! And the ssssssspirit now is oh…so…willing…."

"If you so much as hurt one of my teammates," Raven summoned strength and frowned. "I'll—"

"Hurt?! No no, darllllllling. I did not take command of Noir to hurt himmmmmm. I have my eyes on you." The four specks blinked as my lips slurred: "All…..my eyes on youuuuuu. It's always been that wayyyyy."

Raven gritted her teeth. "I. Know."

"But thosssse clerics of Azar…," I glared. "They twisted you….disssstorted you. You never coulddddd love your fattttther because of themmmmm."

"As far as I'm concerned," Raven spat. "I have no father!"

"Oh, but you do!! You do, chilllld!" I smiled and stepped towards her with a hand outstretched. "Allow him to touch you….."

SMACK!!!!

I flew back to the floor after the impact of Sandy's fist.

"Touch yourself, you damn poltergeist!!"

"Sandy!!" Raven pulled her back by the shoulder. "N-Not a good idea! Trust me!!"

"He shouldn't threaten you like that!!"

"RRAUGH!!" I jumped up. Blurred forward, knocked Raven aside with a cry, and stomped menacingly towards the cowering volunteer.

"Wretched….MORTAL!!" My red eyes pulsed as I grinned wide. "I think I'll spend the night ripping your ovaries out with a CROWBAR!!!"

Sandy's eyes widened.

I raised my glowing, red hand.

SWOOOOOOOSH—WHAM!!!

An irate Starfire flew into me, sending me tumbling over the floor.

"You and me, Lucifer!!" the alien shouted.

"Tamaranian…," I sneered while slowly getting up on a curtain of red smoke. "I will most enjoyyyyyyyyy decorating the walllllls with your organsssss!!"

"RRAAAUGH!!" She flew at me.

Glowing green met glowing red.

FLASH!!!!

Sandy shaded her eyes.

"Starfire!! No!!" Raven cried out.

The Tamaranian grunted and shouted with each eye-glowing attack of her fists, starbolts, and kicks.

I was a swirling cyclone of crimson energy. A streaking limb or two would block the alien's emerald punches, while a teleporting sidestep evaded her kicks. I was playing with her. She was too brainwashed by a one-track mind of aggression to take notice of my gambit. And I knew it.

When one of her punches sent her lunging to the side, I kneed her hard in the chest.

Her Tamaranian lungs emptied in a heartbeat.

I slammed two fists down onto her back.

She collapsed to the ground but was suddenly yanked up as I grabbed a handful of red-hair and literally flung her against a wall hard by the strands.

WHAM!!!

I let go and the bruised Titan slumped to the floor.

"Starfire!!" a timid Robin shook.

I smirked over at him. "Keep shivering, littttttle boy. When I'm finished with her there'll be nothinggggg left to kiss!!"

Red smoke wrapped around my limbs as I grabbed the hulking computer monitor of the Main Room. I struggled. "RRRRRAAAAUGH!!!" With Herculean strength, I snapped the electronic device down from its scaffold. Nuts and bolts and metal shards flew.

Robin gasped.

I held the object over my head and flexed my smoking limbs to crash it down over the alien girl.

ZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!

A stream of blue energy flew into my side, likewise shattering the monitor into helpless little shards of glass and metal and plastic.

Cyborg smiled with his laser rifle stretched out. "Now play niiiiiice!! He he he!!"

He retracted his gun back into an arm and charged across the room.

I stood up, shook my head, and hissed. Red smoke poured out from my eyes.

"Tag!!" Cyborg shouted. "You're IT!!"

SMACK!!!!!

The impact of his titanium fist into my mouth sent me flipping back, landing awkwardly on blurred feet, and sliding two trails of red smoke to the other side of the room.

Blood trickled down from my face in three places.

"Heheheh….that's right….bang up this pretty face…"

Raven gasped. "Cyborg!! Please!! Hold back!!"

"He's a meanie!" Cyborg pouted. "Guess I should show him who the bouncer to this party is!" He let out a cry and charged.

Beast Boy watched. Blinking. "Well, I suppose there is some merit in joining in this confrontation for the sake of benevolence." He switched into a green tiger and pounced at me just as Cyborg approached. The two burly Titans swung, clawed, and swiped at me as I sidestepped, blocked, blurred, and teleported with snide remarks of demonic humor.

"All of you!! Stop!!!" Raven waved. "You can't take him down!! Trust me on that!!"

But they didn't listen. Even Starfire was ignorant as she got up, rubbed her head, growled, joined the three on one.

Robin sobbed in the corner.

"Didn't you hear me?!?" Raven jumped. "Leave Noir to me and me alone!!"

"Are you crazy?!" Sandy dashed in front of her. "You have no powers!! How can you be a match for that possessed Titan?!"

"I am me," Raven glared. "For Trigon, that is enough!!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!" I shouted as I teleported around the three Titan's assault. "Yes!! Let the rage burrrrrrn onnnnnn!!"

"I'm not mad!!" Cyborg shouted. "I'm having fun!!"

"And I am finding this positively educating!" Beast Boy said.

Starfire flew at me with green hands. "Speak for yourself!! RAAAUGH!!"

I braced for impact, my arms crossed in front of me.

Starfire pushed me through the kitchen unit, smashing straight through the counters, a stool, and a table beyond. Before we reached the wall of the other side of the crumbling Main Room, I locked my arms with hers, charged up red murk, and flipped her over me with a cry. "YAUGH!!"

"WAAAH!!" she shrieked and went smashing out a window into the open air.

CRASH!!!!

A green velociraptor leapt through the gaps in the counters and aimed two razor sharp feet at me.

"Going EXTINCT!!!" I held two hands together, charged up a ball of red murk, and let it loose at the changeling in the form of a dancing ribbon of destruction.

FLASH!!!!

To say the least, he was knocked clear back across the room and into the wall.

Cyborg watched. "Oooooh!" He smiled at me and clapped his hands. "Do that again!!"

I sneered. "Gladly…."

I flung my wrists at him.

A stream of murk flew.

FLASH!!!!!

He shorted out and collapsed to the ground. "Weeeee—oof!!"

Sandy winced. "Since wh-when could Noir do that?"

Raven walked forward. "That's. Not. Noir." She planted her feet and faced my back by about six meters away. "Trigon!!"

In a puff of red smoke, I teleported so that I stood in reverse, facing her.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "We need to talk."

I gestured. "Why talk whennnnn we can play?!" She flinched. I blurred at her in a flurry of red.

WHAM!!!

I streaked the two of us past Sandy, who gasped. "Raven!!"

SWOOOOOSH—through the opens doors of the elevator and against the wall—WHAM!!!!

"Ughh!!" a powerless Raven slumped down and then was slammed back up against the wall by my merciless hands to her wrists. She squinted at me.

"Now…," I licked my lips. "Let's sssssssee if you truly arrrrrrre your mother's daughter!!"

Her eyes widened.

Outside, Starfire flew back up into the air. Her hands glowed. Her eyes were blindingly green. Her hair flew in an invisible torrent. She eyed the elevator across the way, let out a shriek, and zoomed straight towards it.

In half a second flat, she was at my back and slamming me into a console inside the elevator.

"RAAAUGH!!!"

CLANG!!!!

"OOF!!"

The console short circuited. Sandy ran over but froze in her tracks as the doors closed between us.

The elevator car shook and descended with a shake and a long, melodic hum.

Starfire gritted her teeth and punched me in the gut.

WHUMP!!

In the gut again.

WHUMP!!!

And then two fists across the cheek.

SMACK!!!

I spun and flattened my back against the doors.

Raven ducked as Starfire flew over her with a shout.

I grinned and turned into smoke, which the Tamaranian promptly soared through as she hit the wall.

I materialized behind her and grabbed her neck in a demonic choke hold.

The girl's glowing eyes clenched shut as she struggled to get herself loose.

"Extinguish….,," I sneered. "…..EVERYONE!!"

"AAAAUGH!!" Starfire kicked at the wall with her feet.

We stumbled across the elevator and slammed into the other side—this time with myself against the metal.

Starfire let out grunt after grunt as she lifted her lower body and 'flew' her head into my hold—forcing my torso painfully into the metal wall of the elevator again and again and again.

WHAM!!! WHAM!! WHAM!!!

A dent formed in the shape of my possessed body.

Starfire finally released her hands from my choke hold and aimed her fingers at my face. They sparkled and glowed and then---

FLASH!!

"AAAUGH!!" I let go of her and clutched a hand over my red pupils.

Starfire—free—spun around, floated in the air, and performed a spiral kick straight in my side.

WHUMP!!!

My body flew horizontally across the claustrophobic space.

Raven gasped and dove to the side before my body could fall over her.

THWUMP!!

Starfire soared straight up, flipped, planted her feet against the elevator's ceiling, and shot straight down at me like a bullet with a spiraling kick..

I rolled to the side.

CRASH!!

Starfire's leg actually broke through the floor panel of the elevator. She was stuck.

I smirked.

"Look before you leap…," I aimed a red-glowing hand straight between the alien girl's eyes. "…and see no more."

Raven jumped up and kicked my hand.

My wrist jerked to the side right as I unleashed a wave of destruction.

FLASH!!!

A slice of wall broke away, revealing the naked floors streaming up past us.

I growled and back-handed Raven to the floor.

SLAP!!!

"Worm!!"

Starfire broke her leg free, gritted her teeth, and promptly decided to swing the limb in question upside my chin.

SMACK!!!!

I flew back against the back wall of the elevator.

Starfire charged.

I brought my hands together, yelled, and summoned a full wave of red Destruction. "Starfire!!" Raven sputtered. "Get down!!"

The girl grunted and dove flat.

FLASH!!!!!!

Though it only grazed her, the stream of red murk was enough to blow her directly out the elevator—smashing the doors open and sending her flying out into the hall.

"Ooof!! Ach!!" she tumbled onto the tile.

The elevator stalled with a jerk.

I glanced down and winked at 'my daughter'. "I'll be backkkk for you later, darling. Family chat."

Raven panted.

I marched out and approached Starfire threateningly.

She stood up. "I always assumed that I would desire to meet Raven's relations," she uttered, wiping the alien blood off her lips. "But now I realize I was grossly in error."

"Save me the breath, Starfire," my eyes glowed like my outstretched hands. "Both you and I know we aren't ourselves today."

"You can say that again…BLOGARK!!!" she flew at me.

I charged up two spheres of murk power and ran at her.

We met in the center of the hallway with a flash. The walls warbled outward like rippling waves before cracking apart with deafening noise. Christmas colors of death encircled each other as result of a swirling Tamaranian and a teleporting demon.

Dodges and punches and starbolts and murks and--

FLASH!!!

There was a huge impact…….and Starfire flew back.

"UGH!!" she landed hard on the ground.

"YeeeeeeAAAAUGH!!" I ran, jumped, and flew down in a jump-kick.

SMASH!!!!!

I sent the two of us crashing down a floor and landed through a mesh of metal framework inside the Titan exercise gym. Starfire tumbled to a stop and moaned.

I landed, backflipped, and stood beside a wall panel. I swiftly grinned, glowed my hand bright red, and struck the panel hard.

Sparks shot out. The overhead lights flickered…then went out.

It turned pitch black like the night outside.

"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?!" the voice rang out. "Heheheheheheheheheh!!!"

Starfire panted. She stood up. She rose her fists up and they glowed sufficiently to illuminate her nearest surroundings. But the gym was so large in its interior that she couldn't see well beyond a few feet ahead or behind herself.

The voice whispered down like floating knives from all around.

"Braverrrrrrryyyyy………Braveryyyyyyyy………"

Starfire panted and spun around, aiming her glowing green hands everywhere.

"….you were alwaysssss the most bitchy of the emotionssssss. Almost as bad as herrrrr…."

"Nnnghhh!" Starfire grunted. "Show yourself!!"

"Years and yearsssss I've dreamtttt of licking the freshly made holllllle in your neckkkk."

The alien girl sweated. Her green eyes danced left. Danced right. Twitched….

"How depressssssing it is to seeeeeeeee you the wayyyy you are nowwwww," the hiss wafted down from the unseen heavens. "So paranoid…….so pensive…….so strong, and yettttt so weakkkkk…."

"Grrrr….Silence!!!"

"Oh butttt you are afraid!!! Noir knowsssss about yourrrrr pansy nightlight fetish!! You are still Starfire underneeeeeath!!"

The girl panted, her lungs heaving. She slowly backed up in the darkness.

"You arrre like the shell of a daughttttter I've been hidddddddden inside all thissssss time!! So incomplete!! Noir is differenttttttt. He already hasssssss a dark half. All I neeeeeeded to do was fillll it in. To makkkkke it complete."

She backed up and was suddenly aware of a red glow straight behind her.

She spun around, gasping.

"And make his friends BOW DOWN!!!"

FLASH!!!!!

A snake of red constricted around Starfire.

She struggled under its hold.

My eyes glowed red in four places. I screamed as I lifted her up with murking telekinesis and slammed her repeatedly against the gym floor.

WHAM!!! WHAM!! WHAM!!

I then let out a banshee cry and tossed her across the way and through a set of weights.

SMASH!!

"Uggggh!!" Starfire moaned and struggled to get on her knees.

I ran at her, hands glowing.

She gritted her teeth and shot a sudden starbolt across the darkness.

I brought my hands together, met the incoming starbolt, and shattered it with a burst of red. "HAAA!!" I finished my charge.

Starfire jumped back and raised her fists.

I knocked them aside and swung into her gut.

WHUMP!!

She bent over.

I brought my glowing hands together on each side of her face.

SMACK!!!

"Aaach!!" she cried out.

I kicked her hard in the navel, sending her flying back and landing against a wall. She moaned, her eyes clenched shut.

I snarled, cracked my neck, and slowly approached her with a curtain of red smoke warbling underneath.

"One by one…..every crrrrreature of this dimensssssion must surrrrrender to meeeee. Whether the vesssssel be my worthless daughtttter, or this patheticccc boy. I shalllll burst free from the flessssshly confines of my cursssssse and you. will. taste. the. Reckoning!!"

Starfire's face tilted up. Her eyes were glowing brighter than I'd ever seen before.

"I still have friends in this dimension…."

FLASSSSSSSSH!!!!!

Two eyebeams of bright green sailed into me, shoved me in the air across the gym, and sent me flying through the cinderblock wall.

SMASH!!!

I landed in a hallway, grumbled, and stood up. A circle of blue light was projecting on my chest.

"Huh?!?!" I looked up across the hallway.

"Back from my power nap!!" Cyborg bubbly said, and let loose with his laser rifle.

ZAAAAAAAP!!!!!

I flew down the hall with a grunt. In mid flight, a green pterodactyl zoomed over, clutched my shoulders, and added momentum to my movement.

I was tossed by the talons clear through a glass window and screamed my way towards the rough waters by the bluffs below.

SHATTER!!!

"AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"

SPLASH!!!

Raven and Sandy ran down a flight of stairs, looked at the window, gasped, and sprinted over.

The three Titans—soon joined by a limping Starfire—looked out the opening in time to see a madly laughing figure blurring a red path over the waters and towards the Western District of the City under the starlight.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Cowardddddly daughter!!! Rage will consume you!!! IT WILL CONSUME YOU ALL!!"

And soon I was too distant to be heard.

Sandy swallowed. She looked at Raven. "J-Just how much total damage can the spirit of your father do?"

Raven frowned. She spun around and walked down the hallway. "Enough."

Sandy and the Titans watched her.

"And just where do you think you are going?!" Starfire frowned. "We have a possessed teammate to capture!!"

"YOU are not capturing ANYBODY!!" Raven said without looking. "Trigon is my own responsibility. And I must go after him!"

She was about to walk up a set of stairs when Robin appeared, clutching his cape.

"B-But it's too dangerous by yourself….," he stuttered. "Let us h-help you…"

"I don't need help," Raven glared. Her fingers clenched. "If you people had been LISTENING at all, none of you would have gotten beaten up like you had!!!"

Robin flinched.

Raven spun around and gestured towards the majority. "Don't you get it?!?! Trigon is not of this universe. He can't be defeated by any of our regular means. Even if he's half mortal by Noir's standards, the fact of the matter is he's out of my mind and any second now he can call upon absolute Hell on this City and the rest of the World along with it!! As the only soul to have lived my entire rotten life housing his burning spirit, only I can do something about it!!"

"But y-you're our friend!" Robin insisted. He took a trembling step forward and reached for her shoulder. "We d-don't want you t-to get hurt—"

"STOP TRYING TO CONSOLE ME!!" Raven shouted.

Robin ducked to himself, tearing up.

"YOU KNOW NOTHING!!" Raven shook. She spun and faced the others. "NONE OF YOU KNOW ANYTHING!! Okay?!?! You have absolutely NO IDEA what this means!! Zero!! And to top it all off, none of you are in the friggin' condition to do anything about it anyways!! You! Starfire!! Always going in over your head to smash the enemy's skull in!! Beast Boy!! Hyperintelligent to the core but too arrogant to lift a finger to assist the rest of us!! Cyborg!! You're a nutjob all of your own!! And Robin, today you've not even been worth the spit on my tongue!!"

The Titans looked down, ashamed and confused.

But Sandy stepped forward. "Raven…y-you must calm down…"

"Do not tell me to calm down!!!"

"Your emotions," Sandy swallowed. "Th-They're new to you. You can't just—"

"My emotions have NEVER BEEN NEW TO ME!!" Raven shouted. "Don't TELL me how to control my emotions. I KNOW HOW TO CONTROL MY EMOTIONS!!! I've ALWAYS known how to control my emotions!!! I've just been blessed with the risk of blowing up the whole damn world if I USED THEM!!!" She frantically glared and pointed at every Titan as she continued: "You….you….each and every one of you. You with your practical jokes, your hugs and kisses, your high fives and your temper tantrums and your pity parties. You prod and play with your feelings each day like a dog to its own rear end and you think nothing of it!! And every day of my life in this Tower for the past two years you've been grinding it all into my face!! And then you tell me to 'smile'. You tell me to 'volley the ball'. You tell me to stop being 'so cold' and 'so bitchy' and 'so serious' and 'so distant' and you don't give me REST ABOUT IT!! Do you know….do you have any idea…h-how much I WISHED to GOD that I could b-be free like y-you?! Did it e-ever cross your m-mind that every h-hour that I meditate, every s-s-second that I spend cooped up alone i-in my dark room c-concentrating on the w-walls of my subconscious, my entire b-being is breaking apart with the envy and the need and the d-desire to desire! To cry!! To fall apart and let you catch m-me!! B-But the very first thing after f-falling apart, I would unleash s-such an evil!! Such a great and mighty evil that haunts my head e-every godawful night in th-the dark when I can't even cry myself to sleep for fear of YOUR PRECIOUS LIVES ALL AROUND ME?!?!"

By this time, Raven was shaking. Her face was collapsing. She flung her wrists down to the floor, shook her head, and squinted her eyes tightly shut. "And yet you STILL don't UNDERSTAND!!! You pester and you pester and you pester and you PESTER till I'm afraid I might burst, things are s-so twisted and cold and h-hurting all inside my head, it hurts and fr-fractures in on itself and still you PESTER ME!!! I…I…." She screamed. "I hate you!!! I hate you all!! I've always hated you all!! Two years ago I started here b-because I needed people m-mature and understanding and instead I got a bucket full of immature jokers!! I hate you!! I HATE YOU!!!! I H-HATE YOU!!!"

Raven's last, echoing outburst imploded in on itself. The girl jerked and bent over as if suddenly choking on something. She shook once…twice….then collapsed to her knees. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she brought a hand to her face and sobbed hauntingly quietly.

The Titans looked off, silent. But they glanced at her as she wept aloud:

"I…..I-I've always wondered….wh-what it would be like…..to show anger at you all….," she hiccupped in a low voice. "I've a-always…w-wanted…..t-t-to tell you th-th-that I hated you. And…..a-and now that I have…..it…..i-it hurts so bad. It hurts s-s-so very bad and I h-hate the fact I would ever hate a s-single person…." Raven wiped her moist face with a sleeve and shuddered. "The moment…the one s-single day in my whole crummy life I could h-hate someone….and I f-find out that it hurts. It st-stabs me back with as much p-pain as I wanted to inflict. And th-that pain is not new to me. All my time here in the T-Tower….I've felt it. Because of j-jealousy….perhaps. I w-wanted what you all had. I wanted that f-freedom. A-And now that I have it….it's been thrown to shit. N-None of you are the same. Noir's life is in jeopardy. My f-father could very well b-be on the loose and…." Raven hugged herself. "I hurt…..I-I always hurt so much. I wanted… so…. bad…. to…. tell….. you…." She shook violently with a sob and sniffed it away. "….b-but I couldn't. I couldn't share the deepest hurts o-of my being with you. That dark and a-awful nightmare that consumes and h-haunts me every night I lay down to sleep. A-And it angered me. Even wh-when Rage is supposed t-to be a forbidden emotion….I-I have to admit, it's my strongest…."

She wiped her eyes and shivered on the open floor between everyone. "I'm so sick of it….s-so sick of being bitter all the time. I am so, so sick of a-always being bitter…….and d-distant…….and a-alone….."

She dug her face in her hands, took a monumental breath, and let loose the greatest sob in her life: "Please forgive me…."

She deflated, murmuring…like a mad woman in a mouselike breath: "Pleaseforgivemepleaseforgivemepleaseforgiveme" till she had no strength to her vocal cords anymore and all she could do was shake and cry.

Maybe it was because they were Raven's emotions. Or perhaps there was an overlying sense of identity among the brainwashed Titans that fixated with their dark friend. But they all descended slowly upon her. First it was Robin from behind with a meekly-gentle hug. Then it was Starfire by Raven's shaking left shoulder. Then Beast Boy knelt by to give Raven something to lean on. Finally, Cyborg encircled the group with his huge titanium arms and warmed them.

Robin….Starfire….Beast Boy…and Cyborg…..for once, all were stoical and emotionless. Their proximity to Raven brought old feelings back, and she sobbed the complicated quagmire of hurt and pain and joy and anguish and bitter salvation between them.

Sandy took a shuddering breath and covered her mouth as she watched the scene.

"I-I have to face h-him alone…..," Raven sobbed. She clung to her friends tightly. "I-I'm sick and t-tired of having to face him e-every night in my h-head. I know I have to do it a-alone but I can't. Oh please, I can't. I can't I c-can't…."

They merely hugged her tighter. No consolations. No solutions.

Just…..existence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

Mumbo Jumbo yanked the tarp off his giant, robotic rabbit. He adjusted his suit, spun his wand, and pointed it at the android mammal.

"Come, Fluffy!! The Titans are disbanded by now, and tonight is the night we hit every bank vault in the City!! We'll be rich beyond our dreams!! I'll buy myself a haunted mansion in New Orleans! And some….er….titanium carrots for you, of course."

The glass eyes of the giant robot shifted. It came to life with an electronic hiss and slowly stood up inside the tent.

"Hehehehehehehehehe!!" Mumbo giggled and marched forward towards the tent flap. "I'm almost going to miss those Titans!! I never thought I'd be elated to perform for a no-show!!"

WHAM!!!!

A glowing red fist ripped through the tent canvass and struck the clownish man across the mouth so hard, a bloody tooth flew.

"MMMPHH!!" the lanky fellow stumbled back. He wheezed, coughed up blood, and sat up. "What in the blazes?!"

I blurred into tent with red smoke. "Almost on the money, you old clown!!"

He gasped. "You!!" A beat. "You can talk?!"

I squinted my four red pupils. "I can kill….." I stepped towards him.

He gasped. He pointed his sparkling wand at the giant, rabbit golem. "Fluffy!! Attack!!"

I smirked. I glanced to the side.

Razor sharp incisors flew down at me.

I held my hands to the side.

I was swallowed whole by the rabbit.

GULP!!

Mumbo grinned…..then his face fell.

The giant rabbit started glowing a crimson-red at every orifice.

Until…..

BOOOOM!!!!!

The tent ripped apart as the giant robot exploded.

Mumbo cried out as his body was projected ten feet into the grassy lawn of the Vreeland Estate. Shrapnel from the android and tent canvass scraps showered down all over the abandoned carnival.

I floated gently to the ground on a fountain of red murk. I stepped menacingly towards the man. "It is always the fool I love to kill most…"

Mumbo panted, scuffling back on his rear.

I blurred over and picked him up by the scruff of his collar.

"Yaaah!!"

He dropped his wand, which I promptly stepped onto with a blur of red and snapped in two.

The magician's getup faded away, and Mumbo was replaced by an aging, thin man who eyed me in horror under a balding head and wisps of gray hair.

"Boo." I smiled.

"Wh-Wh-What do you want with me?!"

"I can tell you what the former 'me' wanted…," I winked two of the red eyes. "Your camera……"

"State of the a-art magic!!" the man gulped. "I-Impossible to explain—"

"A reversal to it, you pathetic waif!!"

He pointed a shaky hand behind me. "H-Hanging off the tent pole!! It's the actual photo print!! It contains the spell t-to reverse the power drain I attempted!!"

I glanced behind my shoulder. I saw the portrait in question. I extended one hand, grabbed the picture from long distance with talons of telekinesis, and floated it swiftly into my grasp.

"Hmmmmmm," I smiled. "Everybody looks so………….alive…."

"Please…..l-let me go…."

I tossed the man effortlessly behind me. Regardless, he flew a good fifty feet and landed hard through the rooftop of a concession stand.

SMASH!!

"OOF!!"

"It's not you that I want, old fool…" I snarled as I stared at the picture. I brought a finger up and stroked Raven's image in the foreground. "I want my litttttle girrrrrrl. And my littttle girl wants her control bacccck. Or so it is inevitable. To bring the Tittttttans back to normal……she will have to come herrrrre with them for this painting."

I turned and shouted at the man with a glow of red. "You turn yourself in!!"

Mumbo stumbled—brused—out of the stand and shivered to look in my direction.

"Tell the authorities you have a messssssage for the Titans!! Tell them to commmmmmme here. Righhhhht here. And I might reconsiderrrrrr hunting you dowwwwwn and ripping you inside out in your prison cell!!"

Mumbo panicked, started running, and shrieked his way out of the carnival.

I smiled and hugged the painting to my blurred, red chest. "Come to me, littttttle girrrrrrl…….we'll be oh so merrrrrrry. Heh heh heh heh heh….HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"