132. Mortuana part 1

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Grating noise.

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Metal scraping on metal.

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Shuffling legs down a hallway.

A.......A lightbulb that will not work.

"She will burn in Hell...I swear it...honest to God..."

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Floating over ruins.

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Her blue hood and blue hair.

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An ocean of blood....

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Heartbeat......

Heartbeat............

Heartbeat...................

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"Go forth, annointed one. Angela the pure. Your groom awaits you in the golden fields...."

"All hail Angela the pure."

"Angela the virgin."

"Angela the sacred mother."

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Silken sheets.

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Honey light filtering in...

.......through....

.......the tapestries............

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Red rivers. Split into four. Limbs taut. Eyes wide.

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"Give yourself unto me."

Oh god.........

"Give yourself unto me!!!!!!!!!!"

Oh God!!!!

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FLASH!!!!

Snkkkt!!!

Ripping apart thread by thread ligament by ligament string by string hair by hair

....and

bleeding...

....on

every...

...end

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Oh God!! Get out of me!!! GET OUT OF ME!!!!!!!!

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Screaming.

Split fingernails.

Cracked teeth.

Antlers and fangs.

Biting. Sinking through the epidermal layerhahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

SnnnkktttttaaAAAAUGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

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FLASH!!!!!

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Heads spinning contorting twisting without mouths("Mmmmmffffffff"OhGodddddddddd!!!!!!!)

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Limping down the alley.

A trail of blood down the inside of the legs.

Clutching the rags to her breast.

Weeping.

Puddles and skulls

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Splash.................................

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S-Somebody...............

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Somebody p-please!!!

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Kill me!!!

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Somebody please k-kill m-m-me!!!!!!!
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I don't want to give b-birth to this monster!!!!!!

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I don't want to live to see it!!!!

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Please.........oh God......please......kill me......

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KILL ME!!!!!!

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FLASH!!!!!!!

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"There was a time, child....."
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SNKKT!!!!

AAAUGHH!!!

Crawling across the stone floor.

Bowels falling out.

Antlers rising from the entrails.

Fangs and four eyes.

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I can still FEEL HIM!!!!!
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"...someone wished you to burn in Hell....."

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Laughing down the hallway.

Legs dangling overhead.

Piano wire....

Shadows start kicking as you reach the window.

A leathery face on the other side of the glass.

Fogging....

SNKKTRAAAAAAACK!!!

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"But the only Hell for you....child....."

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Creatures hooking their way up the wall.

Bloody bandage tongues rusting.

Barbed wire and moans.

The bridge between stacks of bone white briars.

Twisting like snakes.

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"...is that which your life has already chosen to consume."

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Please......will you kill me??
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Barefoot over beetle shells.

The occasional knife.

Something squirming under the skin.

The bulbous belly.

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"...let us consume it with you."

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God.........just let me die......

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Bottomless pit lined with

faces

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Or sleep......

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"By the power invested in us by Azar, we shall grant you peace."

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Kill me.........

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"But you must let the child live."

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Kill me......

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"Angela......the innocent reborn...."

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Kill me.........

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"You must let the child live."

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Kill it.

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FLASH!!!!

Lanterns are lit one by one.

Girls in elegant dresses set the oil in the lamps.

An orange aura rises against the gray stone and brown planks.

Immortal souls gather on benches surrounding a circle of clear concrete. Frilly ladies and straightlaced men. Skirts and pants. Hairbands and top hats.

A fire is lit in the center. A warming thing. It pierces the darkness. The darkness that is all around. The darkness that is everywhere. The darkness that is everything.

A pale-skinned man walks into the center. Behind him are three men with rickety stools and musical instruments. Two violins and a flute. The pale man raises his arms.

The archaic crowd settles down. A cough or two. Miserably serene eyes gaze bruisedly onto the scene. Pale skin and dark hair. Black threads...

The man bows his head. He inhales. He raises his arms and face to the stone sky.

The violinists start stroking their musical instruments. A beautiful melody vibrates through the crowded, lantern lit interior. A fragance of earthly energy wafts upward and outward as the flute drifts into the rhythm, playing the opposite end of the spectrum to the pale man's voice as he distinctly and passionately speaks:

"This is a story. A very fine story. And—in that all stories are mortal infinites—it is a story laced with paradoxes. Laced with emotion. And drenched in darkness. But the darkness is not very exciting. For you and I well know that the darkness is everything!! It encompasses all that we soak in and consume!! Our very reason for living!!"

The tune pauses, lifts, and swings around into the melody again.

The man slowly spins to face the attentive audience as he continues speaking. "It is a story of a girl. Not just any girl!!" he raises a finger. "But the offspring...of the purest being in our dark dimensions. The defiled possessor of light. The eternal and blameless Angela. May the sacred mother be praised."

"Praise the sacred mother...," chants the crowd in acknowledgement.

"Her daughter......her very daughter!!" the man gestures. "Was granted half of the purity of the Ether.........and half of the evil of CHAOS."

Mutterings. Commotion. Recollection......

The music swings forth.

"And yet......she was not the vessel of limbo she was conceived to be!! Nor was she the Hellion that she was defiled to be!! But she was a heroine!! She was the savior that she chose for herself to be!! In spite of her very blood......in spite of her darkness......she chose the path of life and—most of all—the path of light."

Gasps. Some cringing...

"Light......the most upside-down thing to bless us......has now enveloped us like a psuedo-obsidian cocoon. For not only did the daughter of the sacred mother come to visit us......but now, she has become us......" The man smiles. His pale eyes thin. "And Mortuana has reunited infinitely with the lost twins of Azar........."

Smiles. Claps. Friends clinging to each other......sighing......

The music reaches a high point. Violins sobbing. And yet flute rejoicing.

The man raises his hands.

"This.........is how it all began........."

And the music dives in......

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

"This...this is something I've worked on recently after....a-after a recent adventure in Atlantis. But I'm sure that it's ambiguous enough for anyone to understand."

Some people chuckled. The others leaned forward in their seats and listened intently.

Cyborg sat at the usual table at the far end of the smokey, hazy poetry café. A jazz group had come together that evening and were playing a steady rhythm in the background. The android Titan folded his arms and watched/listened proudly.

Raven stood at the podium before everyone. With her hood down, she took a deep breath and read from her writing pad.

"The poem's title is 'This Thing that I killed'."

This Thing That I Killed

She breathes and she bleeds

She casts songs and seeds

A heart-string chain of aimless links

That somehow hold up a whole

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She came my way without going my way

Growing my hair and eyes every day by day

Looking like the loss that lost itself to her

This thing that I killed

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This thing that I killed bled red from my bed

This thing that I killed that I lied that I led

One night a knife was all it took, but

This thing that I killed is living in my stead

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And damn me if I don't dare to dash the darkness

Against the stone for

One single hour, minute, second

To stand before her...

A mother-stained mirror

And tear forth the salty hints that may

Help her help herself to home

Wherever it may be...

...I am not

This thing that I killed has carried has caught

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Raven took a deep breath. She closed her eyes...gently reopened them, and curtsied with a slight smile. "It's done now. Thank you."

Applause. Snapping fingers. Mutterings of interest and...overall approval.

Cyborg finished clapping as Raven shuffled over and sighed into her seat.

"Great stuff. Dark....but then again, what's not dark with you, Rae?"

"The ending was horrible...," Raven muttered...slowly folding her notepad closed. "I didn't give myself enough time to finish it."

"Could have fooled me!!" Cyborg shrugged. He leaned back even more and folded his titanium arms, smiling. "It was really, really cool......Raven."

The dark girl glared at him. "Then tell me....did you understand any of it?"

"..........," Cyborg blinked his human eye. "Now...granted...," he raised his finger and smiled nervously. "I hardly ever get your poems...."

"I knew it...," Raven plopped the notepad onto the desk and hugged herself...looking rejected. "Why do I even bother??"

"Come on, Rae!!" Cyborg leaned forward. "Here. Lemme read the sucker. Maybe a second time through will help me out—"

Raven flicked her wrist, enveloped the notepad in black telekinesis, and floated it out of his diving reach.

"Not today...."

".............," Cyborg stared at her. There was a splash of concern over his half-metal features as he leaned on his arms across the tabletop. "You know Raven...I've been curious. Are you okay? The last day or two you've been.....on and off again. Kinda like back at the vacation, remember? It's like you're only giving into some emotions and then immediately retreating from the whole idea altogether. I don't mean to be a bothersome little....freak, but is that normal? F-For you, that is?"

"You're asking the wrong sorceress..."

"Lately today, you've been down," Cyborg sat up straight. He smirked. "I thought revisiting this place might cheer you up some. That's why I invited you!"

Raven glared at him. She said: "I thought visiting this place might shut your worrisome mouth off. That's why I agreed to come."

"Ouch...," Cyborg planted a hand over his 'heart'. "I am dealt a deep blow." He winked.

Raven sighed. She brought the hood over her head and more-or-less avoided Cyborg's gaze. "This time of year..."

"What about it?"

"It gets cold. It makes me think of the stale plains of Azar."

"Your home town? Er....home town in the cosmos?"

"More or less...," Raven's voice droned out from under her hood. "It was in Azar that I learned how to control my emotions and—thus—my powers."

"But you were born there too, right?"

"Yes."

"That....th-that's gotta be tough, Raven," Cyborg leaned his head to the side. "Not being able to feel emotions. Even as a kid."

"It's not a matter of not 'feeling' emotions, Cyborg," Raven looked at him. Her violet eyes peered out from the hood's shadow....as always. "An emotion for me is like a temptation to use one of my powers. Nothing more. When I tame these tempations, I can bend my powers at will. But if I give into these emotions, then the powers do whatever they desire. If too many emotions are freed at once, then they lose cohesion. Without cohesion of emotions into one numb whole, there is a lack of strength. And where there's a lack of strength...Rage gets loose. And Rage is the open doorway to Trigon."

"Daddy dearest..."

"Correct."

A beat.

The jazz kept on playing in the hazy background.

"You're.....you're still reeling, Raven....aren't you?"

"I beg your pardon?"

Cyborg looked at her fixedly. "Months ago...when Mumbo Jumbo's camera split your head apart and a piece of Trigon got loose. That's sent your life into a bigass spiral, hasn't it?"

Raven bit her lip. She looked to the side. "I wish I could say it was that simple."

"Wanna talk about it?" Cyborg asked. "That's what I'm good for...right?"

Raven looked at him. The silly android. A slight curve appeared to her lips. "You're good at being loud and smashing villains. It's a stupidly simple enough thing to actually be useful for the Titans."

"What about my techno-smarts?"

"I never truly pay attention to that anyways, to be honest," Raven stood up. "I'm the spiritualist of the group."

"You ready to go?"

"I suppose...," Raven droned. "I'm dying of second hand smoke and Gwendolyn Brooks tributes. Let's go."

"Homeward bound it is!" Cyborg stood up.

"Yeah....," Raven adjusted her cloak. She reached a hand up and gracefully repositioned the ever-stubborn loose strand of hair over her bangs. "Homeward....."

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

That evening I sat in my cellar bedroom with the laptop on my bed and a phone cradeled to my ear. I was listening and multi-tasking with an IM window and a crime report program all at the same time.

"Pa says he'd love to see you again. Though it was brief for the last time you were here...he thought you were an all-around kind of guy. But...to be honest—hehehe—I think Ma and Pa are both a little nervous about me and you. Don't take offense please, Jordan. They just......well......they're old fashioned. They still think that people who fight like samurai—warriors or not—belong to kamikaze Zeroes or something."

I smirked. I typed.

SpSquirrel: Wow....I think I take that as a compliment.

"Hehehe! But don't ever say that in their presence. It wouldn't settle well."

I shrugged. I shuffled through computer crime files.

"Everyone's protective of me. I'm flattered and all...but it makes me sick. Clark's the same way. He'd screen everyone I ever came in contact with if he had to. I mean......what difference does it make? Like...--for instance—let's pretend I go out on a prom date or something. How's the guy supposed to pull a fast one on me in the back of his car?? I could lift his car and tie it around his neck twice for crying out loud!! Unless the guy just coincidentally happens to be a mutant-android hybrid programmed by Luthor or something. Or maybe he could drop pellets of Kryptonite into my glass of punch or something...............yeesh, that's kind of scary."

SpSquirrel: Kinda talked yourself into a hole there.

"Hey!! At least I'm talking! You seem at a loss for words......in the IM window, at least. What's got you distracted??"

SpSquirrel: I'm doing some research for Robin.

"Do you have to do that now??"

SpSquirrel: I sure as heck can't do it later after he's killed me for not doing it earlier!

"Awww...it's okay, Jordan. I'll fly over and beat him up for you."

If fell over on my bed. My breath had completely left me. If I had a voice, I'd be giggling like a schoolgirl.

"Hehehe...liked that one, didn't you?"

SpSquirrel: Uesds

"Huh??"

SpSquirrel: Sorry. I meant to type 'Yes'. My hands were shaking.

"Ooh, you're a quiver!"

SpSquirrel: Huh?

"Nevermind. Ahem. I'd just like to see you again soon is all, Jordan."

SpSquirrel: Same here.

"Really??"

SpSquirrel: Really Really.

"How about your place next time?"

SpSquirrel: Shall I keep the back door unlocked?

"Pfft!! I'm trying to be serious! Don't joke!"

SpSquirrel: Until we have the absolute capability of seeing each other again, what's not to joke?b

"What's that supposed to mean?"

SpSquirrel: Not that I blame him...but Blueboy has you on a leash.

"Ick. Don't put it like that!"

I chuckled. I went through some more files.

Her voice sighed on the phone.

"I mean...it's so stupid!! I'm a bonafide superheroine and I'd still get the death warrant if I so much as went against Clark's protective wishes!"

SpSquirrel: Wish I could promise to run over there and beat him up for you, but in that case the most I can promise is martyrdom.

"Awww......that's sweet."

SpSquirrel: Yeah.......

"Don't you think I'd make a great Titan?"

SpSquirrel: Kara, you'd make a great many things. Rest assured that a Titan is one of them. Though I can think of better things.

"Oh? Like what?"

SpSquirrel: Oh, a face on my bedside table for one.

"I keep promising you! I'll get you a photo! Just be patient!"

SpSquirrel: But alas, my vision of you is fading!

"Oh please......"

SpSquirrel: So long, ambiguous blonde of beautiful merit! I see a feminine form fading on the horizon!

"Hahaha.........stop it......"

SpSquirrel: It's like The Birth of Venus backwards. Only with clothes.

"Venus, hmm? I didn't know you watched anime."

SpSquirrel: Actually I was referring to the work by Botticelli.

"Whatever. I promise, I'll get you a photo of me."

SpSquirrel: Uh huh.

"Don't 'uh huh' me! I will! Sheesh. Why don't you just go to a Wal-Mart and buy a poster of me if you're so damned desperate!"

I smirked.

I typed.

SpSquirrel: But a poster is so heartless. It's commercialized fluff more interested in your bosom than in your benevolence!

"What's wrong with that?"

SpSquirrel: .......

"Hehehe. It's okay to be a guy for once, Jordan."

I bit my lip at that.

A beat.

"Jordan??"

I snapped out of it.

I typed.

SpSquirrel: Posters are all good and fun, but none of them show the Kara that I know. None of them show the smart, beautiful, talented farm girl from outer space who for some quirky reason has chosen to grace me with her...uhm...godessness.

"Hehehe...how eloquent."

I smirked proudly.

"It's hard to know the 'smart, beautiful, and talented' farm me when we live so far away from each other."

I sighed in melancholy.

She heard it.

"Heh. Poor you. You've got pretty chicks living with you in that Tower."

I rolled my eyes.

"Come on. Admit it. You like to look at them from time to time, don't you?"

I adjusted my shades and typed.

SpSquirrel: It helps to have eye contact when hextuple-teaming Plasmus, yes.

"Pfft!! You know what I mean, Jordan. You're being evasive!"

SpSquirrel: I think I learn from Robin.

"After all, you and Raven were close once."

I froze at that.

"Right?"

I blinked a few times. I typed.

SpSquirrel: We may have been.

"Heh," she laughed dryly.

SpSquirel: Seriously, Kara. It's very wyrd.

"How so wyrd?"

SpSquirrel: We never did anything together. We never so much as communicated intently. We never even did anything purposefully together outside of a mission.

"But can you deny that there was something between you two?"

I exhaled slowly through my nose. I stared off into the dark corners of my cellar room.

"Cuz I saw it. And I'll be honest. I think it was sweet. A girl as....uhm......freaky as Raven could do with some companionship."

I didn't know whether to laugh or scowl at that.

"She was very protective of you. Heh...EXTREMELY protective. I guess it makes sense being that it was so soon after Slade's death and......and......"

SpSquirrel: Wyldecarde.

"Y-Yeah......"

SpSquirrel: It's okay, Kara. You can say the 'W' word. lol.

"Heheheheh........."

I closed my black eyes.

I typed blindly.

SpSquirrel: It's the faces that I don't see on a regular basis that I truly miss.

"Yeah......I know......I'd like to have your photo too."

I smirked.

"But I can't help but be curious......whatever happened to her?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Raven. Did she end up depressed or something? Gawd, I hope not."

SpSquirrel: What Raven has....I don't think you can call it 'depression'.

"Then what can you call it?"

SpSquirrel: Life.

"Heh......that's really informative."

SpSquirrel: Ain't it, though?

"So is she off her rocker yet or what?"

I rubbed my chin. I looked off...and smiled.

SpSquirrel: She isn't exactly alone. She hasn't been alone in a while.

"Really?"

SpSquirrel: Yeah

"She's won somebody's heart then?"

SpSquirrel: Perhaps.

"Perhaps?"

I typed:

SpSquirrel: I'd say we're all a few electrical circuits away from finding that out by now.

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

"Simon says that Phaser Labs is accepting Jean-Luc Blair and Rachel Mendez in for rehabilitation and cybernetic resyncing..."

".........," Raven was staring out the passenger side window. She blinked, shook her blue head, and glanced Cyborg's way. "I-I'm sorry....who??"

Cyborg had his hands on the T-Car's steering wheel. "Jean-Luc Blair and Rachel Mendez. Ya know....Slug and Reload??"

"Oh right. Those two," Raven nodded tiredly. "It's been a while."

"They were never really in the wrong, ya know," Cyborg smirked as he drove them towards the land bridge that would take them to the Tower. "Because of their many cybernetic prosthetics, they were susceptible to Anderson's programming when he was controlling my Uncle Simon. But now that Simon's been his own man—electronically speaking—for the last two months or so, they're letting Jean-Luc and Rachel into Phaser Labs here in Town to see if they can get back into sane shape and all."

"Good for them," Raven said. "Seriously..." she hugged herself and seemed to nod off.

Cyborg had his look of concern again. "You okay, Rae?"

"For the last time...I'm fine....," she droned.

"You look tired."

"Probably because you're tiring me."

"Heheh...I wouldn't mind tucking you in bed."

"Don't even think about getting close."

"You let me walk into your room once, remember?" Cyborg remarked. "Showed me the picture thingy of the blonde chick."

"Oh. Right."

Silence.

The Tower gradually came into focus. The sun was almost completely set.

"Say Rae?"

A sigh. "Yes...Cyborg?"

"Can I....can I say something? Something wyrd?"

"Whatever kept you from doing so a billion times since we first met?"

"Heheheh," Cyborg drove casually with one hand and rested the other against the window. "I just want to say that...th-that it feels great."

"What feels great?"

He glanced at her with a human eye. "Spending time with you."

"Oh really....."

"Yeah. You're just so...so..."

"Boring? Cold? Apathetic?"

"....wise."

"That too."

"Wise and....I dunno....it's hard to explain...."

"Why're you telling me this? I'm not easily flattered."

"I'm not trying to flatter you, Raven."

She finally looked at him completely. And it was an impatient look. "Then just what are you trying to tell me?"

"I...I-I don't know. I guess I'm trying to say that....th-that no matter how impossible it is for you to 'feel' or be 'happy' or something, it doesn't mean that other people can't feel happy or pleased to be around you, ya know?"

Raven raised a bored eyebrow.

"You aren't such a bad person, Rae. There are people—friends—who really are glad that you exist and that you bless their lives. And though you might not sense any of it...they do. Continuously. And....a-and it's nice thing...ya know?"

"Are you trying to say that you like me?"

Cyborg bit his lip. "Er....."

"Cuz if you are, you can stop right now. It's for your own good."

Cyborg chuckled.

Raven frowned. "What??"

"Nothing," he sighed with a fading smile.

The T-Car cruised on.

Silence.

"Well, what did you expect?"

"If I'd expected anything else," Cyborg winked. "I wouldn't have said anything."

A beat.

"Whatever...," Raven stared off. Over time, she glanced momentarily at Cyborg...but his attention was no longer on her. She swallowed and pushed back the stubborn strand of hair....then hugged herself.

"Ah....looks like we're late for a send-off party."

Raven immediately glanced up. "Huh?" she blinked at the sight of a parked car and a few figures at the entrance to the Tower. "Oh....right...."

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

The T-Car cruised to a stop. Cyborg and Raven stepped out, shutting the car doors behind them. They shuffled over across the asphalt to where the Sanderson's volvo was parked. Kevin and Ruth stood, reunited with their foster son Nova'm. Robin and Starfire faced them together.

"Just in time, guys," Robin waved. "Looks like the kid of the household is going away!"

"I'll be a teen soon, ya know!" Nova'm pouted.

"I swear...he's more childish by the minute," Raven droned.

"I heard that!"

Ruth laughed gently and rested a hand on Nova'm shoulders. "We hope he wasn't of too much trouble to you."

"Not at all, Mrs. Sanderson," Starfire cupped her hands together and smiled pleasantly. "Nova'm is so full of life these days!"

"And full of antics too, I bet," Kevin winked. "Virtues come in pairs."

"Awwww...dad, I've been good!"

"Yeah...he only wrecked ONE FIRE SPRINKLER SYSTEM!!" Cyborg barked.

Nova'm sweatdropped.

"I take full responsibility for that occurrence," Starfire raised her hand....blushing.

"Yeah," Nova'm folded his arms. "Last minute slavery."

"Slavery??" the Sandersons rang.

"Figure of speech, I assure you," Cyborg had the guts to say.

"Oh, alright. If you say so."

"Well...looks like this is it, pal," Robin held his hand out. "You've been a mixed blessing—yes. But more of the blessing than the mixture."

"Hehehe...I'm honored, Boy Wonder," Nova'm shook his gloved hand.

"Better be glad I don't have a last name," Robin leaned his head to the side with an evil smirk. "Or else I'd be demanding you call me 'Mr.' something."

"He has a last name all right," Cyborg cackled. "But I won't say it in the presence of the ladies."

"Heh."

"Raven? Want to shake hands?" Nova'm blushed.

"Your parents want you home alive. Don't ask me again."

Nova'm cleared his throat.

Cyborg walked over. "Give me some skin!"

"Metal?"

"Ha ha! That too, little man!"

Nova'm floated up and high-fived Cyborg.

"And stay out of trouble!" the android Titan smirked. "No need for us to be saving your butt again, alright?"

"Hehehe...sure....," Nova'm smiled. He floated over and faced Starfire.

The Tamaranian Titan had sighed, a warm face of pride on her person.

Nova'm bit his lip. The edges of his green eyes watered emerald. "I miss you already, Kory."

"Oh Nova'm...," she knelt down and hugged him tightly to her. She sniffed and smiled: "X'Hal sedsu thriul..."

"X'Hal sedsu thriul ni, Koriand'r...," Nova'm clenched his eyes shut as she hugged her back.

The Sandersons watched from above, their hands gently held together.

The two 'cousins' parted. Starfire smiled and trailed a lasting hand through the boy's red strands. "And do not let me find you shearing it ever!!"

He giggled. "I won't! I swear!!" He floated over towards his parents. "Tell Beast Boy I'll have a prank joke to explode on him next time we meet!"

"Aw man!!" Cyborg cackled. "But that just ruins it!"

"And say 'bye' to Noir and Tempest for me, please?"

"We will...don't worry," Robin waved.

The Sandersons got into the car with Nova'm and started up the engine.

"So long, Nova'm!!"

"Pleasant travels and felicitations to you!!"

"Peace out, dawg!!"

The family waved, turned the car about, and drove off for the long haul back home.

Gradual silence settled around the Tower.

Raven spun about and marched up the stairs. "Good riddance....little lecher."

Cyborg gave her a double-take. "Lecher? Say what?"

"The little shrimp was practically drooling over me the whole time."

"You mean to say Nova'm was hitting on you?"

"If I gave him a mallet, he'd be lethal."

Cyborg chuckled. "Heh....now I have no qualms about the idea of beating him up! Ha ha!" he followed the dark girl up the steps.

Starfire and Robin were left alone.

The alien girl let out a sigh. It sounded more like a whimper, really.

Robin placed a gloved hand on her shoulder. "You know....it's really all because of you that he's gotten a second chance."

She took a deep breath. She looked Robin's way with happy-but-wet eyes.

Robin smiled.

She shut her eyes closed and relaxed. "Sometimes, Robin, I believe that I cling too hard to people."

The Boy Wonder chuckled. "It's never bothered me any."

She leaned her head to the side. "Even when you nearly suffocate?"

"Nope...cuz you see," he's lifted a finger. "You realize that your hugs are murderous now..."

"Eheheheh...," she scratched her neck nervously. "I do s-suppose..."

Robin smiled and extended a hand. "Come on. Let's go have some sandwiches."

"Ooh....w-with delectable nectar?"

"I bought some bottles of mustard for the occasion."

"Heeeee!! Glorious!!"

They walked/flew into the Tower.

In the deathly twighlight of the night's air...a shadow drifted across the concrete.

Like a prism or a shard of glass...

The light parted...blinked with two frowning eyes...and streaked off like a bullet towards the center of the City....

And then was gone.

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

"And this is called a remote...," Beast Boy held the object in question up. "You use it to watch t.v."

"T.V.??" Tempest made a face.

"Uh...yeah...," he pointed at the huge screen at the end of the Main Room. "That thing, dude."

"Oh. Where the moving pictures are."

"From time to time. Jeez......you mean Atlanteans haven't invented television?"

"I'll have you know we have many fine arts," Tempest folded his arms. "There's Atlantean theatre, for one!"

"Oh wow...that must be sooooo interesting," Beast Boy rolled his eyes.

"Truly! There's nothing more invigorating than the Third Act of 'The Dying Nautilus Princess' where Crenedyn and Fresuvius perform their underwater duel to the death with poison-tipped tridents!"

"Does Crenedyn's mom drink a goblet of poison?"

Tempest blinked. "Huh?"

"Nevermind," Beast Boy waved his arms. "I was an actor once, dude. I've had my share of theatre."

"I mourn for your culture."

Beast Boy turned into an aardvark and stuck his tongue out. He reverted back to elf form and turned to complain at Robin who sat besides Starfire at the kitchen counter. "Robin!! Come on!! You gotta help me out here!! I can't teach Garth our culture all by myself!!"

"Sure you can!" Robin leaned his chin on his hand and smirked. "After all, I speant nearly two years by myself teaching Starfire how to adapt. And look how she's doing now!"

Schhhhhlppppp!!! Starfire sucked an entire bottle of mustard through its snout and smiled. "Mmmmmhmmmm!!"

"Yeah....look at her now....," Beast Boy smirked.

Robin frowned.

Schwishh!!

Cyborg walked in carrying something. "Say...any of you guys seen Raven?"

Starfire gulped the last of her 'nectar', sighed happily, and faced the android. "Yes, Cyborg. She said that she was retiring to her room."

Cyborg made a face. "This early? What's up with that?"

"I can only imagine that she is adamant about performing some early meditation...," Starfire shrugged. "Perhaps she was exhausted by the trip the two of you made to the café of poetry?"

"Yeah...," Cyborg scratched his human scalp. "Perhaps..." He slowly turned around.

Robin narrowed his eyemasks. He spotted a sealed package of sort in Cyborg's titanium hands.

"Guess I should hit the hay too...," the young man trotted off.

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

It was night out...but Raven had the curtains hanging over the windows anyways, making it doubly-dark.

After a warm shower and dressing in a sleeping gown, the girl hovered cross-legged over her bed. She folded her fingers meditatively and hummed:

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos.........Azarath Metrion Zinthos........Azarath Metrion Zinthos....."

Her eyes remained beautifully closed.

Something mysteriously nonexistent glinted off of her chakra stone.

And....

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

She floated over the landscape.

Dark rocky bodies floating through the nether.

Mysterious cosmos burning in red clouds in the distance.

Her eyes fluttered open.

Specks were scattered across the craggy landscape.

Multi-colored robes.

Fair faces.

Matching chakras.

Yellow sat on a rock with her nose in a book.

Pink ran around with her hands acting as airplane wings.

Green was performing exercises and stretching.

Gray sat against a huge stone and hugged herself.

"............" Raven flew over the plain.

She flew over a dark canyon filled with thorns and briars.

She flew over the pit where rusting chains held a wrought iron cell inside the fuming stone.

She flew past it all into an archipelago of floating rocks.

She came to a lone rock surrounded by a halo of ash and frozen limbo.

Gracefully, Raven settled down on her feet. In her mental world, she was still wearing her nightgown. Like a Gothic Wendy halfway to Neverland. She took a breath, concentrated, and raised her fingers with glowing eyes. After chanting a short spell, a pillar rose up from the ground and a small wooden chest materialized.

The girl took a deep breath. She opened the wooden chest with trembling hands.


Creeeeak!!!

There was a cloth of sorts inside. Pale white. Like silken ivory.

Raven pulled it out and let it dangle to its full length in front of her. It fell into a pool just before her feet. It was a cloak that belonged to someone significantly taller than the girl.

Raven's eyes lowered. She brought the cloak to her face and inhaled deeply.

A sigh escaped her lips. Almost a coo. She deflated to her knees, hugging the cloak to herself. She seemed to shrink in size by a factor of three. The teenage had disappeared and a little girl cuddled in the cloak and disappeared.

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

Slowly...

Gently...

A slumbering Raven lowered to her bed. She lay on her back, breathing serenely. Relaxed.

Content....

Gradually—into the darkness of night—the Titan curled into a fetal position like the little girl slumbering identically in her mysterious head...

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

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Arella wore an ivory-white cloak.

It was the Azarathians' way of symbolizing her purity.

For she had once been Angela, the defiled.

But she had been converted into Arella, the pure.

The sacred mother cradled her four-year old girl to her chest.

The child was trembling.

Arella ran a hand through the little one's hair.

Her eyes were on fire.

The sacred mother was not happy.

"You said that he wouldn't find us here...," she practically hissed.

Juris, the magistrate, looked over boredly. "Dear holy Arella, your......'child' is a beacon. She practically pulses with the evil seed that resides within her from his touch. We may have been able to save you...but the child is the greatest poison yet."

Rumbling sounds filled the temple. Robed figures were quickly bolting the front entrance shut with marble cross beams. The ground shook. The little girl sobbed.

Arella held her gently and frowned at the man before her. "Do not speak so evilly, Juris!! She is a living thing!!"

"Must we forget the night they first found you?" Juris glared. "The pleas you were screaming? I'm not the first to show little sympathy."

The temple shook more.

Red fumes started seeping in.

Cries of pain echoed from outside.

A few of the pacifists shivered.

Arella growled. "Be silent!! If you knew what was good for you, you'd think us a way out of here!!"

"Dear Woman...this is the only escape given you! But it has failed!! SHE is bringing him!!" he pointed a gnargled finger.

The child wailed louder.

An old woman shuffled over. "Juris. Do you not know when to cease your pathetic tongue??" She rested a comforting hand on Arella's white-cloaked shoulder. "The sacred mother's child is to be defended at all costs. For as powerful as that demon may be, he needs to consume Raven to truly be powerful. You, Jruis, are not helping."

The man sniffed indignantly. He marched off to assist in bolstering the temple's defenses.

Arella sighed. She closed her eyes and leaned towards the elderly woman. "Th-Thank you, Azar..."

"Do not be afraid...," the woman spoke above the chaos echoing around them. Torchlight danced against her wrinkled features. "Not all of our defenses are penetrable. The child shall be saved. Her future is secure..."

Arella held her daughter closer. "I just......I just can't do it anymore, Azar. I feel like I'm missing something. S-Something that I should be doing but I-I'm failing somehow......"

"The truth...it will come to you in time...," Azar said. "And you will know your destiny. As the sacred mother." She knelt down till she was gray-eye to young-eye with the little, trembling girl. "And you......dearest Raven......" she smiled. "There will come a time......when you will no longer need to cry."

The girl merely shivered, tears running down her eyes.

BANG!!!

Arella jerked. She and Azar looked towards the door.

It was bulging inward from the outside. Shrouded figures scrambled desperately to hold it shut. Red fumes danced in. A low, grumbling sound throated through the interior.

Azar took a deep breath. "He comes......"

Arella's jaw was dropped. "Th-That smell.........," her eyes melted. She held her daughter tightly. "Oh god......that sm-smell......"

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

"It will not hold!!"

"He is piercing the sanctuary!!"

"Look out!!"

CRAAA-AAACK!!!

The marble crossbeams shattered. The door flew open in flames and red fumes. A red giant with four red eyes and jagged antlers burst through the door, flexing his limbs and growling with a spray of ivory fangs.

"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!"

The nearest two Azarathian acolytes were burned alive within seconds. Two other clerics rushed over with makeshift weapons.

"Pathetic SHEEP!!!!" Trigon unsheathed jagged, brown claws from his forward knuckles and swung down.

SLASH!!!!!

A man fell in a pool of his own entrails, screaming.

SLASH!!!!!!

A head rolled in half, gurgled red spray, and fell down with a crunch of shattered torso.

Stomp!!! Trigon walked forward in a mist of red embers and sparks. Stomp!!! The marble floor cracked and licked up tongues of flame. Stomp!!! He hissed forth red smoke and smiled with jagged teeth. Stomp!!! "I'm back...darling......heh heh heh heh." Stomp!!!

"We have been betrayed......," Azar nonchalantly said at that very moment.

Arella managed to stop trembling to respond: "H-How??"

"Juris......," Azar frowned. Her elderly face was like angry stone. "There is no other simple explanation. Juris believes Trigon must consume Raven in order for Azarath to be safe. He is blind and selfish......"

"And he is most faithful....," Trigon sneered. Stomp!!! "When he finds his true God!! Heheheheh!!" Stomp!!

"Azar......," Arella whispered. "Your powers...are they enough to shield all of us??"

Stomp!!!

The old woman took a deep breath.

Stomp!!!

"They are not.........not all three of us......"

Arella took a deep breath. "Then......then I know what I must do." She firmly handed little Raven over into the elderly sorceress' arms. "My destiny......"

Azar held the child.

The girl shook. "M-Mommy??"

Arella walked towards the marching demon.

Stomp!!!

"N-No!! Mommy!!!" the girl struggled.

Azar held her tight. She squinted her glowing eyes. She chanted: "Azarath......"

"It's been a long time......you pathetic, mortal bitch!!!"

"We're due for a talk, Trigon. You....and me......"

"......Metrion......"

Stomp!!!

"Allow me to talk with my hands......heheheh..."

"......Zinthos!!!"

FLASH!!!

A black umbrella-like shield of energy safely cocooned Azar and the girl.

The little child's violet eyes bulged.

She saw Trigon's clawed hand rise up...then come down towards her mother's body just as the blackness descended and blinded the scene.

SLASH!!!!!!!!

"AAAAAUGH!!!"

Something warm and soggy splashed against the outside of the black shield.

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

"NOOOOOO!!!!!!"

Raven shot up in bed, clutching her skull mercilessly.

"NO!!! MOMMY!!! NOOO-OOOO!!!!!" her eyes quivered. "Nnnghh...ahh...AAAHH!!"

Her eyes flew open, bulging.

Her breath left her......then rushed back in.

Raven panted....panted....panted....

Clutching her blue head of hair so tightly it nearly bled in ten finger-nail shaped spots.

Raven's saucer-eyes drifted upwards. She was sweating profusely as she scanned the room.

Every loose book, trinket, and decoration had fallen off of the shelves. Some of them had shattered upon reaching the floor.

Utter chaos.

Raven wasn't thinking by the time she found herself hopping out of bed in her nightgown, rushing out the door, and bolting down the hallway.

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

It was in the middle of the night.

Everyone was sleeping but her.

The dark girl stumbled down the hallway in a daze.

She wrung her hands.

She bit her lip.

The walls seemed to be dancing around her.

Everything was sickeningly dizzy.

She wasn't her normal self.

And yet she was.

And yet she wasn't anything and she was everything at once.

But Raven didn't truly feel anything until she felt the proximity of Cyborg's door in front of her knuckles.

The girl froze.

"............"


Raven stood less than two feet away from the entrance to Cyborg's laboratory.

She panted.

Her hand shook.

She tried to knock.

She tried......

Her shoulders shook.

The girl hiccupped once...twice...

Her eyes watered.

Raven choked. Before she could so much as whimper, she tightly clamped her small hands over her mouth.

She moaned once into her palms.

Her eyes clenched shut. Moist.

Her torso swung back and forth...shaking all over.

She shuddered a breath and let out a cry of frustration.

FLASH!!!!

Two light bulbs overhead shattered.

CRAAA-ASH!!!

Raven gasped as the glass shards fell around her.

She stumbled across the middle of the hallway.

"Ow!!!" she winced.

She was barefoot.

She hobbled to the wall and leaned against it, panting. Shuddering.

She eventually shook her head, took a breath, and ran desperately down the hall.

A few seconds passed.....

Schwishh!!!

Yawning, Cyborg stepped out and stood in the doorway. "Nnngh....what's going on??"

He looked around.

A beat.

He glanced up at the ceiling.

He saw the shattered lightbulbs.

He glanced down.

He saw scattered glass on the floor.

A few shards to the right were tainted red.

A tiny, thin trail of red streaked down the hallway in intermittent, fading patterns.

".........," Cyborg's lips parted. "Raven??" he breathed.

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

That morning, I got up early as usual.

It was time for my daily meditation.

I had Myrkstaff equipped with its sheathe, not to mention my combat fatigues.

But I wanted a glass of orange juice to start myself out. It was a thing I was into those days.

Schwissh!!

The elevator doors opened.

I walked in, fastening my bandanna.

I smiled...feeling rejuvenated....or about to be rejuvenated.

I was about halfway to the kitchen unit........when I noticed a graceful figure sitting somberly on a couch in the early rays of morning light.

I squinted my black eyes beneath my shades.

Raven??

I shuffled

She wasn't facing me. She hugged herself in a nightgown of sorts and gazed out the window. And yet, she spoke as if she had eyes in the back of her violet head.

"Is it intriguing how—after so many trials and tribulations—you and I are very much alike, Noir?"

I raised an eyebrow.

Raven took a shuddering breath. She glanced my way slightly. Her eyes were still cast to the floor.

Was she......crying?? Raven??

"Both of us must hold back. In some way or another. You are restricted from having a voice. And I.....I am restricted from having feelings."

I leaned my head to the side. Curious. Listening....

Her violet eyes shifted upwards. They were glassy. "The weather's getting cooler....the air crisper....and I can almost feel evil things flying through it as if they've always been there. And somehow—in my busy days of heroism—I've managed to forget much of what I am....and much of what I inevitably will be...."

".............," I took a deep breath.

She continued. "It's.....becoming unbearably hard as of late..." She ran a nervous hand through her hair. Her calm and resolve had faded. She looked like a different person. "These....temptations......t-temptations to feel......."

A beat.

She bent her knuckles in mid-air as if wanting to strangle someone. Perhaps herself. She was looking at her reflection in the morning-lit window. "I wish.....I wish I could just t-tell him................" A beat. "I w-wish for a lot of things. A-And no matter what Cyborg does or says, I'm so very alone. And I can't ever not be....."

"............," I swallowed.

She looked at me.

I looked away.

"It's....it's always been that way, Noir....," she murmured. "I've always had to be alone.....even when.....e-even when...."

I looked her way bravely and smiled.

She didn't have to continue.

"But....I can't bear it....I-I can't even meditate without......w-without remembering......" She hugged herself. Her eyes looked hallow. She rocked back and forth.

I was desperately concerned. I gently reached a hand towards her shoulder---

Wree!! Wree!! Wree!!

Raven jumped. She looked past me.

I spun around.

The alarm on the computer was going off.

Wree! Wree! Wree!!

I rushed over. I typed furiously and brought up a block of text including a map of the City's Downtown...near the library and a subway station.

Raven dropped to her feet and stumbled over with a curious limp. "Wh-What is it??"

My black eyes scanned the report through my shades.

"Trouble??"

I nodded.

I immediately programmed the computer to sound the alarm in Robin's room. I glanced at Raven.

She took a deep breath. "Guess I should g-get dressed..."

I smiled a bit at that.

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

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

A news helicopter roared over the downtown of the City. In the angled glare of the early, autumnal Sun...the flying craft circled from a distance a curious event taking place on Main Street.

Smoke was rising. Buildingfronts were crumbling. Empty cars were tumbling over.

And yet.....the cause of the destruction and chaos was nowhere to be seen. It was as if the wind was performing a destructive ballet.

From high above, the news helicopter recorded a police barrier being set up far away from the awkward occurrence.

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

"Allright!! Clear the streets, people!!" Commissioner Decker shouted into a megaphone. Officers rushed around in front and alongside him, setting up portable barriers and driving squad cars into position. "It so happens that—in our City—ghosts walk around in the daytime!! So get your asses out of the way of our forces before I get sued for some damned collateral damage!!"

His lieutenant walked up. "Sir..."

Decker turned to him. "Got some developments, I hope!!"

The lieutenant winced.

"Shit, hang on...," Decker switched the megaphone off. "What the Hell is it?"

"Wish we knew, sir," the lieuteant spoke. "No sighting of any perpetrators yet. And everyone we've sent in to investigate found themselves under attack."

"By what?"

"Seemingly nothing, sir."

"Nothing????"

"They couldn't spot a single suspect. But all sorts of stuff is being wielded around by intense force, regardless."

"What kind of stuff?"

SWOOOOSH-CRASH!!!!!

An empty schoolbus landed through a squad car, sending shards of glass and metal flying everywhere.

Everyone flinched.

"Whoah!!"

"Holy Hell!!"

"Where'd that come from??"

Decker stood perfectly still. "..........," he blinked. "Where're the Titans??"

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

Through a sepia, flickering visor...Downtown's Main Street was magnified ten times. The shaky image showed a fire hydrant being magically severed. Then a lamppost bending over. Then a newspaper stand being smashed to bits as with a projectile.

"Hmmmmmmm...."

Robin lowered the electronic binoculars and stared through his squinting eyemask from atop the building ledge. I was perched beside him. The cool, autumn air kicked at my long black hair.

"It's gonna be one of those days...," the Boy Wonder murmured. He whipped out his communicator and opened it with a Star Trek sound. "Titans. Status report!"

"Beast Boy here. We're closing in on Main Street!"

"Who's 'we'??"

"Tempest and I. We're taking a shortcut through the sewers. Whew...not my idea, I tell you what, dude."

"This is Starfire! Raven and I are almost at the scene! Who could be so disruptive this early in the morning??"

"Someone who's seriously pissing me off," Robin grumbled. "Cyborg? How about you?"

"Driving there as we speak in the T-Car. These barriers ain't helping any!"

"Well get here as fast as you can. We may need your thermal scanning."

"What for?"

"It looks like whoever we're dealing with is invisible."

"No way, dawg. For real??"

Robin's brow furrowed. "Let's just hope it's not a former, invisible friend of ours..."

I gulped.

"Robin out!" He flipped the communicator closed and whipped out a grappling hook. "Noir. Let's go."

I nodded at the leader.

POW!! Clank!! He swung off.

I glanced nervously to the side where I imagined the T-Car driving up beneath the visible building tops. My mind was distracted then and there...as I imagined Raven's to be. So when I blurred down the building sides and streets to catch up with everyone, I felt compelled to switch on the communication function in my metal prosthetic...and send forth a morse code signal......

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

"Come on!!"

Cyborg swerved around the roadblocks, waving at cops to show who he was.

"Y'all could just as easily hired cows to stand in the way, man!!"

His dashboard lit up.

"Huh???" Cyborg stole a glance at the computer screen of his Baby.

A text message popped up. One that Cyborg knew had to have originated from a certain mute's morse code signal.

'Cyborg, do you have a minute.'

"Is the Pope a Hindu, dawg? I'm a little busy here playing caboose on this mission!!"

'I wanted to ask you something.'

"Can it wait???"

'It is about Raven.'

"...................I'm listening."

'I think you should talk to her.'

"Heh...," Cyborg smirked. "That's all I do these days."

'No. I mean really talk to her.'

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. He glanced at the computer screen suspiciously. "Why?? What's going on?"

'She really needs someone right now. But she cannot express that.'

"Yeah...but what for? Is something wrong?"

'I think so. You should talk to her.'

"I will as soon as I can, man. Thanks for asking me though. After this mission, okay?"

'Okay. Noir out.'

Cyborg switched the computer off.

He gripped the wheel and sighed. "Raven....what am I gonna do with you?"

A beat.

He frowned at the road's asphalt horizon.

"If this just turns out to be Cinderblock again, I'm gonna be really pissed."

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

In the middle of the Main Street, a car exploded in half.

CRACK!!!

Fissures formed in the ground.

Then...

CRUMBLE!!!!

An awning collapsed into dust in front of a hotel.

Silence........

CLANG!!!

A manhole cover shot up, fell down, and rattled to a stop in the street.

Tempest's head popped up.

".........," he blinked.

He leapt up on a jet of sleeve-propelled water and he got into a fighting position.

A green velociraptor jumped up after him.

The changeling and the Atlantean spun around, back to scaley back. Claws rearing and water hoses aiming.

Ready for anything....

But only nothing.

Tempest looked at the changling. "I think we've just chased one of your wild gooses."

Beast Boy returned to elf form. "Dude....if you can't say a figure of speech, don't even try."

"And why do you not preach that to Starfire??"

"Because she has more curves than you. Now shut up and keep your eyes peeled!"

As the two boys looked around, Starfire and Raven touched down to the earth.

"It is strangely still and quiet here!" Starfire uttered.

"Shhh!!" Tempest hissed. "We're probably being watched."

"Dude...Raven, why's your foot all bandaged up?"

"Never you mind," the girl droned. She floated across the street. "Are there any civillians here?"

"Look!" Starfire pointed.

Everyone glanced up.

There were huddled figures peering desperately out a third story window. They waved. "Watch out!! He can cloak himself!! He shoots energy bolts and stuff!!"

"But who??" Raven planted her hands on her hips. "Who are you talking about??"

"We can't tell!!"

"H-He looks a little familiar...but..."

"You gotta get us out of here!! He could be anywhere!!"

"You must remain calm," Raven said firmly, her hands raised. She was oblivious to a black ring of energy lifting up a van and hovering it over her. "We'll get to you as soon as all the Titans are assembled and—"

Beast Boy gasped. "Raven!! Look out!!""

Tempest gritted his teeth and shot a spray of water at the girl's body. SPLASH!!!

"Nnghhh!!" she was shoved out of the way just in time to avoid the van crunching down at her.

SMASH!!!!

Starfire charged a starbolt and shot at the air above the van.

FLASH!!!!

The silhouette of an invisible figure darted momentarily past the green aura.

Starfire gasped.

A blink.

A dark streak appeared behind her and shoved her hard in the back.

"Augh!!" she stumbled forward.

A shadow appeared momentarily.

"RAAAWR!!!" a green panther leapt towards it.

The shadow disappeared...revealing a stop sign directly behind it.

WHANG!!!!

The panther smashed face-first into the sign and dizzily teetered into the sidewalk.

Across the street—groaning—Raven stumbled to her knees.

A streetlight above her was lassoed with black strands and wobbled before toppling down over her.

The dark girl looked up at the last second, gasped, and dove out of the way.

SMASH!!!!

Raven struggled to her feet. She limped towards the sidewalk.

SWOOOOSH!!

The dark figure reappeared in front of her with a strong fist across her cheek.

WHAM!!!

"Ooof!!" Raven teetered back.

WHUMP!!! A shadowy knee to her chest.

Raven bent over, wheezing.

The shadow flicked to a stance behind her, raising its hands threateningly.

FLASH!!!!

A starbolt struck the figure in the side.

"Mmmmf!!" a manly voice uttered. A flicker and—the figure disappeared again.

Raven wheezed. Starfire floated over and held her up gently. "Are you damaged??"

"I'll live...," Raven winced. "Unfortunately...."

"The invisible assailant is concentrating an awful lot of harming you!!" the Tamaranian said. "Perhaps we should get you out of here??"

Tempest walked forward, glaring. "Or perhaps we should just flush him out...," he cracked his knuckles. His dark eyes flashed purple. He raised his hands and collected water spewing out of a nearby fire hydrant. He gathered the water up in a floating 'cloud' above them and rained down on the street.

Raven held up a black shield above herself and Starfire to keep them dry.

The rest of the street was drenched. And after a while...two legs formed...then a torso...then a whole body. A silhouette formed in the cascading water.

"Gotcha.......," Tempest sneered.

"Just in time too....," said a voice from above.

SWOOOOOOSH!!! Robin swung in through the water and plowed his steel-tipped boots into the visible figure in the 'rain'.

WHAM!!!

"AUGH!!" a voice grunted. The shadow flickered as its body tumbled across the fresh puddles.

Robin landed. He shouted and charged the figure. "Raaaugh!!"

The shadow jumped up and held a hand out. FLASH!!! A black orb of sorts flew at the Boy Wonder.

Robin ducked.

SWOOOOSH!! I blurred in, screeched to a stop, and whipped out Myrkblade—CHIIIING!!—deflecting the dark blast. CLANG!!!

From where he lay on the ground, Robin whipped out a bolo, spun it over his head, and flung it at the shadow.

SWIIIIISH-THRAP!!!

The shadowy figure struggled in the suddenly binding cord wrapped around his figure. "Nnnghh....rrrrghh!!"

Chtung!!! He flinched as two strong headlights stabbed into his shadowy form.

"Looks like we have us a snake in the grass!" Cyborg stepped out of the T-Car, whipped out his sonic cannon, and marched threateningly towards the figure.

Robin and I approached him. I with my sword and him with his staff.

"Show yourself!!" Cyborg shouted.

"Now!!!" Robin growled with emphasis.

"Dear children...," the voice contemptuously slurred. "...what is there to show you when you have nothing to see me with?? You are hypocrites down to the core. You think you're heroes, when in fact you purposefully blind yourselves to the true villainy inside of you. Much worse than the villainy I ever embodied!! And no one...no one on this pitiful earth is more evil than THAT WITCH!!!!" The shadow's 'head' faced Raven as it spat the last part.

Starfire gasped.

Raven freed herself from the Tamaranian's grip, frowning. "Who are you?? What do you want??"

"VENGEANCE!!! Retribution!!! I want you to suffer like I have!! That's why I brought you here!!!" the figure hissed. It shook in its restraints and—like magic—a curtain of blackness peeled away. The shadow was replaced by a bearded man in a black jumpsuit with an obsidian crest helmeting his skull. "Remember me, oh hideous one?!?! I sure do remember you......"

Raven's eyes narrowed.

Robin's lips parted. "Dr. Light???"

I did a double-take.

"Ah...but I was once such a meager miscreant!! Happily robbing banks for the pure thrill!! It was all fun and games...but she...SHE had to play with me!! Like a demon cat to a helpless mouse...that witch showed me Hell!! Hell in all of its true, cold reality!!"

"Oh brother...," Raven rolled her eyes.

"What's this all about???" Tempest whispered.

Beast Boy muttered aside: "Dr. Light. One hit wonder. He nearly had us beat one night after a robbery when Raven suddenly went biserk and sucked him into some nightmare abyss place thingy—"

"Don't speak of it as some trivial imprisonment!!" the man cackled as if he heard everything. He shook and hyperventilated psychotically within his restraints. "It was so lonely....and so c-cold....and so TERRIBLY DARK in that place!!!"

"You were endangering lives and disrupting the peace," Raven grumbled. "Do not dictate to us what is or is not 'terrible'..."

"SILENCE!!!!" the man shook. "RRRAAAAUGH!!!" his whole body pulsed with black energy.

"Cyborg!!!" Robin shouted. "Let him have it!!"

"Aw great...," Cyborg gritted his teeth, squinted one eye, and let loose with the sonic canon. "Firing!!" ZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!

A black aura emanated from the villain's body, snapping the bolo apart and repelling the blue beam back up high into the building sides.

CRAAAASH!!!

"Aaack!!"

"Yikes!!"

The citizens watching overhead barely avoided the blast and ducked back inside the window.

Cyborg dove to the side to avoid a falling piece of debris.

I panted.

"How did he do that???" Starfire exclaimed, breathless.

"I have learned....I have learned the true nature of life..."

All of us watched nervously as the pulsing shadow rambled in front of us. His eyes were wide and mad. His teeth glistened animalistically.

"The only reason to exist is to die. I have had my innocence stricken away from me. And Raven of the Titans!!" he glared and pointed a finger. "I shall make you pay for such torturous revelation!!!"

"Grow up, Dr. Light...," Raven said indignantly. "We all have to deal with death. So must you."

"NO!!! I will not listen to your LIES!! You will suffer. I SWEAR IT!!" he held up two hands and charged dark black orbs of high energy. "And I am no longer Dr. Light. Oh no....thanks to you, I have a new path. A path of suffering. A path that I shall send you and everyone else on!! For I have become Dr. Dark!! Fear the ABYSS!!!"

"Titans!!" Robin shouted. "Go—"

"RAAAAAUGH!!" he flung an orb at the leader.

Robin flipped over the blast which tore into an abandoned semi-truck behind him.

SMASH!!!!

I blurred at the villain, Myrkblade swinging.

"I have tweaked my technology to the darkest ends of the spectrum!!" he shot a stream of blackness at me.

FLASH!!!!!

I gasped at the last second—WHAM!!!!

I was tossed literally a dozen blocks away over the City.

Starfire flew down, tossing starbolts. "Raaugh!! Haa!! YAAUGH!!" FLASH!! FLASH!! FL-FLASH!!!

"I have mastered the art of complete absorption!!" Dr. Dark created a shield of obsidian that absorbed the Starbolts. He produced an extra-heavy charge of subsequent power and struck Starfire hard across the side as she dove in.

SMASH!!

"EEP!!" Starfire flew straight into a buildingside—SMASH!!—and was sealed within.

Tempest charged, producing bullwhips of compressed water.

"I understand now the flow of life and the universe!!" Dr. Dark held up a huge orb of blackness and dropped it on the running Atlantean. "The perpetual descent into nothingness!!"

CRUNCH!!!

"Augh!!" Tempest shouted as he was plowed through the asphalt and into the sewers below. SPLASH!!!

"RAAAAUGH!!" Robin and Cyborg charged at once.

Dr. Dark held up a shield of black energy, blocked Robin's staff, shoved the Boy Wonder aside, and shot a stream of darkness into Cyborg's chest.

FLASH!!!

"WHOAH!!!" Cyborg was propelled at maddening speed far away so that he crashed through the police barrier and nearly collapsed into Decker and the lieutenant with a smoking THUD!!!

Beast Boy turned into a bull and charged, snorting.

"HA!!!" Dr. Dark flicked his wrist.

Shadows flickered, and over twenty mines suddenly appeared—blinking—in Beast Boy's path.

The bull screeched to a stop, its eyes bugging as it nearly fell over and landed on an explosive.

Raven watched all of this—panting.

"And you!!"

Raven jerked and looked at the man, her eyes wide.

He grinned evilly and flicked his wrist. A sinister, black cylinder of metal appeared in the middle of the street. It hissed and let loose steam as a light atop it blinked.

"You shall bear witness to your own Hell, witch!! For you shall be in the center of my greatest creation!! The Absolute Black!! A device that reverses the energy distribution of all incoming light! Effectively creating a null effect! In other words...," his eyes and soulless. "A City without light...not so much as a stray spark."

Raven's jaw dropped.

Robin shook his head dizzily and looked up from where he lie helpless on the asphalt. "No!! Don't set that thing off!!"

"Too late, Titans!!" Dr. Dark fingered the trigger. He smiled. "It's your time of judgment...."

He flicked the switch.

And then he—and everything—disappeared.

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

VROMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From high above, the helicopter suddenly pulled up as beneath it a huge black sphere exploded like a round mushroom cloud inside the heart of the City.

A literal half-dome of pure blackness solidified fifty stories tall and fifteen blocks in diameter from every angle.

A deep, haunting noise vibrated throughout the air as a great deal fo the city was lost to spectral oblivion.

VROMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

I had managed to land with my metal hand gripping a close-line between two old apartment towers. I leapt off the lines, blurred up the brick walls, and perched on the rooftop.

I was about to dash my way to the scene of the fight when I realized the scene of the fight was completely gone.

And in its place was a huge dome of obsidian.

I gasped.

CL-CLANK!!

Myrkblade fell to the rooftop gravel....

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

"Oh my god!!"

"Shit almighty!!"

"What is that thing?!?!"

"Nnngh....," Cyborg stumbled up to his feet. He rubbed his head and opened a squinting, human eye. "Nnngh....mmm?? What....wh-what the Hell??" He blinked. He stomped forward with fists clenched and gasped. "What the Hell?!?!?!"

No further than forty feet ahead of the barrier was a solid wall of black. It curved up—cold and perfectly smooth—arching over to meet the other side of the half-sphere. It didn't look like any tangible material. It was like space had opened up and swallowed a piece of existence from the urban world. A black hole without the gravity drawing into it.

"I need backup immediately!!"

"Code red!! Code red emergency!!"

"No, I'm not kidding!! Fifteen square blocks of the Downtown has suddenly been swallowed up!!"

"I don't know what it is!! It's big, black, and it's here!! Send backup!!"

Cyborg followed along, whipping out his communicator arm panel and shouting: "Robin!! Robin!! Do you read me?!?!"

Silence.

"Robin!! Raven!! Star??!"

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

"Does anybody read me?!?! Over??"

I had the chills then and there.

I shakily managed to reach my metal prosthetic with my other hand and switched the morse code signaling on.

I responded to Cyborg.

"Noir?!?! Thank God. Where the Hell are you?!?!"

I was four blocks south of the blackness. I could see the whole center of the City swallowed up.

"Do you see any of the others?? Any of the Titans at all?"

I bit my lip.

I reported 'negative'.

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

"Crud, man. Serious crud...," Cyborg lowered his arm a bit and spoke to himself more than anything. "I can't get in contact with any of them."

A beat.

He spun and shouted at someone...anyone. "Get someone from Phaser Labs here!! On the double!!"

"Yes sir!!"

"We need to find out what this big piece of shit is!!" Cyborg grumbled. A beat. He uttered—quietly this time: "Whatever it is....it's got our friends..."

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

"..............."

I stared forlornly at the site.

Helicopters and birds fluttered overhead.

Glistening in the sunlight above the black silence....