These Black Eyes Chapter 136: Mortuana part 5, a teen titans fanfic

136. Mortuana part 5

"What is it that drives people to save their friends by—in essence—giving up on them?"

The man asks this of the crowd.

The gothic onlookers mutter about themselves. They shift uncomfortably around the fire.

The violins and flute spin around each other and then rise as one dancing melody.

The storyteller smiles and goes on: "Perhaps that is a question not meant to be answered. But then again, should it be asked of to begin with? The heroes—venturing as far as they could into the land of Mortuana—found themselves reunited with their ally, the sacred daughter. And yet their next course of action was to seek out the safety of others ahead of her. Why? Perhaps it was because she had made a decision to change herself.........and soon she would no longer be the friend that they once knew........."

"Cyborg!!"

The android Titan stood alone behind a busy bazaar full of Mortuanans. He glanced over from where he somberly had his arms folded as the Boy Wonder ran up.

Robin came to a stop, panting. "I'm going out into the City! I think I know where Starfire is!"

"Yeah?" Cyborg asked boredly. "Where at?"

Dimitri ran up, along with Victor and Raphael. "Ayane the Tower guard thinks your alien friend is in the 'shopping mall' as you lightsiders call it. It's a large structure with two floors, a basement level, and multiple chambers with wide acrea—"

"Yeah, yeah," Cyborg waved a numb hand. "Just keep safe, okay?"

Robin's eyemask went crooked. "Cyborg...is something wrong?"

"I'm just chilling I guess....," Cyborg sighed. A beat. He glanced Robin's way. "Do you need help with Starfire, man?"

"I think I can handle it," Robin said. "I just found out that we only have a limited time to get everyone out of Mortuana."

"How's that?"

"The dome of darkness that Dr. Light created...," Dimitri explained. "The 'doorway' from the light side into Mortuana....it is collapsing."

"You don't say...."

"It may only be a matter of hours."

"And we have to get the citizens and our teammates out now!" Robin pounded his fist. "I'm going to check on Starfire." He pointed a firm, gloved hand. "You, Noir, and Raven explore the central water canals. We'll rejoin later and inspect the L-Train Station."

Cyborg sighed bitterly. "Raven ain't going with us."

Dimitri and his guardians shifted uncontrollably.

Robin leaned his hand to his side. "What do you mean?"

"You heard me, man," Cyborg grumbled. "She's too busy with her....'emotion consumptiong' thingy........She's decided to stay here in this City. Besides, I hardly think she's in the condition to help us out right now."

"Understood," Robin impatiently nodded. "Then you and Noir tackle the canal. Just make sure word gets to Raven about the inevitable collapse of this crazy place!! I want to go to sleep tonight with the satisfaction of having saved everyone, Cyborg. Everyone."

"Go get Star, man....," Cyborg sighed. "Noir and I will handle the rest."

"......................," Robin stared at Cyborg for a few naked seconds....but eventually shook it off. "Come on, Dimitri. Let's haul ass."

"Is that the lightside way of saying 'wheelbarrow corpses'?"

Vincent and Raphael laughed.

Robin groaned. "Teach me your undead inside jokes another time. Let's move!!"

The four scurried out of the city. A few darkly-dressed citizens watched with curiosity, their heads turning.

Cyborg stood still as a statue. After a beat he sighed and forced himself to walk across the center of the City.

Looking for his partner.....

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

"Raven....," Jonas paced around the girl who sat—legs crossed—in the center of the tent. "...I must ask you again—for ritual's sake if anything." He came to a stop, knelt down, and looked her gently in the eyes. "Do you truly desire to go through with this?"

The girl took a deep breath. She smiled, her eyes gently closed. She uttered: "Jonas....from the moment I came to Mortuana...I felt the same air that once flowed through my lungs in Azarath. It was refreshing...but not deceptive. As much as it could have been a catalyst, it was also a warning sign. A warning sign that my life can be freed from the bonds I have forced upon myself in desperation to counterract the evil of Trigon. Now that Trigon cannot detect me—as I am between dimensions—it would be a tragedy for me to not take advantage of the sudden gifts within reach. I would very much like to go on with this consumption. I desire to proceed with the unveiling of my sorrow. It is the necessary next step. Happiness......H-Happiness has well prepared me for what is about to come."

Jonas inhaled. He smiled respectfully. "I am not one to contradict the daughter of the sacred Arella." He drifted two hands out and framed the girl's temples. Gently. "I shall do that which is required of me. I shall assist in your freedom...."

Raven smiled one last, happy time....and proceeded to meditate.

The very beginning of the process paved a way for itself silently.

Outside of the Grand Mediator's tent, a tall and dark figure with black eyes watched silently.

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

".................," I gazed past the line of guardians at the two figures kneeling inside the tent. The tent flap was closed by two other mediators inside the leather structure.

I took a shuddering breath and walked off.

I hung my arms behind my pale white jumpsuit.

I stared at the floor.

The chill kept bothering me that day. My metal left arm would give me no rest. It was trying to tell me something in temperature fluctuations across my nervous system.

Jonas' words during the last time we conversed were circling through my head. I kept reminding myself that—these people aren't your usual natives. They can sense stuff. They can sense the dead......

I took a shuddering breath and bit my lips.

A pale white wisp was born and was killed in a blink of my black eyes.

They can sense......they can sense my past.........

I walked over to a shadowed section of subway floor beneath a dusty wooden scaffold. I leaned weakly against a wall and sighed.

I don't want to be here anymore.

I want to go home.

A strange thought ricocheted through my head.

It nearly startled me.

The Tower?

B-But of course the Tower.

I mean.........wh-where have I been living for the last four or five months???

A strange, eerie need to chuckle rose through me.

I resisted with a sigh.

God I hope the others are okay.........

"Noir...."

I swiveled around.

Cyborg towered above me. He looked more granite than metal. His dark face had sunk. "We gotta get moving."

I blinked my black eyes. Just one sight of his expression and I completely forgot about myself. I hand-signed with concern: 'You okay?'

"I'm impatient. Now get your ass moving," he grunted. "Leave it to Robin to crack the whip. We have a sewer entrance to go visit. Come on."

I shrugged, sighed, and stumbled after him.

Under the gaze of everyone—and no one—in particular, we left the underground city of torchlight....stepping out into the cold murk that was Mortuana above ground. Living dead air.....

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

Raven bit her lip.

Jonas paused in the middle of his incantations. He leaned over a ring of freshly-lit candles. "Miss Raven....do you wish to discontinue?"

"I uhm.......," the dark girl blinked. She shook her head. "S-Sorry. I just......I-I just needed to find my center, that's all."

"I understand."

"Please....," Raven took a brave breath...reset her lotus position...and closed her eyes. "....let us continue...."

Jonas nodded. Other mediators hummed meditatively in the background as the leader of the Mortuanan city chanted boldly into the magical winds of the colorfully lit ring of candles:

"Ady-tum tasdrag'm-tinglo nikpon skye," the pale man's lips slurred like silver blood across a granite surface. His fingers folded into gracefully mysterious positions as he raised his limbs into the thin air and proceeded: "Bran'wyn khak zodafir'm v'tispira skwall udimp brasbane."

The colors of the candles comingled in the air and fluctuated from red to yellow to green to blue and to oblivion. A black mist filled the air as utter darkness manifested itself in obsidian purity. A halo of onyx circled around Raven.

She breathed calmly, her bangs dancing in a magical wind.

The room turned cold.

Mist poured out of Jonas' mouth as the mediator raised his voice to complete the spell:

"Chu-monke inu elsa'm faindar idla'm nimr blaaksyd!! Hamdyd ophel drk'n itsa hocare screble unowscen!!" he unfolded his fingers and held his palms out—the seams glowing. "Sora ranrog belgron!!"

FLASH!!!

A bubble of blackness exploded outward from the center of the air between Raven and Jonas.

The dark girl gasped uncontrollably.

The warmth in her eyes dilated into little black dots.

Icy blue things started dripping down from the leather of the tent's 'ceiling'.

She expected this.

And all it took was for Jonas to lean over, pierce through the obsidian halo, and gently grip the sides of Raven's face to seal the pact. He opened his mouth, sucked the dark energy out of her soul, and consumed the barrier.

Raven twitched.

She fell into a deep and inexplorable pit.

And the worst thing she could ever imagined happened....just as she meant it to.

She was eternally.....alone....

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

The dark sphere dropped.

A little girl fell to her knees.

Nude......pale......shivering......

The steps of the Temple of Azarath led down into a sea of red.

Beyond that stretched an ugly blackness.

A sky frowned without a face.

And then the personality in everything faded away to an infinite staleness.

And all the shivering soul could hear was the echoes of her panting breath into the opaque soup.

Her violet eyes teared.

"M-Mommy............"

Silence.

Cold marble steps.

The red lake began to recede.

A pit of obsidian yawned hungrily into eternity.

Gravity stung at the girl's joints.

They pulled her down the stairs.

The world tumbling.

No pain......just numbness.

The girl's limbs fell apart.

The naked skin peeled away, leaving a tumbling red mass of a heart rolling one or two last times before coldly plopping into the obsidian abyss.

Without so much as a whistle.........

"Mommy............"

Somewhere beyond the stained marble of Azarathian blood an invisible ice pick flew like a tomahawk missile and skewered the plunging heart in mid fall.

But there was no red juice left.

"Mommy.........why did you want me to die when I was born??"

-T-T-T-T-T-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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

In the middle of marching down the street, I paused.

I turned slowly and gazed more or less in the direction of the city from which we ascended.

Cyborg stopped beside me. "What's up, man?"

".........," I blinked my black eyes. I sighed, turned back, and walked on forward.

Cyborg quietly joined me.

We meandered through dripping-black avenues and alleyways, trying to find the canal hidden behind the medium-sized buildings of the Downtown region. Cyborg and I truly had this City memorized, but the absolute blackness was confusing...even for me. I recognized everything immediately as soon as we walked upon it. But the lack of peripheral vision or far-sight threw us off balance. And—besides—it was not everyday that we sought to walk into the City's underground waterways.

Cyborg was surprisingly mute the entire time. That, of course, wasn't too unusual. Our trek through 'Mortuana' earlier that day was something of the quiet sort. But there was something discernibly moody about my android friend. An issue beyond that of simple fear or apprehension was seemingly vexing his person. I had many guesses as to what the issue or issues could be, but I wasn't one to pry. It's hard to be very inquisitive around your friends when most of them can't even understand what you're trying to 'say'. And at that moment, Cyborg's hands fell limply by his side.

"................," I sighed and silently lead the way. My naked eyes pierced into the wave of darkness and spotted obstructions and twists in the path ahead of time. Soon we were traversing a narrow walkway behind lower skyscrapers. Trashed alleyways and avenues yawned before us in the darkness. Cyborg's shoulder light bounced from behind me, casting a Noir-shaped shadow across the dismal walls.

At some point, the light behind me visibly slacked.

"???" I slowly turned and looked over my shoulder.

Cyborg was slowing. His electronic gaze fell to the passing ground beneath his feet.

"....."

I slowed down too.

He didn't notice until he nearly bumped into me.

"Hmmm?" he looked up.

I blinked patiently at him.

"What now?"

I hand-signed: 'A very good question'.

Cyborg sighed. "Let's just.....rest a moment."

Rest??

But he leaned against a wall and folded his arms.

I shrugged and leaned against a nearby metal fence. I couldn't help but hand-sign something of valid importance.

Cyborg rolled his human eye. "I know what Robin told me, Noir," he grunted. "So what if the black dome is collapsing? The whole damn universe is collapsing. We should just get used to it.....or something."

I raised an eyebrow. Half humored and half annoyed.

Cyborg gave me a look. He finally uttered: "I'm worried about Raven."

I nodded slowly.

He glanced off into the darkness....made doubly dark by the claustrophobic alley walls around us and his downward-tilted shoulderlight. "She....she truly seems intent on letting these Azarathan-Separatist-Folks strip her of all her emotional resistance. And I bet you and I think that's cool and all....but it's all happening so suddenly! I mean...one moment she and I were spending a quiet evening out at her favorite poetry café, then the next moment I know she's letting herself get reprogrammed and stuff. And all following Dr. Light's attack and this Mortuana dimension explosion/implosion thingy and....and...."

He half gestured to say something else, stalled, and sighed.

A beat.

"I guess I am jealous...," Cyborg said. He chuckled a bit. "But not for what Raven thinks." He smiled exhaustingly at me. "She thinks I'm jealous of you, Noir."

I blinked.

"Don't ask me what makes her think that. I am jealous of her. But it's not about you," Cyborg said. He glanced off and inhaled. "I'm jealous of Raven.....I-I'm jealous of Raven because of the mystery that she simply is. D-Does that make any sense?" He looked at me again and absent-mindedly rubbed the human part of his head. "There's so many secrets encased in her past—both painful and wonderful—and for the life of me I can't unfold them from her. N-Not that it's my privilege to know exactly everything that makes her naked soul tick.......b-but I want so much to make her—I dunno—happy? Accepted? Warm, even?" A beat. He brought a metal hand over his face. "Gawd...listen to me. I can't believe I'm saying all of this. I'm.....I-I'm just kicking a stone, that's all...."

I leaned my head to the side. In some way or another, I was always playing 'listener' or 'counselor' to Titans and other people. But I never minded with Cyborg.

Not one bit.

He eventually went on: "I started talking to Raven a lot....a-after the Wyldecarde incident, Noir...." He frankly spat out.

I nodded solemnly.

"I don't know all of what Raven told you about herself in those days...but she blames herself for much of what happened before and after we fought Slade for the last time. She's mad at herself that Trigon ever possessed you. And she thinks she somehow played a part in our distrust of you. But both you and I know the t-truth of that, Noir. All of us did you wrong in that day and age. We were so susceptible to Slade's and Dagger's trickery."

I took a deep breath, absent-mindedly fingering the base of my metal prosthetic.

"Anyways....Raven was just about to completely abandon being close to anyone. Period," Cyborg said. "And I saw this. And I couldn't let her.....p-punish herself in that way. When you were playing the Wyldecarde, Raven did an unprecedented thing. She talked confidently with me. She shared her feelings...her fears. You were gone, Noir. The Titans had pushed you away and Raven no longer had her silent acquaintance to simply....'exist' alongside. To share oxygen with. To not make her feel awkward for her eccentricities. Did you know you were the first Titan to truly do that, Noir? You accepted her for who she was by doing that which you do best."

I started to shift uncomfortably.

Cyborg realized that was a cue to take the focus off of me. So he complied. "I....I sought out to keep Raven from punishing herself with lonely reclusion, I guess. At first, I just teased her as always. But then when I kept pressing on her, that teasing turned into advice. And soon I was....I was dictating to her. It was pathetic, I know. But at least I was making her think of stuff. And I couldn't stop....because I realized more and more just how complex and curious a person Raven is. And soon she started coming to me even. And she didn't hate it when we talked or hung out or....or whatever. Even though I felt that everything I've ever said or suggested fell on deaf ears, I sensed a connection between us. And that made me think that—perhaps in some way or another—I was helping her. She never truly shut herself off. And today, Raven's almost as warm and lively a Titan as the rest of us...a-at least in my eyes."

Silence ensued for a split moment.

Then Cyborg sighed. "I know Raven is more than I could ever imagine her to be. And I know that her character is far more worthwhile than something to be analyzed or 'counseled' by whatever pathetic friendship I may offer. But....but I feel hurt, Noir. I feel hurt because....after all these months of getting to know her...she's suddenly and explosively getting a life-changing inspiration by a group of undead strangers. Oh sure...they're more or less related to her dead people...but how can she just....how can she let everything change overnight? Doesn't she think that her friends may about her? They might miss the Raven they knew or....or was getting to know?"

I stroked my metal arm and gazed toward the floor.

".........," Cyborg smiled painfully. "You don't care, do you, Noir?"

I looked up at him, surprised.

He waved a hand. "No-no...I-I don't mean that in a bad way. I j-just mean.........," he blinked, "........you'd let Raven do whatever she wants, wouldn't you?"

"........."

"Because.....b-because we should trust Raven....," Cyborg was more looking through me as he spoke to himself. "...we should trust Raven to do what's best for Raven."

Silence.

"Maybe I am jealous of you...," Cyborg stroked his head and looked off down the pitch-black alleyway. "...I wish I could have the capacity to....leave people to their own devices. But look at me..." He raised his metal limbs. "I can't understand life without some sort of facilitation." He glanced my way with a red eye. "People can only help themselves so much...and then they might end up hurting their own bodies or souls in the end. And what kind of a person....wh-what kind of a friend would I be to just stand by and let that sort of stuff happen?"

".........," I looked down at the metal arm attached to my limb.

For a split second, both of us were emphasizing our artificial parts at the same time.

Click!

Hissssssssss....

I winced at the chill that ran through my body. I detached my left forearm and raised it for Cyborg to see.

A beat.

Cyborg took a breath. "I guess.....sometimes for the good of our friends, it's not pieces of ourselves that we sacrifice, is it Noir?"

I slowly nodded.

Cyborg gazed toward the ground and muttered: "Sometimes we must sacrifice our friends themselves?"

Now that's not always true.

But............Raven.........

.........

CL-CHTUNG!!

CLICK!

I reattached my limb, biting my lip.

Suffering the chill.....

It occurred to me that this was all new to Cyborg. He was the same age as me—if not older—but only now was he dealing with it.

I looked at the android. I saw the sagging of his Titanium soldiers. The volume of his sighs.

Some people are just meant to ride life alone. Whether it be because of harm......death......or selfishness.

I flexed my flesh and metal knuckles....and sighed.

I'd already dealt with that twice in my life. The first was way back West. The last was on a boardwalk stretching into the East.

And now...funnily enough...I had my heart set upon the Continent's center.

I absent-mindedly rubbed my forehead with a tired exhale.

I shouldn't be hard on Cyborg. He's not alone. Most people never learn from anything anyways.......

"Well....since the universe is collapsing," he put on a brave smile. It didn't last long. "I guess we better haul-ass to the sewers. Robin says a guard in the Mortuana tower spotted signs of human activity here. I'd say that's worth checking out." He walked ahead with his floodlight shimmering across the back alleyway. He said: "Of course...it'd help if the Mortuanans were as supportive of us as they've 'been' to Raven. We could sure use one of them flute-playing exorcists pretty soon, I bet."

I cracked my knuckles and gripped the hilt of Myrkblade as I silently followed behind him.

Don't worry.

Jonas sent one......

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

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

"This is it??"

Dimitri and his two guardians flanked the Boy Wonder.

All four peered across a sudden ravine of blackness. An island of shattered asphalt formed, surrounded by an eerie dark moat that shouldn't have been there. The moat shouldn't have been there because the Downtown Shopping Mall didn't have a ravine built around it. At least....not in the world of light.

The architecture of the commercial structure that Robin memorized was gone. In its place was a collapsing mimicry of rusted-red metal and shifting dust. Barbed wire and rickety planks of iron and tin and copper replaced the walls and floors of what would normally have been the City's finest display of retail. In fact—upon close examination—Robin could swear that the ravine cut around the mall was simply a pit and the shopping plaza itself was nothing more than rusted platforms floating precariously over an endless, obsidian expanse.

"This is where you saw the green light from the Tower," Dimitri said. "There's no mistaking it. This is where Ayane suggested we go."

"But there has to be some mistake...."

"No mistake, my bleeding friend. This is the place. It's only fair to say it doesn't resemble that which you're used to."

Robin glared his way. "You think????"

"The poltergeist here is exceptionally strong. Nothing like the Lich and his Pit, of course. But as you can see, the cityscape has been greatly distorted and—"

"We're going in," Robin grunted. He pulled out a grappling hook and aimed over the edge of the black drop.

"Wait." Dimitri planted a hand over the Boy Wonder's wrist.

Robin glared at him.

The flutist mediator said: "On the other side of that ravine....there is certainly grave danger. Pure death waits for us, and you are still a living soul. Is venturing into such depths truly worth the chance you're going to take?"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Starfire's in there. And this isn't the first time either one of us has chanced 'pure death' for each other."

That said, the Titan leader acrobatically swung over. He tossed the grappling hook back over the chasm for the other three to swing on. In the meantime, Robin slowly paced forward across what was once a sidewalk but had instead become a sheet of rusted metal. His movement was slow. His metal-tipped boots slid over the dented sheets beneath him. With one hand he waved a tiny flashlight. His other hand he stretched out...as if to find some invisible, Tamaranian hand to grab beyond the immediate shroud of darkness.

Instead, his glove came in contact with the wall. And splashed across that wall was a golden plaque.

Robin cautiously read it:

'The Wire Wraiths'

"................," the Boy Wonder blinked behind his mask. "...........cute."

He shuffled along.

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

"This is it, man. I haven't seen this place since the other guys and I rode Speedy's boat away from Viper."

".........," I merely nodded. I wasn't there.

Cyborg walked ahead of me. The piercing beam from his shoulder floodlight bobbed as he knelt then slid swiftly down the concrete incline leading into the ravine. At the bottom of the ten-foot-deep river of concrete was dry ground. All the water had been gone, as if dried up by a nearby napalm explosion.

"Then again...it was in one of these ravines that Robin made Tempest go biserk. Heh...my memory's shot these days," the android Titan muttered. He snapped out of it and motioned ahead. "Anyways...there's where we should be headed."

I jumped down and landed behind him. I walked up to his side and narrowed my black eyes.

A huge, yawning hole of a sewer pipe yawned ahead of us. It swallowed the entirety of the concrete ravine and stretched approximately fifteen feet wide. The interior—a perfectly round, horizontally hollow cylinder—stretched off into a cavernous darkness that adequately screamed to us a warning as to its ominous nature. Interestingly, the usual rank and nasty smell of the sewer was absent at that very moment. I mentally contributed it to the lack of water running below our feet.

Whether or not that's a good thing......

"Well man...what're we waiting for?" Cyborg shrugged. Kl-Klak!! Kak!!! His right arm switched into a sonic cannon which he aimed cautiously ahead of himself as he marched on forward. "Come on. Most likely there're citizens dumb enough to be hiding out inside this place and it's up to us to save their asses! Heh...what better to do on a leisurely stroll??" He marched on ahead.

"..............," I stood in place.

"???" Cyborg realized he was alone. He and his floodlight turned to face me. He lowered his sonic cannon some. "Noir? What's wrong, buddy?"

I scratched my head. I gestured.

"Oh......r-right," Cyborg winced. He scratched his head with the one good hand and glanced around. "I suppose there should be a plaque around here somewhere."

A beat.

"...........," I marched over towards something.

Cyborg looked.

I came to a stop in front of a metal rectangular set in the wall. And—indeed—it was a gold object.

Unfortunately, a heavy layer of grime covered a good two-thirds of the plaque and hid the full extent of the message:

'The Bo-------------'

"Heh....lovely that," Cyborg muttered.

I shrugged.

CRACK!!!!

Cyborg pried the object off and tossed it at me.

I awkwardly caught it.

"There....see if you can't clean it off some while we head on in...," he said. He turned around and once again aimed his sonic cannon ahead of his path as he trudged on. "Until then, I suppose we could guestimate the ghoul, eh? Let's get a move on."

"............," I bit my lip.

I followed shortly after the man and lethargically tried to wipe off the excess grime with a white sleeve.

And in such fashion, we were swallowed by the humongous, dark pipe.

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

Cl-Clank!

Creeeeeak!

Cl-Clang!

Robin winced with each step that he took. The deeper and deeper he ventured towards the center of the shopping mall, the weaker and more fragile the rusted metal floorboards and walls around him seemed to get. And yet—the more he walked into the center of the mall....the less 'mall' it became. It suddenly seemed to him as if the place had faded away into a rusty skeleton around him and his three allies about halfway through their journey. He hadn't noticed a thing....only now the walls became thin planks of vertically precarious metal and the ceilings gave way to skeletonous bulkheads of loose rivets and wobbly support beams.

Everything about the mall screamed 'unsafe'. He could feel the floor buckling beneath him with each step of his boots. The entirety of the place became more and more fragile the further he traversed towards the center. Creaking sounds gave way to haunting reverberations....like the symphony of thousands of tensile, taut copper wires tied to some invisible fulcrum and vibrating like mile-long guitar strings a dozen twists out of tune.

Robin still took the lead, venturing into this hazardous hell of metal. Dimitri followed slowly behind. The guardians—Victor and Raphael—looked ironically uneasy for undead acolytes. Mutely they insisted of the flute-carrying mediator that they reverse their path. But Dimitri paid them no attention. He instead caught up partially with the Boy Wonder and spoke in a hushed tone: "They sense that we are here."

"Good...," Robin grunted. He whipped out two explosive birdarangs and held them between his gloved fingers as he walked forward. "...cuz I come bearing gifts."

"You must realize...," Dimitri smiled patiently. "There is quite a lot at risk here. These Wire Wraiths...they have great control over the environment. The further they sense us infiltrating their domain, the more hazardous they make it for us—"

Creeeeeeak.........

Robin stopped, cautiously balancing his weight.

Raphael and Victor bit their pale lips.

Creeeeeeeeak.........kkkkkk............

Silence.

Dimitri breathed steadily.

Robin cleared his throat. "Well....," he inhaled. "Gotta admit....it keeps me awake." A beat. He glanced back. "Are all undead people so........reluctant?"

"I am hardly reluctant," Dimitri politely smiled. "Just lifeless."

"Try 'drunk'," Robin smirked. He turned around again, faced the rusted wasteland ahead of him, and sighed depressingly.

A beat.

"Where are you, Star??" he murmured.

And he stepped on ahead.

Creeeeak. Creeeeeak. Creeeeeeeeeak.

The metal floorboards were practically bulging downward from the travellers' feet.

Dimitri held a hand out. He spoke hoarsely to the two guardians—and Robin as well if the Titan Leader was so inclined to take heed: "Spread out. Equally distribute our weight. The floor can no longer support all of us...."

Raphael and Victor nervously, shakily obeyed.

Robin pressed on forward—way ahead of the others. "Just what's so terrible that's beneath us anyways---"

CRACK!!!!!

The panel beneath Robin's outstretched boot fell free. The metal rectangular went diving...spiraling...and plunging into utter and pure darkness. The bottomless pit of death itself. The free-falling oblivion of Mortuana.

"...............," Robin stared.

Dimitri was still, peacefully balanced.

Raphael and Victor nervously stayed where they were and pressed no further.

Silence.

"................," Robin's eyemask narrowed.

Silence.

........................cl-clank.........

Raphael and Victor turned twice as pale.

Dimitri was unaffected.

Robin craned his neck to the side.

......................................cl-clank..................clank......

The four held their breaths.

Somewhere from the deep recesses of the rusted metal and darkness, the sounds of scuffling metal reverberations shook through the strangers' bodies and danced up into their ears. It sounded like umbrella needles shuffling over a giant flagpole....and then filtered through a seashell.

............cl-cl-clank...........................clank...............cl-clank......

A beat.

"I'm not scared....," Robin murmured. A frown. His gloved fists clenched and he uttere loudly into the darkness straight ahead of him over the metal planks. "You hear that you stupid spectres?!?! I'm not scared!! You have my best friend!! You may even have my fellow citizens!! I won't be leaving without them...and I sure as Hell won't be leaving without her!! I've faced worst demons than you!! And I frankly don't give a shit if this is your 'home sweet hellish home' or not. I'm coming for what I want!! Scare me all you want, I don't care!!"

The Boy Wonder's voice echoed into the oblivion.

Silence.

From directly below...........................clank..............................cl-cl-clank.........cl-clank......clank.........

The Boy Wonder stood absolutely still.

Nevertheless, his petite heart pounded in the center of his athletic frame. His arms hung by his side, poised to do anything...or nothing at all.

And he meditated on the latter...knowing it would grant him the most success with anything.

But after then........further silence ensued. A long bout of it.

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. "Okay.......onward we go...."

He shuffled one boot ahead....and moved on.

Dimitri hesitated a bit this time in following the boy. He murmured to himself. "Great Lenin's ghost.......," he whispered. "She'd better be damn pretty." He smiled as he pressed on slowly.

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

A ball of light slowly bobbed down the concrete passageway. In the center of the bright sphere stood Cyborg and I. We paused as we came to a stop in a junction of the huge, interconnecting tunnels. Three possible avenues of movement yawned open before us. There was still not a single drop of sewer water....and not a single sight of a human soul.

Sensing nothing with my spatial awareness beyond the shine of Cyborg's floodlight, I boringly switched my attention to wiping the grime off of the detached plaque in my hand. I was making very little progress.

"Aw man....," Cyborg grunted. He was aiming one arm forward as a sonic cannon and staring at the sensor readouts on a panel of his other metal wrist. "I'm not reading a single heat signature. Either these concrete pipes are too thick and the people are too far away....or there aren't any people underground here to begin with!! I've dealt with enough damn traps for today, haven't you?"

I sighed, shrugged, and continued trying to make the inscription on the plaque legible.

"...........," Cyborg stared at me. A blink. "Eh....now look who's moody."

I glared at him.

He shook his head. "Never mind. I think we should take the center route, what about you?"

I gazed ahead towards the limits of Cyborg's floodlight. I scratched my chin with a free hand. Then nodded in agreement.

He gave me a suspicious look with his human eye. "Took you an awful long time.....to come to the same conclusion."

I stuck my tongue out.

"I'll show you where to put that soon enough. Come on. Let's go center."

I wiped at the plaque some more. I looked at my handiwork.

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

'The Bon------------'

I groaned...and hesitantly shuffled behind Cyborg.

Little did I sense the ceiling above us.....and how it was shifting around like upside down quicksand.

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

The shopping mall was only discernible by then by the scant clothes racks that dotted the rusted landscape. And even at best the metal racks were leaning precariously about, lacking clothes, and even lacking clothes hangers. Rather, they formed a rusted forest of jagged metal limbs that scratched out in frozen stretches towards Robin as he shuffled towards some transient 'center' to the madness.

Indeed, as the Boy Wonder gazed one hundred and eighty degrees about him with his eyemask, he took notice of something. "It's a spiral."

"A spiral?" Dimitri asked, close behind.

The two shuffled forward...ten feet a minute. Taking it slowly. The metal planks groaned and bent suggestively underneath their feet.

"Yes...," Robin nodded. "Whatever used to be the shopping mall...it's now a twisted mess aiming towards the center. I bet there's something important nestled between all the converging lines of rusted metal. It's like a really huge spiderweb."

"You don't say......"

"You've met these 'wire wraiths' before, haven't you, Dimitri?"

"Once or twice I've had to consume them. Yes."

"Would you know what they're like?"

Dimitri took a shuddering breath and managed weakly to smile: "Your spiderweb analogy is right on track, I shall admit that much."

"Mmmmhmmmm....," Robin pressed forward.

The closer they got towards the center, the more frequent and random the shuffling noises throughout the echoing lattice structure.

Cl-Clank........................clank..................cl-cl-clang.........

...............cl-clank.....................shuffle............clang.........

"Shhh....," Robin hissed as he paused. "Listen."

Dimitri was ever obedient.

Raphael and Victor had stopped following about fifty feet ago.

.....................cl-clank............clang............sh-shuffle......

.........clank..................clank..................cl-clang...............

Robin whispered: "There are two of them.........."

"Indeed...," Dimitri swallowed. "As the plaque's pluralization implies........"

"And they're right beneath us........." the Boy Wonder added.

Dimitri was silent at that.

Then.......

Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Panel after panel of metal floorboard bulged upwards in a straight line from behind Dimitri, past him, underneath Robin, and towards the center.

Silence.........

Then....

Clank! Clank!

A spot of metal bulged up just two feet away from Robin's forward toe.

"................," the Boy Wonder stood silently like a stealthy fly.

.................sh-shuffle............

The metal board bulged once more....lifted up a few inches....settled down....then depressed.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clank! Clank! Clank!

The upwards-bulging planks dwindled off into the indiscernible darkness.

Robin exhaled. He glanced back at Dimitri. "Not close enough to consume them?"

"It's always difficult to consume a dual poltergeist....," the mediator smiled weakly. "No matter if it's right-side up or upside down."

Robin shrugged with a smirk. "Occupations are never as easy as they used to be....or should be." A beat. He turned around and proceeded to press on. "I suppose I should be thankful that----"

CRUNCH!!!!!

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

The next metal panel fell out from under him.

The Boy Wonder dropped.

"Mr. Titan!!!" Dimitri scampered towards the fresh hole in the metal floor. He slumped down to his knees, wobbled a bit on the precariously bending platform, and peered down below. ".............!!!!!"

He caught sight of Robin.

The Boy Wonder was grabbing onto one of many dozens of metal wires dangling precariously like rusted umbilical cords or huge, unstrung coathangers. A veritable upside forest of copper strings waved to and fro underneath the metal platforms in some magical wind. Beneath the Titan's flailing cape and legs was a gigantic spindle of rusted, metal lattice work. All corners and edges of the shopping plaza's floating 'island' were attached to red metal wires that stretched tightly downward and met at the center of an iron nub that descended about two hundred meters via an upside tower at the fulcrum of the rusted 'plaza' platform. It was like a blood-red, paper-thin chandelier hanging over pure, infinite blackness. All it took was one slip for Robin to taste eternity.

"Might I say...," Dimitri uttered. "You're dangling by a thread."

"You may say nothing...," Robin grunted. His teeth clenched in his strain as he flailed his legs about and tried to perch himself upside down via the rusted string. Instead, he decided to launch a free arm out with a gasp and clutch onto another dangling string. "Excuse me while I exercise Hell's trapeze act," the Boy Wonder sweated. He swung his lower body and then leapt off the two cords just to hang from a thicker, metal cord closer to where Dimitri hung his head down. The Titan leader wiped a brow with a free, shaky hand as he dangled from the fresh wire. "I swear...this is Nightwing's environment. Not mine."

Dimitri blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Never mind. Be a good zombie and help me up."

Dimitri reached a hand out. "You should have been more cautious."

"Remind me who's looking for whose close friends here...," Robin grunted as he reached an arm out to grasp ahold of Dimitri's and hoist himself back up to the top surface of rusted metal. "I have my eyes peeled for friends, not falls---"

Silence.

The Boy Wonder cut himself off as he lowered his gaze and caught sight of something. His lips parted.

"????" Dimitri glanced straight down.

Where the tower dropped and met the converging wires like an upside down mushroom, five distinct bodies hovered eerily in the darkness. The bodies had been reduced to stiff, mummy-like figures......for high-strung copper wire had wrapped around their structures from head to tow. They drifted into each other along the limited slack of their wired support to the anchor of the upsidedown tower head. Silent. Lifeless. And yet...one of them was glowing an adamant, green hue from beneath.

And to Robin, that meant they were all alive......

"Allah...Buddha...Yahweh...whoever....," Robin mumbled and blinked under his mask. "Praise be...."

"The ones you are looking for?"

"The one," Robin uttered a correction. "But saving anyone else in the process is a fringe benefit......as always" He stopped reaching out for Dimitri's hand from above and swung back and forth on his single, copper cord. "Excuse me if I don't shake your hand on the way out."

Dimitri gasped. "Why, Mr. Titan, what are you---?!?!"

Robin swung.....and jumped.

Dimitri's pale eyes went wide.

Robin flipped forward, stretched his cape out, and glided....glided....glided down towards the upside down towerhead like a colorful paper airplane. Any false move...any single degree of miscalculation would land him—figuratively—in black eternity.

And yet—before Dimitri's eyes—the Titan grabbed ahold of the upside down tower's 'stalk', slid down gracefully, and landed smack dab in front of the cord-wrapped body of the floating alien girl.

"..............," Robin stood up straight on the upside down, metal 'mushroom'. He took a shuddering breath and smiled weakly. "Guess that goes without showing......--"

"Rather hasty decision, Mr. Titan," uttered Dimitri from high up above.

Robin glanced up.

A panting Victor and Raphael joined Dimitri finally in glaring down at the upside down, rusted 'web' of metal.

"I think you just entered their domain!"

"Whose domain?!?!" Robin barked back up at them.

Dimitri merely pointed. "The wire wraiths..."

Robin spun around.

Cl-Cl-Clack!!............ Shuffle............

"Ah yes......," Robin half groaned and half smirked. He whipped out his metal rod, extended it, and got into a ready pose on the inner circumference of the metal tower nub. "Charlotte, I presume." A beat. "Or CharlotteS......"

The three Mortuanans watched helplessly from above as two bulbous shadows shuffled their way towards Robin and the tied-up victims via the wires converging on either side of the metal nub.

Robin's eyemask narrowed and he grit his teeth. His gloved fingers tightened around the metal staff.

As the two shadows entered the green aura of the unconsciously dangling Tamaranian beside the Boy Wonder, pale limbs came into focus. Ivory-smooth arms and hands. A fan of naked, human torsos stretching out from a meaty, pulsing center. Upper bodies transformed into giant spider legs.

"Rhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhsskkkk......."

Robin exhaled. "Picked a really bad day to go shopping........"

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

"Hey....I-I think I'm getting something...," Cyborg's whispery voice drifted backwards towards me. We were walking down a stretch of horizontal pipeline. The air was getting colder. Still there was no sewer water, but a distinct feel of moisture floated through the air and clung sickly to the insides of our mouth. The android Titan studied the sensor readings on his left arm and uttered: "There's definitely some heat signatures nearby. The reading's faint right now, but something's out there. And it's all bunched together. Who knows, man? It might be people. Can you see what's ahead of us, Noir?"

I wasn't paying attention. I was halfway through finally cleaning off the damn plaque.

"Noir???"

I looked up boredly. A blink. I clamped a hand over Cyborg's shoulder.

"?????" he glanced over at me. "Huh???" He looked ahead. "Aw nuts..."

It was a dead end. At least where our tunnel was concerned. A circular drop opened up just a few feet beneath us. Jumping down it would bring us somewhere......perhaps anywhere.

But nowhere we wanted to go.

"Well...guess we have to double-back. Look on the bright side....," he smiled at me. "Anywhere these innocent people might have gotten to can't be any real problem for us to reach, right?"

I shrugged. I looked down at the plaque.

I suddenly realized that it was legibly clean.

It read:

'The Bonewyrm'

"............" I slowly tilted my head up. My black eyes blinked. Again I sensed something strange. Like a pulsing ceiling of white oatmeal.

I glanced directly up.

Beyond the edges of Cyborg's floodlight, I saw the distinctly still shadow of solid concrete. But directly above my android friend, I saw something else. And that something else had morphed into a giant scythe of calcium formed by a huge femur and a razor-sharp clavicle that was presently swinging a serrated collision course towards the Titan's cranium.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred at him.

WHUMP!!!!

I shoved the both of us to the ground.

"OOF!!!"

"!!!!!"

"Noir?! What is it?!?!" Cyborg gasped.

I helplessly clutched to his arm and pointed upwards, shivering.

".........," he glanced from me to the ceiling. His human eye widened.

A sickle-like conglomeration of bones stretched into the halo from his floodlight. A legbone twitched and shook until it yanked the clavicle out of the concrete ceiling. It then scurried down the length of the pipe's ceiling on clicker-clackering little carpals and tarsals attached to the base of the femur.

".................well allright," Cyborg blinked.

"Shhhhh!!" I breathily hissed. I spun my head around and about, eyeing little pale shadows streaking by all around us.

Annoyingly high-pitched clattering sounds echoed all around us in the claustrophobic chamber. We became aware of dismembered hands, knuckles, and jawbones scurrying past us like tiny sea crabs on a concrete beach. Occasionally vertebrae would slither past us like bony snakes, and rib cages would crawl along like ungodly centipedes. All of the possessed entities of bone crackled off in some shadowy mass just beyond the light.

My black eyes saw it first, and I shivered.

Cyborg pushed me aside gently and aimed his shoulder's floodlight.

The wall of illumination slithered up and found itself reflecting off the pale-ivory complexion of hundreds and thousands of bones merging into a cohesive whole in the center of the tunnel. CrkkkkkkkCrkkkkkckkkkrkkkkkkkkCkkkk!!!! Leg bones slid up against spinal columns and pelvises and tibulas and fibulas with carpals and tarsals sliding in between it all like squirming, vanilla-colored ants or ball bearings. And squishing out of the center and glaring at us was a conglomerated ring of skulls. Human skulls. Animal skulls. Bird skulls. Every eye socket glowed and every jaw opened wide to exhale a wave of air-crystallizing freeze: "CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!"

Cyborg bit his lip. "Yeah....okay....I'm not seeing that. Uh uh."

SWOOOOOSH!!! The Bone Wyrm slithered violently at us down the tunnel.

There was nowhere to go but---

"!!!!!" I blurred murk into my limbs and shoved Cyborg and I down the hole.

"WHOAH!!"

SWOOOOOOSH!!

CrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkCrrkkkkkckkkkkkkrkkkkkCkkkkrkkkk!!!!"

The wall of calcium soared above us as a wriggling stream of white mass while we plummeted.....

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

Robin gritted his teeth.

He paced carefully around the scant metal support of the upside tower from where he spied the two, incoming 'wire wraiths'.

The poltergeists were round, bulbous blobs of ragged meat with the torsos of twitching and contorting mannequins sticking out from the bloody exoskeleton. In a ring of reflective pale, the mannequin limbs shuffled collectively with oozing motion, carrying the meat blobs down the inclined spiral of red wires like dimpled spiders. Every now and then, a leg-mannequin head or two would shake and vibrate as with epilepsy and a loose, leathery mouth positioned around the dummy's pale nose would cycle open allowing a ten foot long bullwhip tentacle of leather to flick out, in, out, and back in like a snake's tongue. The tips of the vomited tentacles were razor sharp with crusty brown keratin. Add all of these things to the fact that the bulbous round 'torsos' of the wire wraiths had huge, gaping, baby mouths full of red-stained teeth and you had yourself one Hell of a fright.

"Thank you Scarecrow...," was all the smooth Boy Wonder had to say. He calmly eyed the menaces creeping down on either side of the hanging tower. The wound-up bodies of Starfire and the three other people dangled and hovered eerily beside him. "Forgive me, Star. But I'm gonna have to make a little detour before....erm.....unwrapping you."

The green glow under the wires seemingly intensified....as if the Tamaranian girl underneath registered his words.

The Wraiths slithered down. The mannequin arms were almost towards the metal nub. Tentacles began lashing at the Boy Wonder's boots from a distance. SNAP!!!

"Rhhhhhhhskkkkkk......"

Robin gritted his teeth and pulled out a grappling hook.

From above, Raphael shouted: "Lightsider!! You are in a predicament of great peril!! We three shall help you, but you must cooperate!!"

"No sudden movements!!" Dimitri exclaimed. "Do you understand??"

"Yeah, I understand...," Robin smirked suddenly. "But you see....it's not my style."

That uttered, the Titan leader bravely spun his staff, charged the edge of the metal platform, and leapt violently outward over the endless pit.

He sailed conveniently towards the wide open baby-mouth of the leftmost wraith.

"Rhhhhhhhhhskkkkk!!!!!"

"Allow me to check your temperature!!!!!!!" Robin shouted. And he dove with his staff stabbing deep into the creature's mouth. "YAAAAAAAAUGH!!"

.....but it bit down.