These Black Eyes Chapter 139: Mortuana part 8, a teen titans fanfic

139. Mortuana part 8

Silence falls.

The violinists were still strumming......but the notes are so high and so soft that all they accomplished is a tense whining in the back of everyone's pale ears.

The audience falls silent. They exhale breaths they don't truly have.

The storyteller hisses exhaustingly through his teeth, shakes his head towards the claustrophobic ceiling, and shrinks to his knees before the bonfire.

He runs a hand through his wavy hair and utters:

"The collapse......"

A breath.

Whining violins.

"......the collapse........."

The listeners shut their pale eyes.

The bonfire flickers.

The man's face tebses into a painful smile.

".........she had found it."

He lowers his arms towards the flames.

"She had found the collapse. Her father's binding emotion had been pierced through. With the springboards of happiness and sorrow, the sacred daughter survived the brunt of rage......and the concept of her self began to deteriorate. And the world......our precious Mortuana......"

He again eyes the 'ceiling'. "......it followed her suit. The eternal plunge......the hideous pit......" He inhales. He speaks: "None of us knew where she was taking us. But we decided to trust her. We put our faith in her and braved the thunder of the collapse."

A beat.

He beams.

Softly he utters: "After all......he did..."

Metal fingers against plastic shell.

Twisting the two cylinder halves together.

Pulling the wires out.

Cl-Click!

Fastened in the silver slot.

Metal fingers pressing in.

SNAP!

A breath.

Gripping the panel.

Sliding it close.

Chtink!

Sliding the candle holder over.

Scraping pewter against rickety wood.

Gripping the metal wrist.

Snapping a joint open.

A whirring set of gears.

Gentle flesh fingers guiding the wires.

Into the open joint of the wrist.

The gears made contact.

Static.

And.

Zzzt!!!

I winced.

I applied force.

Zzz-Zzzt!!

Electrical currents traveled through the wire into the battery of the flashlight shut away inside the unconscious Cyborg's auxiliary power compartment.

Titanium fingers twitched once or twice.

I stuck the wires hard into my prosthetic.

Chills ran through my entire body.

I braved it.

The android's arm twitched more.

Then--

Fl-Flash!!!

A pulse of blue light. Then white light. Then a dull, low glow barely beneath the surface of the cracked, translucent metal.

I yanked the wires out of my metal arm and swiftly reached back to the compartment of Cyborg's power system. I flipped a switch in the open compartment.

There was a 'clunking' sound from inside the Titan's chest cavity.

I leaned my dark head over to his sternum.

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

I blinked.

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

Whurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I let out a breath.

His 'heart' is working again......

I stood up and reached towards the table for a small plastic pouch of smelling salts from Cyborg's equipment. I waved it before his nose.

A beat.

"Nnnghh....," the flesh half of Cyborg's nose scrunched up. He twitched and groaned.

I smiled weakly.

His head turned somewhat. His electric eye remained a dull black. In fact, his entire left metal face was as black and dead as the rest of his titanium exoskeleton.

His right eye opened. He blinked up at me.

Cyborg was lying on a collection of wooden benches gathered at the last second by myself and a few helpful Mortuanans hours ago. Since the time the other Titans had fled to safety, I swiftly Macgyvered a reboot battery for at least giving the android Titan some semblance of life again. But as I stood over him there in the shadowed corner of the town—dimly haloed by tiny candles—I found myself exactly where I was two hours previous.

I had no idea what to do.

I just want to see him alive......

I bit my lip.

I......I want to see somebody alive in this place......

"Halle Berry?" Cyborg murmured.

I raised an eyebrow above my black eye.

He coughed, chuckled hoarsely, and shut his human eye again: "Sorry......thought I was in Heaven already."

I smiled.

His lips went soft. His head started to teeter.

I whistled. I slapped his face lightly. I shook his neck.

"Nnnngh....cut it out, dawg....I'm not gonna pass out and die on ya, okay??" he groaned and opened a lazy eye in frustration. "Only half of me is dead right now. Not the better half, if you ask me."

I took a deep breath.

"The others??" Cyborg asked. "Robin? Star? Beast Boy?"

I hand-signed: 'They made it safely.' I bit the corner of my lip as I conveyed that.

Cyborg inhaled through his right nostril. "And Raven??"

"..................," I blinked.

Silence.

Cyborg sighed. He let his head fall towards the right. "Heh....d-didn't think she was on the list...."

"????"

Cyborg coughed, then said: "The list of who I knew I was saving."

'Did you expect to overload?'

"Noir....all I did was overload," Cyborg responded to my gestures. "Whatever the Hell that thing was...I sincerely doubt it could survive the energy capacity of a city block of Las Vegas in the form of a bipedal vigilante. And speaking of yours truly...," he sighed then continued, "...I'm glad. I'm glad that Satan invented flammable creeps. No more hairy slug tentacle punks on these dark hunting grounds, thanks to me. Heheheh."

A beat.

I hung my head.

So would he if he had the energy to do it.

"Noir......I....I-I didn't mean to make you worry," he mumbled. His voice was struggling to come forth from his facilitated voice box. I always forget that he nearly lost his voice too once. "I....I just couldn't do anything else...."

I leaned my head to the side and looked at him.

"I saw you coming down like a bolt of murk," he smiled somewhat. "I expected you to dive down like you did, Noir. I expected it before I passed out in front of you. You see....I-I gotta even the score. Throughout this whole nightmare....y-you've been tearing your soul apart to 'consume' these creeps. And God knows why you're doing it. Maybe it's Jonas' influence. Maybe you're just feeling ascetic lately. But...." Half of his brow furrowed and he seemed a bit menacing as he wheezed: "....this damned place has already taken one of my best friends. And Noir....I'm not gonna let it take both of the closest people I have to trust in this life."

My lips parted a bit. I narrowed my black eyes.

He closed his eyes. He took a shuddering breath. It was haunting to see only his flesh half move and his metal part fail to reciprocate.

Eventually the android Titan said: "Noir......you can...y-you can live your life punishing yourself for secret things in the past. But all you'll have is darkness. I'm pretty sure that....th-the reason why you're alive now is that....th-that you're purposed to live. And for you and me...life means the world of light. I want you to make it through this, man. Raven may have given into a curse she no longer has....but now that you're still here and you're still reasonable......I-I'm not about to let you fall into some guilt-ridden abyss either. Come home with me, Noir. Come home with the rest of the Titans. Things aren't so bad that you have to....s-surround yourself with death this early."

I didn't have a response to him. I was mainly too involved with shock.

How transparent am I???

My black-eyed gaze fell over his dull-metal features.

I suppose......I am not the only person the dead appeal to.

I ran a nervous, metal hand through my hair.

I sighed.

"Noir....," Cyborg coughed. He gasped, gathered his breath, and said: "I'll spend all of my days dictating to you. Much like I've dictated to Raven. But I know in the end, you'll do that which you wish to do. And.....and I-I'll trust it. I really will." His gaze fell sadly across the dim candles. "I....I trust Raven........I just don't want her to stay." A beat. "That's why I exploded all over her. That's why I acted like a selfish punk. After two years of trying to understand the mystery that is her...I-I now see it open before me. In all its gruesome, deathly reality. I see the mystery that is her....and I can't settle with it. I want more than t-to just understand her. I....want to be around her. I can't imagine being outside in the light without her usual pessimism and wariness and wisdom. I can't imagine being in a world without her....even though I've already been in a world directly related to her. Fact is...I know nothing. This is all Raven's department. She knows what to do with herself. She knows what she can or can't do." An exhale. "I trust her....as much as I know I'm going to miss her.....I trust her...."

"..........," I stared off into the darkness.

RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!

The chamber shook.

The wooden tables and benches rattled.

The candles flickered.

I calmly gazed around.

Cyborg's human eye blinked.

The rumbling stopped.

I breathed out and looked at him.

"It's collapsing, isn't it?" Cyborg asked. "If....if we don't get out soon enough....we'll be stuck in here. And as appealing as it is to join Raven in such a crazy fate......I think you and I have duties in the world of light."

I gently nodded.

"It's a pity...," Cyborg twitched.

I grabbed his shoulders and hoisted his limp, half-powerless body into a rough sitting position.

"......I was sorta getting used to this place," he sighed. He rested his head back. "Comfortable....in a Stephen King on LSD sort of way. Think they'd mind if I steal some towels on the way to checking out?"

I smiled crookedly.

Shuffles.

Footsteps.

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

We both glanced over.

Raven panted. She hugged herself.

I bit my lip.

Cyborg's face stretched some.

"What....are you doing here......??" she hissed. Her eyes were thin. Dagger sharp.

My eyes fell to the floor. I avoided her gaze.

But Cyborg didn't. "R-Rae??"

"What is HE doing here?!?!?!" Raven barked with a shaking finger. Her voice rattled against the wooden frames around us.

I shuffled towards Raven and made gently to turn her around and--

"NO!!!" she jumped back, practically bearing her fingernails like a blue praying mantis. "I said I didn't want any of you here!! N-Not now!! Not to see me like this!!"

"Raven....you came to us...."

".........," the girl shook. She continued to hug herself.

I stood helplessly strung between the half-dead Cyborg and the half-feeling Raven. I glanced back and forth.

Cyborg managed to utter: "What is it, Rae? What did you come here for??"

"I didn't come here....," she gritted her teeth. "I didn't want to be here!! Never....NEVER in my life have I ever had something go my way!! I've always given my damn all for the rest of the world. Protecting everyone from my father's influence inside of me. Hiding my true powers from you and the rest of the Titans! Doing everything I can to make myself into some freakish ghost!! I can only do that which I know to do!! And in here....in this cold and dark place...the only thing I know to do is make myself twice as invisible as if this darkness isn't enough to hide my pathetic face!!"

"But Raven...I thought that these Mortuanans were your people and—"

"I don't know anymore, okay?!?!?!" Raven shrieked. She clutched her hair and shook all over. "My head....it's bubbling....like a hot iron dropped into my brain. I've felt this agony before. It was when Rage broke free. And indeed, Rage has broken free again. Only...only I-I know there is no longer any demonic threat...." She glared at us and spat: "But I still can't handle it!! I can still hurt you and the Titans!! Why didn't you leave?!?! Why did you stay?!?! This isn't your world!! You don't belong in the dark like I do!!"

I shook some.

Cyborg breathed...then spoke: "Raven...we are going to leave you..."

Raven panted. The red in her face faded some. She stood, half-hunched over as if having just run the mile.

Cyborg lowered his human eyelid. He said: "We are going to leave. It won't be long now. Noir and I will be back in the world of the light. And you will be alone, Raven. You will be perfectly alone....if that is what you desire...."

Raven hugged herself. She looked aside and pushed the stubborn lock of blue hair up and away from her brow.

Cyborg opened his eye. "I....I know that there are parts of you that you never want me or Noir or any of the other Titans to see, Raven. But please understand....never have we seen anything that would warrant us l-leaving you willingly...."

A beat.

Raven slowly gazed in my direction.

"????"

"........," I slowly nodded. I shuffled off and walked away from the dark corner.

Raven and Cyborg were alone.

Silence.

Raven wandered over.

She leaned against the wooden table.

The candle light danced against her graceful features.

Her posture was straight and rigid.

She glared into the darkness.

A beat.

"Cyborg...," she spoke into the flickering halo with a side-stammer. "....I...I am so confused....r-right now.....that I hardly know what I am doing here to begin with."

".......," Cyborg listened.

"I......I have to stay here.....," the dark girl murmured. "I don't feel like I have to stay. But rather....it's.....somehow logical to me. Or at least, it was logical to me......" She hung a thin hand over her face. "It was all clear before...b-before I underwent the consumptions....."

"Jonas and your emotions?" Cyborg asked.

She slowly nodded.

The android numbly stirred. "Raven....I swear....if he—"

"No, Cyborg," she sighed and shook her head. "Every time we perform consumption....Jonas extends the invitation to cancel the procedure. I know that I and I alone am responsible for this decision. Ever since Dr. Light enacted his revenge and plunged all of us here....I've known what I had to do. I had first sent Dr. Light to this world when Rage once took over me. And when in this world, Dr. Light saw something. He saw a weakness in me, Cyborg. Or at least....he saw something he thought would be a weakness in me. He brought me here hoping that the same dimension that terrorized him would paralyze me and everyone else caught up in it. But he couldn't count on the fact that this place—loosely or directly—is linked to me. The blackness is my blood. The poltergeists are my breath. The Mortuanans are my heartbeat. And in order to reverse Dr. Light's secret weapon...I must consume it....and let it consume me. I must understand Mortuana fully. And in order to do that...I-I must stay here, Cyborg. I must stay in Mortuana.......a-and lose control....."

"But why, Raven?" Cyborg breathed. "Why must you lose control? What does losing your meditation and powers have to do with—"

"It is a gain, Cyborg....," Raven interrupted with a murmur. "I....I don't know how to explain it. But I have to keep going. I have to keep stripping myself of what I once clung to. I have to become this new person. This new Raven. But the new Raven doesn't exist without its testament to the old. I must be alone. I m-must be alone in this quest. Mortuana will grant me the essence I have always strived to be."

Cyborg lowered his human eyelid again. "I know. I've always tried to make you into something different.....b-but I know that you are you, Raven." He smiled weakly. "I wouldn't like you if you were anyone else."

Raven looked his way. She raised an eyebrow. "L.....L-Like me??"

Cyborg slowly nodded.

".............," Raven lowered her head. She clenched her teeth. She clutched her skull hard.

Cyborg's lips pursed in concern.

"I......I.......," Raven shuddered and shook. She shook her head in her wrangling grasp. "I-I don't know how to feel, Cyborg." She looked up and her eyes were teary. Her lips quivered. "I...am so full of sorrow...." Her eyes clenched shut. "And yet....g-giddy.....and at the same time so madddd....." She clenched her fists. She relaxed. She shuddered and sobbed once, clutching her hands once more over her face. "....but most of all right now....I feel so, so overwhelmed and hopeless. So very hopeless....."

Cyborg wished suddenly that he could so much as move a limb.

Raven shook. She tilted her head back up with a tearful groan. She wiped her fair sleeve across her cheeks and exhaled: "......I know what I'm doing is logical. I just don't know why. All I can do is trust that I'm going somewhere important with all of this. Once every barrier is broken....things will be oh so clear. I can already feel it, Cyborg."

"F-Feel what, Raven?"

She hugged herself and shivered. "I....I can feel the deepest shadows of this world. I can feel the poltergeists twitching in agony. I can feel Dr. Light cowering away in some deep crevice. I c-can feel......feel......."

RUMMMBLE!!!!

The wooden table rattled.

The benches groaned.

Cyborg's eyes trailed the dark corners of the candlelight's halo.

Raven took a deep breath. "I can feel the collapse. I can feel the land of death dying." She looked hauntingly at Cyborg. "It's a race, Cyborg. You see....it's not just the doorway to Mortuana that's collapsing. It's much darker and more ominous than that. Whatever it is...I have to collapse before it does. It's for the best of everyone and everything. Light side and dark side. For whatever logical reason....it's my purpose here. The lonely pre-emptive collapse of shields to all my wicked passions."

Cyborg breathed. "You.....are a savior, Raven?"

The girl sniffed. "I am a witch......nothing more...." She stood like a flickering shadow at the far edge of the candlelight. "Always was. I'm.....I-I'm sorry I ever let you get close to me, Cyborg. Now I'm doing this...and it has to hurt you so much....."

Silence.

"It would hurt me......logically," Cyborg remarked.

Raven looked forlornly in his direction.

He smiled weakly. His flesh face. "Raven....the part of me that thinks.....that truly 'thinks'....it's way on the fritz right now. I'm having to stay awake as I speak with eighty percent of my conscious motor functions disabled and over half of my cybernetic processors on strike. The overload I set off a while ago smashed through three solid failsafe systems of my energy core. I can feel a flashlight in my arm compartment that Noir must have utilized in rebooting me. A lightbulb, Raven....."

The girl blinked at him.

He breathily continued: "All I am right now....is all I ever truly was when I befriended you. While I saw through my red eye a creepy girl who punished herself needlessly day in and day out....this eye---"he winked "---showed me that which I still see at the present. And that's a girl who knows herself. With all mystery and meditation torn away or not...she's always been in charge of her own person. Her self-control is beyond anything any of us Titans can hope to compare to. She's known the path of her life long before walking it...and she's stuck to her destiny through and through. And no matter what I did to obey logic and try and talk you out of being who and what you are....you still stayed true to yourself. And this Cyborg--.....Vic Stone....he respects you. He always has. He always will."

Raven's gaze drifted away.

RUMMMMBLE!!!!

Cyborg spoke above the shaking sensation: "When I'm back in the light world....without you, Raven.....and when I go 'back online'.....I'll hate myself. I'll hate myself for letting you go. But this part of me...the part that feels...I shall always remember the freeze frame that rests before me now. A young lady....so selfless....so wise....and so.........cutie...." He smiled.

Raven folded her arms and performed a unique blend of a smile and a frown. The tripartite expression was topped off with a tear. She took a shuddering breath. "You....say a lot, Cyborg.....but you'll never understand me."

"I'm glad, Raven............I'm glad......."

"............................," Raven turned towards the darkness. She shuddered. "When....wh-when should you and Noir be going?"

Cyborg swallowed. He uttered: "You tell me, Rae....."

".................," Raven hung her arms by her side...facing away from him. "You should leave as soon as I disappear. Because that's when I'll be doing it."

"Doing what, Raven?"

"Opening myself up to the last and final emotion," she walked off. "Fear....."

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

RUMMMMMBLE!!!!

Men and Women in the subway 'town' murmured and wrung their hands in apprehension. They gathered in worrisome clusters under the flickering torchlight as the underground cityscape vibrated and quaked.

I walked nonchalantly down the center of the cross-mesh of wooden platforms and lattices. I was unaffected by the shaking. I had every reason to fear the implications of the collapse's violent side-effects But I didn't.

Not my world anyways.

I looked up ahead. I sighed and my black eyes narrowed.

Or is it?

I spotted a lonely, wooden crate. Dimitri sat on it with his shoulders hunched. He twirled a flute numbly in his grasp. His pale eyes drifted through the floor.

"........."

I walked over and stood quietly before him.

Silence.

"I have seen......so many horrors....," Dimitri slurred.

A beat.

"So many.....memories.....of tortured spirits......the poltergeists....."

"......" I stared down at him. Nearby torchlight shimmered off my tattered white jumpsuit. Worrisome shadows walked to and fro behind me.

Dimitri looked up at me. "Why is it....after all of my consumptions as a Mediator.....Ayane's loss affects me??"

I raised an eyebrow.

He leaned his head to the side. "I imagine....as a lightsider, you must understand what loss is."

I gazed off at that.

A beat.

Dimitri examined his flute up close....stoically. "Here in Mortuana....loss is everything. The dead come to us. Tragedy falls on our doorsteps. Everything we know and practice is for the sole sake of balancing the frequency of loss. We salvage what we can from the world of the living...and make do with it."

He ran a pale hand through his hair and looked up at me again.

"Ayane....is doubly lost. I know it was meant to be....but after witnessing so much of what the light side offers these days....I can almost....almost remember what it was like to be on the farm. In the Sun. My family....."

I nodded slowly.

A beat.

Dimitri smiled painfully. "Those two particular Titans....they are quite...............warm. Who are they again? The 'bird' youth and the alien?"

I smirked.

"Do they realize how much the both of them appear—"

I shrugged.

"I see," Dimitri nodded. His pale eyes trailed off. He sighed. "Mortuana....is blessing amnesia. You will be likely to find in death—Mr. Titan—the greatest heaven you'll ever have is forgetfulness." He glanced up at me again. "You wouldn't be here.....you wouldn't be able to consume poltergeists.....if you had nothing worth forgetting."

I bit my lip.

Footsteps.

The two of us looked up.

"........," Jonas smiled. "Greetings, fellow souls."

Dimitri stood up. He seemed to be shaking for some reason. "G-Grand Mediator. I-I...."

Jonas placed his hands on the man's shoulders. "At ease, Jonas. We all know that you have taken Ayane's departure hard..."

".....," Dimitri hung his head.

Jonas leaned his head to the side, smiling. "You have been so....so very brave as of late, Dimitri. Ayane was very proud of you. I'm sure that—wherever her energy may be now—she is still very proud of you."

Dimitri took a shuddering breath. "I wish my energy could join her......"

I listened.

"We will all join together one day, young one...," Jonas said. "Soon enough. We are in the age of the Sacred One." That said, he gazed my way.

I stared back.

".........Mr. Titan.....," Jonas breathed. "You are......departing?"

"..........," I slowly nodded.

"Your presence in Mortuana.......has been most eventful."

I narrowed my black eyes.

"You know that which I refer to...," Jonas gestured. "Your talent has been most efficient."

Dimitri stared curiously at me.

I sighed. I nervously rubbed the back of my head and looked off.

"You are not like the native mediators of this land," Jonas spoke. "You ease poltergeists.........with guilt....."

I shuddered.

"For a moment, I assumed that perhaps you belonged in this world. But I was wrong."

I looked at Jonas.

He leaned his head to the side. "You are far more bound to the light side than I can imagine. You have....family there...."

A sudden warmth washed over my heart. I shuddered a breath and slowly nodded.

Dimitri smiled weakly. "Maybe you won't be so forgetful after all."

"???" I glanced at him.

RUMMMMBLE!!!

The underground shook violently that time. Some of the wooden platforms shook and quivered on their supports. Dimitri and Jonas nearly fell down. My legs wobbled.

Murmurs and cries of shock echoed from the 'living dead' beyond us.

Jonas took deep breaths.

Dimitri put his flute away. "Your honor....is now a good time?"

Jonas slowly nodded. "They must know....they must all know...."

"??????????" I looked at them in confusion.

"Though...I would be surprised if none of them truly suspected it...," Jonas spoke.

Dimitri hummed in agreement.

Morbid...pale agreement.

What's going on here??

The two men walked out into the open 'courtyard' of the City between the torches and wooden lattices and bazaars and....everything. They were in the center of the underground Town. Every Mortuanan soul trained her or his ears and eyes on the two as Jonas raised his arms, silenced the civilization, and uttered firmly:

"Fellow Mortuanans....you must sense it....as we sense it.....the tremors do in fact mean more. The recent events have proven....that this is not a matter of friction with the light side. The collapse of the doorway into our dimension is not what's breaking down around us."

My black eyes bulged. I glanced at every citizen around me. They were completely deadpan. Somberly numb. Not angry in the bit.

"??????" I faced Jonas again, my lips parted.

"The 'black dome' is not collapsing," Jonas spoke firmly. He didn't blink. "Mortuana is."

My jaw dropped.

"The infrastructure of our sub-dimension is no longer strong enough to maintain integrity. The fate of our world is in a collapse....inevitably and cataclysmically. For hundreds of years, we have served our purpose as mediators between life and death. Our purpose in existence is coming to a climax....as it was prophesied by the arrival of the Sacred Daughter."

I sweated nervously. I spun around and scanned the shadows and lines of the wooden lattices with my black eyes. Behind the scores of numb faces paying attention in zombie-fashion to Jonas' news of disaster, I spotted a lone form hugging herself in the darkness.

Raven.

I was already running past the stoical Mortuanans and desperately up the platforms towards her figure as Jonas went on:

"Let us all prepare for this in reverence of the former teachings of Azar, and that of our forefathers...the Separatists. For soon...all of our energies shall be merged as one. There shall no longer be differences or schisms. In death...or the realm that exists beyond death."

A hum and thunderous murmur of hundreds and hundreds of respectful voices filled the chamber with one, unanimous bow.

And then—like an aftershock—a tremor of combined sighs.

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

I ran to the edge of a darkened platform overlooking the torchlit campfire.

I panted.

My shoulders heaved.

My face was frozen in shock and concern.

Raven had her back to me...and yet she uttered: "It's true, Noir. It's collapsing." She wrapped her arms around her cloak and shuddered, her eyes round and sad. "It won't be long now." A beat. "I-I don't have long now. I must beat the collapse....b-by collapsing myself."

I leaned my head to the side. I mouthed. 'B-But why??'

She must have known I asked without reading my lips. I had the queer sensation of envisioning her fingers in my brain and--

"Why do you keep sacrificing yourself, Noir?"

"????"

She turned and faced me forlornly. "The poltergeists....you've been consuming them."

I blinked.

"I've sensed it....," Raven spoke. Her eyes fell momentarily. "I....I could always sense things, Noir. Always. You know that. But lately.....l-lately with the collapse....."

I leaned my head to the side.

She continued: ".....it's like the whole world....the whole dark world is being turned inside out around me. I-I.....I'm losing control of my emotions. I'm going relatively insane. And yet at the same time....things are becoming so much more clear." She hugged herself tighter. "I-I already told Cyborg this. I feel everything in this world. But there's one thing I haven't told him."

'What?'

She looked up at me. "There are a dozen left, Noir."

I raised an eyebrow.

"People. Innocent people. Citizens."

I gasped.

She nodded. "The Titans did not get them all out. There are twelve still left. Mortuana is collapsing. Soon this world will be absolute oblivion. Absorbed into chaos. And those twelve lightsiders will be stuck in there....exactly where they shouldn't be."

My eyes gazed off. My mind raced.

Where could they be?!?! How could we have missed them?!?!?!

"I....I'm telling you this because......because you and I have many things in common, Noir," Raven said. "As much as I understand...even Cyborg sees this. You and I are so......s-so self-sacrificing. Cyborg's recently tried to emulate us. But he wasn't built like you and I were. While you and I survive in spite of our selflessness, Cyborg nearly ripped himself in two. He is in no condition to risk his neck any further."

I took a deep breath.

But I am.........

"I.........I told you about the twelve not because I want you and the Titans to make a last minute rescue...," Raven said. "I know you probably want to now. But it's fool-hardy. The citizens are in the deepest, darkest spot in Mortuana. To attempt rescue now would be suicide in all physical, emotional, and spiritual senses of the term." She took a deep breath. "I told you about them—Noir—because I choose to trust you." She bit her lip and nearly choked: "I choose to trust you as Cyborg trusts me."

"..........," I stared at her.

She stared back. "I know I'm being a hypocrite....but.....," she bit her lip and fought it....but eventually said: "Take care of yourself, Noir. F-For me?"

I took a deep breath. The Raven that stood before me suddenly became ten times as normally familiar. I no longer was seeing the strange, emotionally unpredictable girl who had taken over the sorceress' shell. But instead I saw the same, blue-haired Titan who had protected me and fought for my defense so often in the past.

Kara's right. She's always so protective. So very protective.

I smiled painfully.

Raven closed her eyes. She took a shuddering breath. "The Lich."

I blinked.

"In the pit inside the library....," Raven muttered...as if hoping I wouldn't hear her. "That's where the last twelve are. It....it is utterly hopeless for them. But......th-they are with the Lich. In the pit of the strong poltergeist's lair..."

She walked away briskly.

I found my arm lifting up as if to grab a piece of her invisible vapor trails.

But I touched nothing.

Only darkness. The faint dance of torchlight.

I panted.

Where does all of this begin and all of this end?

I panted some more.

Why do I feel......like I am the third thing collapsing here??

I shook the mental oblivion off and ran down the nearest wooden ramp....

Towards Cyborg's location.

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

A hum filled the torch-lit depths of Mortuana.

A hymn of sorrow.

A universal moan.

Men walked the last of their rounds of guard duty.

Women stitched the very last patchwork quilts.

Bazaars emptied themselves forever.

Children of the dead stopped running around.

Bodies slowed down.

The dim light became even dimmer.

A rosy-sepia hue of struggling warmth lapped at the dark gray walls.

Dust rose an extra half-inch on the Subway floor.

Darkness seeped down from the observation tower.

Everything mingled in dull snow like an old VHS tape.

But there was no sobbing.

No crying.

No tears.

Just........

Acceptance.

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

The shadows of shadows spread like obsidian spider webs throughout the City.

Even the poltergeists felt the spread.

The tremors.

The quivering form of the invisible dome.

Pale figures skirted into black alleyways.

Leather creatures clung to brickwork behind golden plaques.

Howling noises filled intersections of the Downtown, then faded away.

It became cold.

Condensation skirted down the bronze cheeks of statues on the building faces of the stock exchange district.

Windows fogged.

The air dripped with floating sleet.

And somewhere....underneath the crumbling letters of 'City Library'....a pit yawned open.

With a hissing breath.

Unaffected by the end.

The end of end itself.

RUMMMMMBLE!!!!!

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

RUMMMMMBLE!!!

I looked towards the ceiling.

Panting.

Cyborg was leaning against me, standing on half of his legs.

Behind us, Mortuanans huddled in candlelight and flickering oblivion.

The hymn filled the air.

A dusty glow of oblivion.

Cyborg and I glanced back.................once.........

"So long, Raven.....," the half-dead Android whispered.

I turned and gazed with black eyes towards the dark passageway ahead.

Have a happy apocalypse.

I hobbled us forward.

RUMMMMBLE!!!!!

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

RUMMMMBLE!!!!

Raven hung her head.

Jonas sat meditatively beside her.

Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor huddled in the corner of the tent.

Silence.

Raven's eyes thinned. She lifted her head somewhat. She inhaled slowly.

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

A beat.

She closed her eyes finally and sighed.

Jonas looked up.

RUMMMMBLE!!!!!!!!

........

"I'm ready...."

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

"...jumped into the river.....what did I see......black eyed angels...swam with me...."

Cyborg and I shuffled along.

Two Titans in the dark.

Arm an arm.

Vapor drifted out of my mouth as I panted.

Cyborg chuckled breathily and kept rambling.

"...a moon full of stars...and astral cars....all the friends I used to see....."

I knew he wasn't going insane. They were lyrics to some song he liked. I didn't remember the artist. I didn't care.

The blackness seemed doubly blacked as it yawned ahead of us. The air was cold and thin. The ground and buildings shook every now and then like the shadowed intestinal track of some hideously huge beast.

RUMMMMMBLE!!!!!

"....all my lovers were there with me....all my past and futures....."

I gazed up.

Streetlamps swam above us in the blackness.

Dull, non-reflecting windows.

A low hiss like last-minute wind.

My black eyes narrowed.

"...and we all went to heaven....in a little row boat....and there was nothing to fear.....nothing to doubt....."

Cyborg went limp a little.

I gritted my teeth and hoisted him up more. Shaking him.

He wheezed and struggled, summoning the strength to walk with half of his limbs.

"....nothing to fear.....n-nothing to doubt...."

We hobbled along.

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

The candles were lit.

A ring formed around Raven.

Heads bowed.

Voices chanted.

Jonas folded his arms.

His lips began to move.

RUMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!!

Raven's eyes popped open.

Twitching.

"W-Wait......"

Jonas paused.

The hooded figures lifted their gaze.

Silence.

"I......," Raven shuddered, ".....I wish to do this part alone...."

Murmurs.

Dimitri and his guardians shifted uncomfortably.

Jonas leaned forward. "Sacred One....but how—"

"I don't know...but...I-I can.....I can sense it....," Raven uttered. "I want to release my fear by myself. It's the only way. And besides...."

RUMMMMMBLE!!!

Everyone looked around.

Raven's lips lingered. She blinked. She said: "Your people need their Grand Mediator.....allow me to face fear the strongest that I can. Alone."

Silence.

Jonas took a deep breath, smiled, and bowed his head.

"As you wish.....Daughter of the Sacred Mother...."

Raven tilted her bejeweled forehead down.

Jonas stood up.

The other mediators followed suit.

A line shuffled out of the tent.

Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor went last.

The girl took a deep breath. The candles flickered around her. She closed her eyes and raised her hands in meditative fashion.

"The collapse.........the collapse......," she hissed. A scrunched brow. "Lingerrrrrrrrrrr.............."

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

RUMMMMMMBLE!!!

"Noir....," Cyborg shuddered against me as we hobbled along. "Noir.......I....n-never expected it to happen........."

"?????" I barely gave him a half-glance we shuffled forward.

"Raven and I.......," he exhaled. "....I....I merely wanted to....t-to help her try and.....become something......."

".........," I gazed at the asphalt passing beneath us.

".....I.....I did not intend to.......t-to get that close to a young lady that you once may.......h-have felt close to.....but...."

He shook his head. He sighed.

"....I couldn't help it......I wanted to be there for Raven The more I talked with her....the more I realized she wasn't so awfully creepy or whatnot....she was just someone needing attention like any one of us......and she may have never said so aloud.....but I just know that she appreciated my attention. And soon...I got addicted to her attention too....and...."

"Shhhh....," I whispered....gently.

Cyborg bit his lip.

We motioned along.

A moment of silence.

Then.....broken.

"I digress.......," Cyborg muttered. "....I regret nothing.........and I'm sorry if that hurts you, Noir......once we're outside of this nightmare, it's gonna take me a really long time to get used to her absence......"

Hurt.........

I barely listened to him. I could care less about more hurt.

My black eyes were obsessed with something beyond the shadows.

The Twelve............The Twelve.........

My heart washed over with ice water.

I shivered with a chill and hurried us along.

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

Lanterns were lit one by one.

Girls in elegant dresses set the oil in the lamps.

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

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

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

Jonas wandered into the center of the circle in the courtyard. His hand were peacefully held together. Behind him, Dimitri sat on a rickety stool, flanked by Raphael and Victor. The guardians gracefully tuned their violins. Dimitri polished his flute one last time.

Jonas slowly lifted his face. A painfully sweet smile on his face. He raised his arms.

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

RUMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!

Jonas bowed his head. He inhaled. He raised his arms again and faced the stone sky of the subway.

Raphael and Victor stringed their violins. A beautiful melody vibrated through the crowded, lantern lit interior. A fragance of earthly energy wafted upward and outward as Dimitri's flute drifted into the rhythm, playing the opposite end of the spectrum to Jonas' voice as he distinctly and passionately spoke:

"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!!"

RUMMMMMMMBLE!!!!

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

We were approaching the edge.

The darkness felt thinner.

I swore my black eyes saw frost floating in the misty air.

My lips quivered and I saw beyond the obscurity of obscurity.

Facing West.....

"Are you alone too, Jordan?"

My black eyes narrowed.

"I don't know what past you may have, Jordan," Kara spoke. She gazed at me compassionately across the plains of Kansas. The starry sky bathed us with a gentle glow from above. "But I know that it still haunts you. Much like mine haunts me. But one thing's for certain..."

Kara's hands trailed down and gently stroked the metal skin of my left prosthetic.

I breathed thinly.

My optics blinked.

"You've given more than enough to prove...you don't have to be alone anymore. You must stop struggling, Jordan. You must stop punishing yourself and embrace what you have."

My feet stumbled a bit.

Cyborg rambled on the verge of total and utter shutdown.

"I should have answered the door.......I-I should have answered the d-door..."

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

RUMMMMMMBLE!!!

The tune paused, lifted, and swung around into the melody again.

Jonas slowly spun to face the attentive audience as he continued speaking. "It is a story of a girl. Not just any girl!!" he raised 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...," chanted the pale crowd in acknowledgement.

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

Raven sat.

Cross-legged in the tent.

The candles flickered.

A magic wind kicked at her hair.

She panted...hyperventilated....

Concentrating on the me......consume me......," she shuddered. A tear ran down her cheek. She bit her lip....and whimpered: "I don't want t-to be alone..................I-I don't want to be alone........"

And yet, she lifted her neck back.

She exploded her mouth open.

She shook once...twice....

She began a deep-throated scream as a wave of black light exploded from her chakra stone.

FLASH!!!!!!!

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

Cyborg was beginning to twitch.

His emergency energy supply was waning.

We were almost to the edge. We were almost in the light.

And he was starting to short out.

And I wasn't really there....

"And I only hope that—as truthful as you are—you do not hesitate to admit your good over that of your bad, Noir."

Wonder Woman stood before me on the outskirts of the Tower. She smiled in a benevolent manner.

"For I do believe the good things about you—as always the good things about all of us—shall always be remembered. And not what we perceive as the 'bad'. Hold onto the virtue that you have, Noir. Do not blind yourself to it like I have. It is a shameful thing to do to someone as brave as you. Embrace that which is good inside of you. To obsess over anything else....that will only destroy what is already a precious and noble soul."

I sighed.

My arm was throbbing with a chill.

The blackness took on a vertigo effect.

It seemed to stretch on forever....though I knew we were nearly at the edge.

It was as if I was being pulled back......

The Twelve......

I bit my lip.

"But you're fighting for the righteous side," the Messenger said to me.

I sat wounded above an alleyway. Avoiding his gaze.

"You're fighting for the side that matters," he said. "And no matter what existentialists and other liberal-minded philosophers in this world think, I'm convinced of one thing. As long as you're on the side of Virtue, there is a chance to bend reality, break the limbo, and come out victorious by doing the very same thing that you've been doing all along."

Something beneath the chill rose up.

I held my breath.

It was a feeling I hadn't felt since....since....

"I still love you, Jordan......"

I shuddered.

I felt like dropping Cyborg.

I felt like dropping myself too.

"Remember how I once loved you, Jordan?" Ana asked. She stood in a place where light ruled above all else. White......hot......wise......light. "And I never stopped, Jordan. I never stopped......"

I clenched my metal hand.

It suddenly felt more real then than it ever had before.

My lips moved.

Will I live, Ana?

Her eyes lowered.

An invisible wind touched her blonde wisps of hair.

"When were you ever alive, Jordan?" she smiled. She gazed up at me like the angel she was. "When were you ever alive?"

I smiled.

I breathed in slowly.

Cyborg and I reached the edge.

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

RUMMMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!!!!!!

"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......" Jonas smiled. His pale eyes thin. "And Mortuana has reunited infinitely with the lost twins of Azar........."

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

In spite of the collapse...

Jubilation of the dead.

The music reached a high point. Raphael's and Victor's violins sobbed. At the same time, Dimitri's flute rejoiced.

The paradox of Mortuana.

Jonas raised his hands.

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

And the music dove in......

RUMMMMMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!!!!!!

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

I wrapped the cord sticking out into the light world around Cyborg. I tugged on it. I slipped the material into his titanium grip. I lay him gently on the concrete on the edge of the black wall. I stripped him of his extra equipment. Flashlights. Flares. Glow sticks. Rope. First Aid. Bandages. Everything I could find. I strapped them onto two separate belts strung over my shoulders and white jumpsuit. I adjusted Myrkblade in its sheathe. I pocketed the flashlights and held another in my grasp.

I took a deep breath.

I began to turn around--

"Noir....."

I froze. I slowly gazed down at Cyborg.

He panted. He weakly sat up some....holding the cord in his grasp.

"You.....Y-You......"

I held a finger up.

".............," he blinked. "You're.........you're going back..........why? Why, Noir? For Raven---???"

'No' I mouthed.

A beat.

Cyborg was utterly confused.

I took a deep breath and hand-signed.

Cyborg's human eye widened a bit. "There's.......twelve more left?"

I slowly nodded.

".......Raven......she told you.........didn't she?"

"........."

Cyborg lay back, gripping to the cord. He groaned. "You two.....so alike........"

I stared at him.

He uttered: "She knew.....that you would sacrifice yourself.......like her........"

A beat.

"Noir....don't do this....don't do this to yourself.....," he said. "....this isn't your land. You don't belong with the dead. No matter what secrets you may have—"

I swiftly hand-signed: 'I am not punishing myself, Cyborg'.

He stared at me.

I smiled painfully and added: 'I know what I am. I am a hero, Cyborg. I am going to save those twelve people. Because that is what I do. And that is what I am. I am no longer making up for things.'

Silence.

Cyborg took a deep breath. He smiled weakly. "Goody two-shoes."

I snickered.

RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!

A beat.

Our smiles faded.

He shuddered. "Come back in one piece, you hear me? You come back, Noir. Don't destroy yourself over this."

"........," I walked over and firmly stretched an arm out through the blackness.

Cyborg weakly reached a free hand up.

We gripped our palms together tightly.

I squeezed.

He couldn't.

I took a deep breath and cupped my metal hand around his. A beat. I let go and dropped his arm back to his numb chest. I shuffled over and yanked at the cord.

After a pause....those on the light side pulled on the cord.

Awkwardly—but efficiently—Cyborg was dragged off through the curtain of black.

He saluted.

I gave him a 'peace' sign.

He was gone.

A beat.

I sighed, turned around.

Click.

I turned on two flashlights in either hand.

Equipped with a lantern in each arm, I swiftly shuffled my way into the thickness and blackness of Mortuana.

Alone.....