244. Break the Circle part 4
T-T-T-T-T-T-
T-T-T-T-T-T-
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Come on, man, don't make me do this!" Cyborg blocked Robin's punches and prepared his sonic cannon. Cl-Clak! "I don't want to do this!"
In a glint of metal mesh, Robin dashed at the android.
Cyborg fired point blanc.
The blast of sonic energy exploded in the ground just beneath them.
POW!
Cyborg fell to the ground.
Robin leapt over him, soared, flipped, and landed in a nimble perch atop the leftmost, glowing letters atop the Wayne Building.
Raven and Beast Boy were stumbling to their feet, looking up.
"……..," Robin glared at them for but a moment and then dashed off towards the far end of the bright letters. From the 'W' to the 'Y' to the 'E'….
"Stop!"
Robin skidded to a stop.
His upper body tensed in a fighting stance.
"……," Starfire hovered in front of his escape route.
She held a single glowing wrist of green straight towards him.
Starbolt charged.
With her emerald eyes glaring in righteous fury, she firmly throated: "Do……not……move."
Robin took a deep, fuming breath. Maintaining….
Maintaining the 'Apprentice'……
Slade's voice crackled through the Boy Wonder's earpiece.
'I thought I told you to use that blaster……'
"……..," Robin gritted his teeth.
'Attack! Now!'
Robin's upper body iced over.
He lifted his upper limb, turned it around, and aimed the armband's laser rifle squarely at Starfire's center.
Wriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
A dreadful whining noise lifted through the air as end of the barrel glowed a threatening amber.
Starfire's facial features hardened.
She intensified the heat of her starbolt and curled her fingers into a deadly fist.
The standoff burned loftily between them.
Amber and green met together in the cold, night air above the City.
And as Robin glared…
And as Starfire glared….
……
Robin was frozen solid.
But Starfire….
Starfire liquefied.
Her green eyes were wounded and her lips parted.
Without responding to that expressive defeat, the Apprentice kept charging….charging….charging his weapon.
And so, the alien girl said: "Robin, you are my best friend. I cannot be in a world where we must fight."
Openly in front of him, she dropped her arm and purposefully lost the metaphysical charge.
She was vulnerable.
"If you are truly evil…th-then go ahead. Do what you must……"
She hung there limply.
A lynched prey before the punishment of the Apprentice's firearm.
And something in Robin's face melted too.
His jaw dropped.
His eyemask curved.
He retracted the rifle, drew forward, and murmured in a breath of sincerity: "St-Starfire, no—"
'SnNNNKKKTTT!'
"Nnngh!" Robin winced, gripping the ear that was bloodily pierced by Slade's radio signal.
'Robin! I gave you an order! Snkkt-zzt—If you won't attack, my probes will…'
Beep!
For half a second, Robin was certain he heard a chiming sound filtered over the radio static in his ear.
A breath left him.
A breath that evaporated into the air.
A breath that made the whole night seem naked.
Empty.
Pierced by four young bodies.
Four young bodies all around him.
All of whom were suddenly…inexplicably glowing a kaleidoscopic aura of orange and yellow.
And screaming….
"Nnnnnagh!"
"OhhhhHHHHHhhhh!"
"Snkkt-Aaaaaugh!"
Robin gasped.
His eyemask widened.
He looked up to where Starfire now dangled in the air as if on rotten meat strings, her limbs limply afloat beneath her.
Her back arched, her face splashed over with amber fire, and her mouth flew open in a wordless cry of pain.
"Aaaaa-aaaughhnnngh…nnghaaaaAAAAaaaugh!"
And with a lasting breath of agony, she fell.
"Starfire!"
Robin leapt forward in his apprentice uniform and caught her.
She draped across his arms.
Writhing.
Twitching…drooling…and tearing in pain.
All the while the four Titans were aglow in the biological, amber fire.
Their insides flared out through the raped blood vessels and singed through their skin.
Raven clutched at her stomach.
Cyborg shook his head and wailed.
Beast Boy curled up into a fetal position and just….twitched….
And as the waves of cries and moans and screams rivered up Robin's spine, he felt sharp gasps leaving his body.
The sweat and the heat and the pulse-throbs of utter, undeniable horror.
His friends died. One by one.
And the one dying fastest was the groaning, sobbing Tamaranian in his arms.
Warm. Far too warm to be natural.
Burning…
"Stop!"
It came out of his throat suddenly. Like a little boy shouting through his papier-mâché self. He was just a black and brown mesh of metal with a Gotham ghost bellowing out from the empty shell.
He tilted his head away from Starfire and soon realized he was there. And he was pleading. Pleading to the air.
Pleading to Slade.
"Please! Stop!"
'Attack, Robin.'
The voice was so cold and distant, Robin wondered if a second voice inside himself was actually trying to awake him to a bad dream.
'It's the only way to save them.'
The Apprentice panted.
He looked all around him.
The writhing bodies.
The amber glow.
The moaning…..the convulsing….
'Attack with everything you've got.'
Robin swallowed.
He stared down at Starfire in his arms.
Her eyes were glazed over with amber.
When her twitching mouth opened, a fiery hotness seeped out.
Like a torturous furnace burning and melting inside of her.
'Attack, Robin…….'
He sweated.
Bulbs of moisture.
His limbs quivering.
His nostrils flaring.
'Attack with everything you've got…….'
Iced skin.
His body turned numb.
He stared into Starfire's burning, amber eyes.
And drifted……
Drifted……………
Drifted………………………
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Nnngh!" a thirteen year old Robin struggles against Clayface. Meaty arms of mud force him hard against the metal railing above a vat of acid. "Augh!"
"Heheheheheh……," Clayface sneers. Leering over him. His bulbous crown of brown curdling. Boiling to consume the Boy Wonder before tossing him to a burning doom…...
Across the catwalk, a boy at the age of four sits cross-legged on the rusted, brown-strewn metal.
His big blue eyes watch roundly at the scene.
Moist……but still.
He watches the dark-haired man grabbing the woman fiercely by the shoulders and pushing her against the warehouse's railings.
She struggles with the burly adult.
He sneers and backhands her across the face.
WHAP!
The woman shrieks.
The man shoves her to the mangy carpet and points a finger. Growling.
"You know what kind of shit I have on my shoulders all day? Huh? Do you know what I have to put up with when sucking up to Mr. Dent day in and day out? I'm surprised I don't die on the way home every night! And to come here to this god-forsaken house and to learn that you've just sat around with that stupid brat doing nothing—"
The woman claws, climbs up the cruddy, apartment wall and shrieks angrily at him. "I HATE YOU! I……HATE……YOU!"
He snarls and raises his fist.
The boy's eyes blink shut.
SLAP!
The boy's eyes blink open.
The woman is sprawled on the apartment floor beneath the man, clutching her disheveled head of hair and sobbing.
He shouts at her this time: "God knows why I put up with your shit, woman! You want me to rob more pawn shops for you? Huh? Is that it? Just because I knocked you up, I gotta be the bread winner for you and that god damn useless monkey you keep humping around! That's the way it works, huh? Maybe I'd be a little more up to it if you weren't so freakin' sick all the time!"
She sobs……sobs……
The man pulls at his hair and paces around the furniture. At one point he twirls and shakes his fist at her: "Will you SHUT UP? Keep wailing like that and the neighbors will be barging in through the front door! Not like that's any matter to you while I'm gone all day, you stupid whore!"
She quivers. She pounds the floor with her fist, rears her tear-stained face and merely screams at the man.
He snarls and stomps towards her with his fist flying. "I……said……shut……the Hell……UP!"
The boy exhales.
"R-Robin!"
He spins around with a twirl of his cape. Bruised and welted all over. His eyemask disheveled and his hair tossed.
A dark haired girl in red and yellow runs straight towards him.
Hcckkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkttt……
The monitors of the Titans' inner blood vessels glow behind her.
"I'm the one you want!"
He gasps.
He stretches a gloved hand out and tries to speak.
But a voice in the shadows……younger……distant……
Shouts it for him: 'Annie! Don't!'
She sprints.
Her arms flail.
She takes a huge leap.
A torpedo dive.
And she plows into his stomach.
Sloshing……morphing into his belly.
He gasps and twitches.
Teeth gritting.
Shifting on the insides like grimy currents.
Bubbling.
He pants.
He looks at his arms.
The green gloves give away to sleeves of black and brown metal mesh.
The 'S' emblem replaces the 'R'.
A laser rifle appears on his armband.
The waves crash up against the rock bluffs beyond.
He shivers at the water's edge.
The craggy bay stretches before him under a red, Gotham Sky.
'Run, Robin!'
He gasps.
He tilts his head down further.
He looks into the waters.
The apprentice looks back.
'Hurry!'
The voice fades.
His face inks over with blackness.
His eyemask fades, save for the left part of it.
That lonely optic thins and angles out into an emblazoned keyhole.
Singular…….
It strobes RED.
And the slits in his cowl breathe forth vapors of RED.
His reflection hisses at him: "HCkkkt……letttt it enddd, Robinnn……embrace death…yourrrr true death….the Titanssss will taste of it one way or another….whether or not you'rrrrre gone…."
Robin gasps.
He looks up.
Beyond the waterside factory.
Beyond the waves of the bay.
The lighthouse stands tall and erect.
And Starfire floats.
Superimposed against the summit.
She stares past Robin……limply.
He tears.
He reaches out to her……
A hand outstretched.
Fingers spreading.
Palm out.
The pale glow of the lighthouse's beam streaks across the red Gotham sky and pierces the Tamaranian girl.
FLASH!
'Don't you see? I'm not real……'
FLASH!
The strobe dies……
And Starfire floats.
Burning with amber and yellow.
Screaming.
Writhing.
Melting……
"Nnnnng……," Robin grips his head. Red vapors splash all around him. "Nnnnnghhh!" He rears his head up and howls. A four year old again. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAH!.!.!"
At the fever pitch of his scream, Tim explodes in a wet spray of mud……
And litters the shipyard docks of the Gotham River……
Where his father's body bobs gently ashore.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
T-T-T-T-T-T-
T-T-T-T-T-T-
SCREEEEEEECH!
Robin's harley squealed to a stop.
He sat on the idling machine. The engine purred beneath the sound of his panting breath.
He stared up…up….up at a mountain top.
A black figure streaked up the hillside in a black blur and perched still at the top.
Gazing from above.
Observing……
Robin swallowed. He leaned on his legs on either side of the bike and whipped out a communicator.
He spoke into it: "Noir! What do you see?"
Silence.
Impatient, Robin desperately repeated: "Noir! Do you see the City? Do you see anything awry?"
'H-O-L-D—O-N'
Robin bit his lip.
"…………"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
I stood high atop the hill, panting from my long distance sprint.
I wiped the sweat off my brow and stared—eyes naked and shadeless—southward beyond the tall summits.
I squinted, concentrating….
I could barely make the gray spot against the green wilderness that was our City.
It hugged the great blue streak that was the Eastern Seaboard to my distant left.
With solid black eyes, I searched every contour….every shape….and every form I could for a sign of life or movement.
And I was at a loss.
It was like…..the lights of the City were all out. Or at least…..mostly.
A blackout?
Did Dagger trip the power grid?
Could there have been……a massive explosion?
"…………."
'Snkkkt……Noir?'
I took a deep breath.
I tapped with my black and flesh fingers into the communicator.
'E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G—L-O-O-K-S--.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-'
I lingered.
'What, Noir? What does everything look like?'
"…………"
'D-E-A-D.'
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"……………."
Raven's hooded features were deadpan.
She stared directly forward…downward.
Her eyes and face and nose were hidden.
She had her blue-sleeved arms folded and concealed beneath the folds of her robe.
"……………"
"I was thinking, Raven. This is gonna be a long trip. What say you and I stop by for a little bite to eat, huh? Trust me….heh….everything is spoiled and rotten once you get far enough into Gotham City limits!"
"……………."
As they rolled along the forested mountain road, 'Cyborg' glanced aside at the dark girl.
He smiled and gripped the steering wheel tighter with both hands.
"You ain't falling asleep, are ya cutie? Heh….Back before my accident, I used to fall asleep when riding with my mom all the time. It's a good thing I got over it. Don't you think?"
"……………..," the robed girl barely stirred.
'Cyborg' took a deep breath.
He drove the T-Car II onward.
Silent.
………….
At one point, he blinked.
His human eye thinned.
He brought a hand up and cupped his palm over his right ear.
After a few seconds, he inhaled and made like he was scratching his flesh ear before lowering the arm and uttering as he drove: "You know, Raven….."
"………….."
"You could sleep, you know. We've got a long way's to go yet. I'll wake you up once we get to Gotham City if you like."
"…………," she was still.
Breathing slowly….lightly under her robe and hood.
'Cyborg''s robot eye glanced over at her.
The dark girl seemed peaceful.
Serene.
Motionless.
"Rae?"
"……………"
The eyes of 'Cyborg' thinned.
He took one metal hand off the wheel.
He stared at Raven intently.
He clenched his fist.
"………"
Scrppcpplllp……The hand morphed with muddy accuracy into an axe. The sharp edge of it glinted from the red starlight. Chiing!
"………….," Raven was still.
The driving Titan's lips moved.
"That's right…..all you need…….."
He whispered as he raised the razor sharp limb up.
Overhead.
"…..is sleep."
And his muscles and muddy limb flexed--
Fwoomp! Raven's hood lowered and her head jerked towards him. Eyes glowing a hot gray. Teeth gritting as an outstretched hand flared.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
FL-FLASH!
A black bolt of energy knocked 'Cyborg's' grip free of the wheel.
"Wh-Whoah!" He gasped. His muddy hand had returned to the familiar titanium palm as he shuddered in faux shock: "Rae! What gives---?"
"Nnngh!" she flexed both hands together. Her eyes flashed a bright gray.
FL-FLASH!
One black talon ripped the keys out of the ignition.
Another materialized behind 'Cyborg' and slammed into his neck.
WHAP!
"Ooof!"
He grunted as his torso flew down hard against the wheel.
THAP! HONNNNNNK!
His body twisted the steering device at an awkward angle.
Both occupants of the T-Car II reeled as the entire automobile swerved and spun twice across the road.
SCREEEEEEEEEECH!
"Mmmmf! Nnngh! Raven! Stop it! We're going too—"
She merely grunted and let forth an even stronger pulse of black telekinesis that exploded into his titanium side.
At the last second, he gasped and flinched---
T-T-T-T-T-T-
SCREEEEEEEEECH!
The car spun to a stop on the side of the road with such force that it teetered momentarily on two wheels before coming back down to a stand-still.
THWOMP!
POW!
With an explosion of black energy, the ragdoll body of 'Cyborg' was tossed straight through the driver's side door and flung loosely across the side street and into the first line of mountainous trees.
TH-TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!
"Ooof!" he rolled to a thunderous collapse against a huge trunk.
He winced…struggled to his feet with his back against the wooden body….and stared with disbelief at the vehicle.
Fw-Fwoosh!
Raven levitated out.
Her arms outstretched.
Her robe and blue hair billowing.
With glaring, gray eyes she hissed: "All right! Who are you?.?.? What have you done to my friend?.?.?"
"Raven…wh-what's gotten into you?" 'Cyborg' uttered.
He then frowned and pointed a finger.
"Your emotions are out of control! First a quest for Robin, now this! You need to learn to—"
"SHUT UP!.!.!"
The leaves in the sloping forests shook.
The trees wobbled.
'Cyborg' cringed.
She sneered at him, pulsating obsidian energy.
"The night when Robin supposedly died, you were there in Phaser Labs where the best sensors that could detect his passing were in your hands. You've claimed to be malfunctioning for a whole month. A whole month! Never before have you gone for more than a day without repairing your sonic cannon in the past! Every attempt that the Titans have made over the past few weeks to track down Dagger or Terra or make amends with Tempest and Noir, you've shot down and instead turned us into virtual flying pies of incompetence!"
"Raven….please….y-you're overreacting—"
She shouted, shaking the nearby mountainside. "You could NOT……have SURVIVED……the COLLAPSE of Phaser Labs!.!.!"
"……………….," 'Cyborg' stared back at her.
She was heaving. The gray energy faded from her eyes as her optics rounded a bit and her face grimaced with the temptation of sobbing. But she fought it back. She stuffed it deeper and deeper into her shell-like center as a voice growled forth as the old Raven….
The true Raven…
"Two miracles don't happen in a day…..or even a lifetime. You've been nothing but one deleterious plague for the Titans since November Fourth came and went! Bringing us down while making us fantasize about things we are not! Destroying important messages from Noir and the Justice League! SPYING on us!"
"Raven…..just THINK for a moment!" he pleaded, reaching out towards the mountainous road. "Why would I possibly do something to hurt the team? I love you!"
She spat: "You….are not….Cyborg….."
"……………..," he glared with a sudden fierceness icing over his metal features. The tree-shadows of the red night highlighted the darker hues of his visage.
She shuddered at the sight of the 'new' him. She took a deep breath, braved herself, and held her fingers meditatively forward…charging black energy. "Tell me what you did with him………"
"You do realize…," he coldly returned in a voice not belonging to the android Titan, "….that Starfire and Beast Boy will be dead before the night's over."
"………," Raven's violet eyes widened. The gray energy was gone.
His lips smiled. The red, robot eye 'strobed'….as if it needed to. "Now….I've had the unhappy fortune of having to share a kiss with you. How about a dance?"
He took one step forward.
Raven shrieked and flung her wrists forward with a pulse of gray and black. "You keep AWAY from me!.!."
FL-FL-FLASSSSH!
Daggers of obsidian energy soared forward and struck 'Cyborg''s body—SLNKKKK!---ripping straight through at multiple spots.
"Aaaugh!" he jolted.
Raven gasped.
Eyes wide.
Lips quivering.
"………..," 'Cyborg' wobbled where he stood. He tensed and struggled to keep straight. There were five gaping holes of brown lingering in his torso and upper abdomen.
Raven blinked.
A disgusted look came over her face.
"………..," he raised his head and smiled at her. "Heh heh heh heh hehhhhhh….."
Slpslpslpppp.
The holes solidified into fake titanium.
He lifted his tight arms.
As his human and robot glazed over to solid amber, he sneered: "My turn at charades, bitch." His upper limbs morphed into quivering tentacles. He shouted. "RAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" He spun and launched the brown tentacles violently at her.
SLOSSSSSSSSSSH!
SLOSSSSSSSH!
Raven tensed in mid-air, blocking with crossed arms of charged black before her petite chest—
WH-WHAP!
The tentacles converged upon her, whipping.
"Nnnngh!" Raven flew back like a missile.
She slammed through the passenger window of the T-Car—SHATTER!—and tore out the window on the other side—CRKKKK!
She tumbled across the asphalt and ended in a rough standstill besides the grassy gnoll on the other side.
"Mmmmmmff….."
"………..," 'Cyborg' sneered.
He retracted his tentacles into his mass, exhaled, sneered.
"Heh heh heh heh…" and morphed over into the towering, curdling mass of Clayface.
SlpppPPPPppsllppp……
He marched across the mountainous highway towards where the dark girl resided.
STOMP! ST-STOMP! STOMP!
In the meantime, a cold voice echoed into his earpiece: "Hagan. What happened?"
"The little vixen got smart," Clayface replied to the air.
He shoved the rocking T-Car II aside and lumbered towards her.
"I decided to get talk with my hands. She fell head over heels…heheheh…"
"Remember your job. You brought her that far out of the City for a reason."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Dagger was presently mounting the hovercraft resting on the beach of the Titans' Island. Killer Croc and a few henchmen remained by the rock bluffs behind the despot as the vehicle took off over the water.
Dagger talked into a headpiece microphone as he gestured orders to the pilots of his hovercraft….roaring out across the Bay towards a darker part of the cold, red-laden City.
"It is not your job to end her."
"But it's so easy……."
"You weren't hired to do what is easy," Dagger droned. "You were employed to do what I told you. Or else….you can disregard any and all chance of acquiring your payment."
"Yeah yeah. I'm 'your bitch'. Got it."
Dagger's cold eyes narrowed as he gazed towards the northern horizon. "Maim her, Hagan. Batter her. Clip the Raven's wings. But leave the feasting to the Reaper."
"Right. Keep in touch, boss. Heheheh………this should be pretty damn fun………"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Nnnnngh….," Raven stirred on the side of the road.
Her robe and hood were tattered.
She had bad scrapes and bruises along her forearm.
Her cheek and parts of her exposed shoulders were cut and bleeding from the glass shards of the T-Car.
ST-STOMP!
STOMP!
She glanced up.
Wheezing.
Violet eyes thin.
"C-Clayface….of Gotham City…..," she wheezed. "Y-You?"
"You know….I first heard rumors about this 'job' when I was still in stasis in Arkham….," Clayface loomed over her. "And I thought it was nuts! Suicidal! 'Try to make a pass at a sorceress?' 'No way!' Heheheheh…"
SWOOOOSH!
G-GRIP!
Raven gasped.
Breathless, she choked and fumbled her fingers at her neck where a brown tentacle had wrapped around.
Clayface lifted her up…up….up at the end of his squirmy limb.
His amber-glazed eyes narrowed and his yellow teeth clenched in a psychotic smile as he held her above his cruddy crown.
"But it's turned out to be a cakewalk! I guess what's true of everyone is true of pagan-chanting freaks like you. 'Get 'em while they're young'. Heheheheh….you're a regular LAMB!"
SWOOOSH-SLAM!
Raven shuddered and winced as she was plummeted back down into the side of the street.
Clayface wrapped a second tentacle around her torso.
Sqppppllplllpllpp!
And as he loomed over her, he started to squeeeeeeeeeeze………
"Nnnnnnngh!" Raven twitched and squirmed in pain.
Clayface's dripping brown lips bent over and wheezed right in her disheveled face.
"You think you have control over everything. But you don't. You had just the right amount of insecurity for me to crawl my way in and pitch a god-damn tent, girl! Heheheheheh…….want to experiment with emotion? How about I teach you the fine art of heartache?"
He slipped forth a third tentacle, aimed it at her, and morphed the end into a scythe.
CHIIING!
"--….by ripping the damn pulmonary muscles out of you by its very strings!"
She sneered up at him. Her eyes summoned a gray energy from within and she hissed.
"I've always had my fair share of pain…..imposter!"
FL-FL-FLASH! The girl screamed, flexing her muscles outward with charges of obsidian telekinesis ripping, shredding, and burning through Clayface's tentacles.
SN-SN-SN-SNAP!
"AAAAUGH!" Clayface shouted more in surprise than anything else.
He swiftly loss his muddy grip on her.
Raven leapt up, floated, spun, and pumped both wrists out with a talon of black ripping through Clayface's 'skull'.
"RnnnnghAAAAH!"
SP-SPLORRCH!
Clayface limped back.
Everything above his torso was split in twain.
He limped about and tossed half-tentacles everywhere.
Flailing.
"Mmmmfmmmfmmffff!"
Raven settled to the ground, took a breath, and posed her fingers in another meditative stance.
FL-FLASH! FLASH!
Two fallen logs from the forested edge of the road lifted up, flew through the mountain air, and converged on the metamorph's body.
Clayface re-shaped his mouth and eyes just in time to get a gaze-full of hurdling wood.
WH-WHAM!
SP-SPLUNNCH!
Splashing globs of mud, Clayface hobbled back. The wooden logs were stuck in his body as he reeled in the middle of the roadway.
Raven softly touched down to her feet.
She leaned against a tree and panted….wincing.
She stared weakly at the bubbling Clayface for a moment, swallowed, and turned to face southward.
"G-Garfield….," she breathlessly murmured. "K-Koriand'r…….I-I must go back…." She began hobbling down the mountainside.
In the meantime…
Clayface reeled.
He tensed, flexed his muddy body, and shot the logs out of him.
TH-THWOOSH! SWOOSH! Cr-Crack!
"SNkkkt—Hagan! Don't let her get away!"
Clayface solidified completely.
Frowning.
"Shut up. I know what I'm doing, okay?"
He took a soggy breath, weighted his lower body to the earth, and shot two tentacles out towards her.
"Stop running, babe!" He smirked. "I'm still in the mood!"
TH-THWPP!
THWWWP!
Reaching the tree-line, Raven turned around. She gasped and flicked a wrist sideways in serrated energy. Sl-Slice! She shredded one tentacle into flying globs. She was too late to swing at the second limb.
GRIP! A tentacle wrapped around her ankle.
The dark girl gasped.
FWOOOSH!
She was launched skyward.
"Nnnnngh!" Clayface concentrated, tossed Raven several meters into the air, brought his limbs back, reformed them into a pair of longswords, and slashed them at the end of quivering mud tentacles forty-five degrees upward to skewer the airborne sorceress.
Flailing upside down, Raven saw the hurtling, metamorphic blades.
She centered herself, breathed lightly, then shouted.
"Azarath….Metrion….ZINTHOS!"
FL-FLASH! The two incoming tentacles were encased in black energy and swiftly wrapped around each other like ribbons. TH-THWPP!
"Daah!" Clayface clenched his yellow teeth and struggled in vain to loosen the tied tentacle-ends.
FW-FWOOSH!
A levitating Raven flipped in mid-air, came down on the ribbon of mud, encased her feet in black telekinesis, and slidddddd down the sloping length of the tentacles till she descended into Clayface's skull with a magically charged kick. "RGHHH!"
SPLORRRCH!
Clayface exploded in half and fell back.
Fw-Fw-Fwish!
Raven flipped and landed nimbly on the side of mountain road.
P-Plant!
She panted….panted….panted….
Slpppsllssslllpppp……
The scattered puddles of Clayface oozed to life and squirmed over the asphalt and earth.
"………?" the bruised and battered Raven glanced back.
SLOSSSH!
The puddles 'leapt' at her as a half-dozen big brown blobs.
"Nnnngh!" she fought them back with a spiraling shield of black energy. SL-SL-SLIICE!
Splorch! Sp-Splorch!
The mud puddles merely merged together again, swirled, and launched at her.
She held up a huge shield of black energy in front of her face.
SP-SPLUT! The muddy mass shattered everywhere against her shield.
The splashing off-trails of brown spread around her, morphed together from behind, and solidified with a brown club slamming against her spine.
"Oooof!" Her shield broke as she stumbled forward.
Thw-Thw-Thwp! Half a dozen tentacles grabbed her various limbs and attempted to pull her apart, ligament by ligament.
She clenched her teeth, bore the pain and pressure for an instant, then teleported in a vortex of obsidian across the street. FL-FLASH!
The puddles finally morphed together in one huge blob, flexed, pulsed, and shot ten separate tentacles out and at the dark girl.
Each and every tentacle formed a bladed sword, axe, or scythe at the end.
CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASSSSH!
Raven jumped, dodged, sidestepped, and blocked every serrated, murderous tentacle assaulting her that she could.
FL-FLASH! FLASH! FLASSSH!
STAB!-STAB!-STAB!-STAB!-STAB!-STAB!
Raven gritted her teeth, growled, and hugged herself as she centered all her black magic and shot it back out of her in a sphere of obsidian wrath. "RAAAAAH!"
FLASSSSSSH!
All the blade-ends of the tentacles disintegrated on contact.
The stubby, muddy limbs retracted.
Raven emerged from the black energy field.
Panting.
Sweating all over.
She froze and tilted her head up as a tall shadow in the red night loomed above her.
"Nnnnnnngh…..heh heh heh heh….," Clayface towered above her as he solidified from the pulsating mass.
He brought both of his major 'hands' together, morphed it into a gigantic, brown sledge hammer, and flung it down mercilessly at the stretch of road before her.
"HAAAAAAAAH!"
Raven bit her lip and flipped back with a pulse of energy.
CRUNCCCCH!
The 'hammer' exploded a huge crater in the middle of the street.
Asphalt and gravel flew up in a splashing spray.
Pl-Plant!
Raven landed from her flip.
She took a breath.
Fwoosh!
She ran straight forward, cape billowing.
She brought her two wrists together, chanted, and summoned a huge black talon.
FLASH!
The black bird claw dragged alongside her, smoothly swiping up bushels of flying asphalt and gravel.
Scrkkkkkkkktt!
She carried the sling-shot of shrapnel and skidded to a stop as she unloaded the talon-load straight across the highway and into Clayface's chest.
"Nnghh!"
THWOOOOSSSH!
Clayface merely bore his chest out—TH-TH-TH-THWUNK!—and absorbed the debris.
Grinning sadistically, he flexed his muddy muscles, churned his insides about, held his breath, and—SPLUTTT!—launched the mass of gravel and asphalt back at Raven in a solid rock of hardness.
The boulder like projectile soared straight towards the dark girl's frame. FWOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!
Raven tensed, shot her hands up, and pulsed telekinesis.
THWOOSH! The craggy, sharp-edged boulder 'braked' in the air just inches from Raven's face.
She panted….
POW! The boulder exploded in Raven's face from the impact of Clayface's granite fist from the other side.
"Ugggh!" she fell back—head over heels—and landed roughly with her back against the T-Car II.
Cl-Clang
"Ooof!"
STOMP! Clayface stood across from her.
"…………," the metamorph smiled. "You're even a rusty fighter. Alas…Juliet had her dagger….heheheheh…."
Raven stood up besides the vehicle, clutching her shoulder and sneering at him.
"I-I'm a lot stronger….th-than you think!"
"And apparently a lot more naieve…," Clayface's amber eye winked.
He tilted his head skywards and spoke as if to the air.
"Now, Dagger! Frequency 190! Execute!"
"……!" Raven gasped. Her jaw dropping. "Dagger…….he is—"
Wriiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
"?" Raven turned and looked over her shoulder.
Following Clayface's utterance, the T-Car II was growing bright…..hot…..and vibrating.
She gasped. She tried to levitate away---
KABOOOOOOOMMMM!
The T-Car exploded brilliantly, consuming her figure in flames and chaos.
Clayface shielded his face from the towering ashes and cackled
"Whoaaaaah! Ha ha ha ha ha! Great timing, Boss! WOOO! Barbecued witch! Heheheheheh….."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
From high above…
On the elevated slopes of the mountain…
The billowing tower of flames could easily be seen.
The already-red night lit up with a halo of destruction.
The tree-tops shuddered from the concussion.
Leaves scattered…..cold air tornadoed…then returned to stillness.
……………….
"……..hckk…..HCKKK-Snkkkt—clik-clik-clikkkttnktt……"
FWOOOSH!
A red streak.
Crimson vapors.
The shadowed figure perched atop a trio of pines.
Leering.
Staring down at the flaming mess.
Reaching a hand back through two dangling cowl tails.
CHIIIIIIING!
Producing a double-edged….red sword.
Red eye pulsing…..thinning.
Glaring like a hawk.
"……clik-clik-clik-clik-snkkkkktttt……"
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Heaps of ashes fell down gradually….
One burning shard at a time….
…..back to the asphalt.
Clayface marched across the street and towards the center of the smoldering remains of the T-Car.
Stomp! St-Stomp. STOMP!
He came to a stop. His muddy feet stood just outside the ring of fire.
"Mmmmmm……"
He bent over. Sloshing.
He stretched a brown hand out, morphed it into a tentacle, then produced a metal poker at the end of it. He shifted the ashes around…brushed aside a few burning shards and embers…and then picked up something.
Something loose and dangling in the breeze.
"……."
A tattered blue robe.
Hood and all.
And no sign of burnt, lingering flesh.
"Nnngh….," Clayface clenched his teeth and hissed. "God damn teleporter…."
"Snkkkt—She's there, Hagan."
"Yeah?" the muddy monster stood up and looked around. His amber-glazed eyes squinted against the licking flamelight. "Where the hell at?"
"The forest. She's making a run for it across the mountainsides."
"Nnngh! Dammit!" Clayface kicked the burning T-Car II frame aside and sprinted heavy-footed into the forest. "The bitch'll escape! She'll fly away!"
"No, Hagan. She's too weak. And she can't concentrate."
"Then what should I do?"
"Hagan, Red Aviary is there."
"……….," Clayface's muddy jaw opened some and he slowed his pace. "Uhhh…….wh-what?"
"Now is your opportunity……"
"B-But….," Clayface panted some, twirling around. Gazing at the treetops. The obscured horizons of the mountain slope. "H-He'll tear me to shreds!"
"Not if you point him to her. Like we planned."
"…………"
"She's there, Hagan. Taunt her. Assault her. Prick at her unstable, tempestuous core!"
"B-But….how?"
"SNkkkt—Do not feign ignorance, Clayface. You of all people should know her weakness. You're whole assignment was to get close to her……to situate yourself firmly to the most dangerous of Titans in our path!"
Clayface took a deep breath. Strengthening his resolve as he marched boldly into the trees of the forests. Ascending upwards along the pine-layered mountain slope.
Dagger's electronic voice continued: "Remember all the things that Simon Stone briefed you on! Remember her weaknesses. Remember the things that rip at her most! Remember Terra……"
Clayface hissed: "All right……," he smiled. "I got me some motivation."
"Do your job. Now, Hagan!"
"Shhhh….heheheh….professsssional at work….."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Raven panted and scampered uphill through the forest.
Her black leotard was tattered and scorched in a few places.
She tripped and fell, gripping the bottom trunk of a tree at the last second.
Wincing.
Wheezing.
"……………nnngh…."
She struggled back up to her feet.
Every time she tried to summon up energy to levitate, everything short of a gray flicker sparked across her eyes.
She had spent too much effort shielding and healing herself from the exploding car.
With no time to recharge and levitate, she was reduced to a frantic sprint up through the red-filtered trees and dead branches of the forest.
Everything uphill crunched and snapped under her weary feet.
Sweat and trickled down her brow in a sheen, mixing saltily with the bruises and cuts lining her temples.
She limped upwards….breathing and heaving with the effort.
Violet eyes thin.
She whispered: "V-Vic……what has happened?"
Silence.
Cold wind.
Waving dead branches.
She gulped and pushed herself forward….upwards….
"Wh-Where did you go? How w-were you replaced? Why….Wh-Why did they choose……..y-you and me……?"
She tripped.
Gasping, she fell knee-deep in fallen moss and needles.
She leaned a graceful hand against a tree.
Sweating.
Panting.
"……………"
She clenched a fist.
Clenched her teeth….
Eyes steeled in anger, she looked up and hissed at the red sky.
"Dagger….."
Silence.
Again she hissed:
"Dagger…..do you ever even sleep?"
Robin's Voice: "Raven, you know better than to rely on the supposed weakness of the enemy……"
Raven gasped.
Raven stood up.
She looked all around. Gaping.
Robin's Voice: "You and I built the Titans. I thought you'd be a little more capable of protecting what I nearly died to maintain! Weren't we part of the deal………together, Raven?"
She spun again.
Panting.
Trees and trees.
Red filtered night.
Earthen slopes.
Cyborg's Voice: "What's the matter, cutie? Having trouble meditating? Heheheh……gotta be something you ate!"
"Nnnngh!" Raven snarled.
She raised her fists and spat.
"Stop it, Clayface! Stop it now!"
Matt Hagan's Voice: "Heh heh heh heh………I've been in the screen and theatre guilds all my life. And you know what, girl? You're the worst at keeping your personal emotions and feelings in check of EVERYONE I've worked with………"
Raven walked backwards up the mountain, tense.
"I have control…..over my emotions…," her violet eyes darted left and right as she shuddered nervously. "I have my personality centered. In check."
Matt Hagan's Voice: "Bullshit! You're just a teeny-bopper with an angst complex! I've signed autographs for hundreds of your type! Heh……even slept with a few of them. Back when there was more of me that could be bitten off. Heheheheh……a few more weeks posing as your rusted 'boyfriend' and I bet I would have been cuddlin' in bed with you too! Coochy-Coochy-Cooooo! Ha ha ha ha!"
"Liar!"
Raven spat.
She shook.
The vessels in her pale neck showed.
"I NEVER would have let you gotten that close! NEVER!"
Cyborg's Voice: "Aren't you forgettin' something, cutie? We got a little lovey-dovey, didn't we? Oh, I made you feel soooooo safe. It was rather intoxicating, wasn't it? Letting go of your emotions? Letting go of your fear? Letting go of your…………shields………"
Raven sweated.
Pale.
Cold.
She gulped and nearly backed into a tree.
Her chest heaved as her wide violet eyes stared disbelieving into an obscure, red horizon.
Beast Boy's Voice: "I'm kinda-sorta surprised at you, Raven. I mean……dude……you were once the total Ice Princess! What ever happened to you, girl? Man……heh…….if you were always THAT easy back in the days Robin formed the group, even I would have made a pass at you! Hehehehe!"
"Be quiet…..," Raven droned icily. "You…..deceived me….."
Raven's Voice: "I am not capable of being deceived. I am in control of myself. I am in control of my emotions."
"………."
The real sorceress blinked numbly at that.
Raven's Voice: "I have no choice. I cannot afford to feel. Or else it would—"
"—risk a danger far too real for me to imagine….," she completed.
She dug her face in her hands and exhaled shudderingly.
"Dear Azar…..what have I done….?"
Starfire's Voice: "Heeeeeee! It was so adorrrrable watching you and friend Cyborg engage in the merriment of romance! Ohhhhh Raven! I am so elated to see you experimenting with emotion for once! Fear not……I have faith that you will not be--" (An icy switch back to Hagan's Voice) "……a compromise to the team………"
Raven lowered her hands.
She shook.
She shouted into the forest air.
"Shut up! Leave me alone!"
She spun around and scrambled up an earthen embankment.
Sweating.
Panting.
"All you've ever done is deceive me! Use me! I won't listen to you anymore! I won't let you hurt the Titans anymore! I won't—"
Terra's Voice: "Things are coming full circle, aren't they, witch?"
"……………"
Raven froze dead-still in mid climb.
She was breathless…..
Terra's Voice: "You're pathetic. You're so full of empty, angsty expletives. Deep down inside, Raven, you know that this isn't the first time this has happened to you……"
"St-Stop it…," she turned about, hissing.
Terra's Voice: "Hmmmm……hah hah hah……feelssssss so familiarrrrrr. Why don't you admit it, Raven? You gave up your powers once before! You let down your guard. You let go of your empathy. You trusted love, friendship, compassion. All of these fleeting feelings took control of you once before. And it cost you and your friends dearly then. But did you learn from your lessons? No………you just let Noir fill in that same gap. Remember what happened to Noir when your trust in him collapsed in on itself? Remember all that he lost? The scars he got from your distrust collectively flooding the Titans' psyches and exploding in his face?"
"Shut…..up…..!"
Raven clenched her head.
Her eyes strained shut.
A red pulse flickered demonically from beneath her lids.
"For the last time…………….Be…..Silent"
Terra's Voice: "And then after Noir……there came Cyborg. Sexy, sassy, annoying Victor. Hrmmmmm…… heheheh…… when are you ever going to learn, Raven? You've got to stop experimenting. You're nothing but a walking, metaphysical time bomb. Love and friendship? They can't possibly be yours to taste. You weren't born with those privileges. You were born as doorway. An unfeeling, poisonous doorway. Everytime you spoil yourself and let down your guard……guess what happens? Your closest allies suffer from it! Hahahahaha……ohhhh poor Beast Boy. Starfire even! They'll be dead soon and the only person to blame is……your…….self………"
"SHUT UP!" Raven screamed and flexed her arms. Her eyes flickered red as she gritted sharp teeth and summoned a sudden, demonic pulse of blackness. "I SAID SHUT UP!.....! RAAAAUGH!..!"
She flicked her wrist and shot a blade of black energy out into the forest.
SL-SL-SLIIIINK!
Three mighty trunks of pine in a row were lopped like candle sticks.
THWOOOOMP!
They fell massively into the forest floor and tumbled down the mountain with great noise.
Matt Hagan's Voice: "Woooo……temper temper……You know—I don't care what you might say—but any two-bit yahoo can read you like a god damn book, girl."
"RRGHHHHH!" Raven spun with another slash of black energy.
SL-SLINK!
A random pine tree divided up the center and split in two.
Raven panted, hobbling backwards.
Matt Hagan's Voice: "Just what damage have I done? Or Dagger for that instance? No, girl……the worst thing to happen to the Titans during all of this mess is you."
Raven slumped to her knees.
She looked at her black-throbbing hands and shuddered.
"…………," a tear trickled coldly down her bruised face.
Her lips quivered.
"D-Dear Azar………what have I done……?"
She clenched her eyes shut and shook her skull.
"Wh-What have I d-done……?"
Suddenly, the tree trunk directly behind her pulsed, shrank, and morphed into a brown blob of a humanoid figure. A yellow grin appeared in the center and hissed forth: "You were born….."
"……!.!.!" Raven spun around.
"HAAAAUGH!" Clayface solidified, produced two axes, and flung them forward on the end of tentacles.
Raven gasped and jumped back—
SL-SLINK! The axes grazed her shoulders.
Blood flew hotly through the cold night.
"Nnnnngh!" Raven shrieked and toppled backwards down the mountain.
TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!
She tumbled, rolled, smacked against the trunk of one pine tree and pinballed off another.
She soon lied on the soft earth….panting….panting….panting….
Stomp! Stomp! STOMP!
Clayface stood above her.
Sneering.
"Heh heh heh heh…."
Raven shuddered.
Her eyes twitched and flickered….flickered….flickered………..red.
"You stupid……..thick-minded…….bitch…..," Clayface reared his limb and slammed a club across the back of her skull.
THWACK!
"NNNGH!" Raven hunched over.
Coughing.
Sputtering.
Her whole body shaking.
"Couldn't you have woken up for at least one filthy second?" Clayface smiled as he leered over her. He planted a muddy hand over his chest. "Didn't anyone tell you that I'm an actor…..?"
"………," Raven shuddered. In a sickly voice: "Didn't anyone tell you……" She tilted her head up toward him. Frowning. Four red eyes STROBED across her forehead. "……that I'm a demon?"
Clayface's amber-glazed eyes widened.
FL-FLASSSSSH!..
Raven 'exploded' upwards into a giant red shadow.
Her body stretched beyond physical proportions as a facsimile of her tortured, flame-like form loomed over him and wailed with four red eyes pulsing and a pair of fanged jaws gaping.
"WRIIIIIIIIIIIIII-AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAACKKKKKKKK!....!"
Clayface gasped and hobbled back. "J-Jesus! Y-You---!"
"SHRRRU-YAAAAAAKKKKK!..!" Raven's Wrath screamed, jolted back, and exploded two dozen tentacles of burning vapors from her center and straight at Clayface.
TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSH!..
RIIIIIIP!..
The lacerated limbs tore and hacked and 'bit' at Clayface's muddy body all over.
The shrieking metamorph stumbled back, half-collapsing.
He fought vainly against the torrent of demonic limbs as he flew apart in globs…pieces….mouthfuls.
"Nnnngh! Get back! Get the freakin' hell away from me!"
"SNKKKRAAAAAAK!..! HELLLLL?.? YOU WILL BE DRINKKKKING MY FATHER'S DEFECATIONNN IN HELL TONIGHTTT, HAGAN!....!"
He gasped.
He panted.
He leapt up, morphed into snakes and worms of mud, and jerked and slithered every which way he could to avoid the jabbing pieces of Raven's burning soul-self that jabbed and stabbed at him through the thick forest.
SLASH!
SLIIINK!
SWISSSSH!
Trees were shredded into splinters.
Pine fell.
Leaves and needles scattered.
Wooden shrapnel tumbled down the mountain and cluttered Clayface's ascending escape route.
"YOU WORTHLESSSSS POWERRRRMONGERINGGG SOUL!...!"
Raven's Wrath howled.
Canine teeth lashing.
Four eyes strobing.
The night lit up in red, red, red vapors.
"YOU WOULDDDD MOLESSST THE SOULSSS OF MY INNOCENT FRIENDSSS WHEN THEY WERE MOSSST WOUNDED!..! I SHALLLLL SEE YOU SCREAMINGGG A MILLION TIMESSS OVER FOR EVERY OUNCCCE OF PAINNN YOU BRINGGG TO THEM!....! AZARATH METRION TRIGON!..! AZARATH METRION TRIGONNNNN!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!"
The earth shook.
Cracks formed in the mountain.
The trees immediately around the spectacle started to burn with a metaphysical fire.
At his rope's end, Clayface hunched back helplessly against a row of trees, tried vainly to pull his remaining globs of mud together, and shouted: "Dagger! Dagger, for the love of God! She's the devil incarnate! She's going to freakin' kill me!"
"Just a little bit longer, Hagan."
"SCREW YOU, BOSS!"
"Hagan! She is resonating! Red Aviary sees her!"
"HURRRAAAAAK!..!"
FLASSSSH!
A burning tentacle of demon energy flew at the tree.
Clayface launched his body as a sphere of mud.
CRACCCCCK!
The trees left behind shattered on impact.
Clayface landed, rolled to a crouch, and stared muddily around.
Panting.
"Red Aviary? Where?"
"COMMMME CRAWLING BACCCK HERE….YOU SNIVELLING….PATHETICCC….FILTH!..!"
"There! He's there now!"
Clayface shuddered all over.
Raven's Wrath stomped towards.
Tentacles flailing.
The grass and tree roots beneath her treading shadow dying and curling up upon touch.
"SHRRRAAAAKAAAA!..!"
A glow of red.
Crimson aura….
Pulsating behind Clayface.
The edges of the mud golem's skull hardened into crystal. A frost and vapor filled the air as the temperature dropped.
"…….," Clayface exhaled shakily.
His amber eyes widening.
"Sl-Slade……"
"Hckk……clik-clik-clikkkkk….."
"Snnnkt! Get out of there, Hagan! Leave! Head back to the Tower now!"
"Nnnngh!" Clayface stood up straight, flexed his arms, and exploded. "RAAAAUGH!"
POW! SP-SPLUNKKKK!
The globs of exploding mud flew into the air, morphed into a flock of pigeons, and took swiftly to the air. Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Flppp!
"SNNNAAAAKKK!.!"
Raven's Wrath glanced up.
Her four eyes pulsing.
Her jagged teeth gritting.
The metamorphic birds flew high into the night's sky and bent southward. Then the redness made them too hard to see.
The redness……
The four eyes atop Raven's crown rounded.
She glanced down.
Her waving tentacles and flickering soul-self froze.
"Hckkkkk…..clik-clik-clik….."
A shadowy figure stood across the burning, shredded forest. He had a sword in his grasp. A sword that he hoisted over his shoulder like a javelin….and…..
"" Raven gasped. And when she did so, a cold vapor danced from her mouth…….
SWISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!
SCHLUNNNNNKK!
The four eyes blinked, faded, and morphed into two wide violets of pain.
"Nnnnsskkktt!" Raven shuddered.
Her teeth gritting.
Normal-shaped.
She twitched….she gasped.
She shrank……shrank….shrank…..till her red soul self was gone and she had succinctly deflated back to her normal, physical self.
And……..
Deathstroke's sword rested in the center of her being.
Skewering her through the chest.
"………………," Raven twitched.
Raven wheezed.
"…….snkkkt---snkkt……….mmf…….."
……..
THWOMP!
Raven fell back to the earth floor.
Her limbs splayed about her.
The hilt of the two-edged sword sticking up out of her chest.
Her eyes were froze solid.
Wide.
Tears of icy pain ran down her pale cheeks and solidified from the frost in the crimson air.
As did the blood trickling from her gaping lips freeze….
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"…………," Dagger took a deep breath.
The despot pocketed his communicator away and stared northward from the deck of the hovercraft running north along the Bay.
He spotted the 'flock of pigeons' that was Clayface heading towards Titans' Island.
"…………well done, Hagan," he murmured to the air.
He took a knife out from beneath his jacket.
He twirled it.
"The slaying has begun. The Parasite……should be well fed……"
Silence.
He turned.
He nodded slowly to a pilot.
"Prepare to launch the attack."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"…………."
Raven twitched.
Raven lay numb.
Raven stared up at the tree-tops.
The flickering aura of distant flames…….
The cold redness settling………………
Everywhere.
"………………………."
…………………
"…………………………snkkkt……clik…..clik….clik-clik…..clik-clik-clik-clik-Hckkkk……."
Footsteps.
Raven took a sharp breath.
Rave twitched.
Violet eyes wide and helpless.
Her limbs limp.
"…….snkkkt-clik-clik-clik-clikkkttt…."
The footsteps drew closer.
A frigidity in the air.
Everything icing over…..
In a haze of red smoke, he stood above her.
Red eye glaring.
Pulsating.
"HCkkkkk….snkkkt…clik-clik-clik….."
Raven shuddered.
A weak, thin breath.
A last breath.
"Sl….Sl…Sl-…Sla-….."
"HCkkkkkkk….."
He gripped the sword's hilt in a metal-and-flesh hand.
"Clik-clik-clisnkkkt………………..Shall be lifted---nevermore."
SCLUNNKKKK! He jerked the blade out of her stomach.
And Raven gurgled.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!
I blurred the last lengthy distance southward towards the City.
I huffed and puffed.
Atop my blurring feet, I glanced left at Robin.
He too was speeding across the landscape, sticking to the road on his harley.
After a long time, I coaxed him into glancing at me.
I nodded to check on him.
"………..," he merely stared straight ahead towards our destination.
I took a breath and glanced ahead too through my shades.
Right……
Something……or someone's going to end tonight.
Keep focused, Robin.
Keep me focused too, Ana………
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Vrmmmmmmmmm!
Robin gripped the handles of the harley.
He breathed steadily.
His masked eyes fixed on the asphalt blurring towards him.
The dead lanes.
The emptiness of the cold night hanging above us.
The Bay….the Bridge….the City looming ever so closer ahead.
"…………."
He inhaled sharply as everything red blurred before him and morphed into the aura of a cold world encircling a rusted brownness smoldering around him.
'Don't you see? I'm not real.'
'Bring her back!'
'I can't. She's gone.'
'Sometimes there are no happy endings.'
'I'll annihilate them, Robin. And I'll make you watch……'
'Get out of here! You don't know what he can do!'
'Good, Robin. That means I have you all to myself……'
Robin took a deep breath.
He gripped the handles tighter.
He resisted the urge to scream.
He resisted…..resisted….resisted….
VRMMMMMMMMMMMM!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
T-T-T-T-T-T-
T-T-T-T-T-T-
'Attack, Robin! It's the only way to save them.'
"Nnnnnghhh!" Starfire groaned and twitched in an amber and yellow fire in the Apprentice's arms. "Nnnghaaugh!"
Robin panted.
The echoing cries of the surrounding Titans filtered into his ears past Slade's screeching voice.
"Nnnngh!"
"Ughhhhh!"
"Ohhhhhhmmmfff….!"
'Attack with everything you've got.'
"………," Robin's Apprentice mask narrowed….and then rounded.
He stared off into the cold air beyond the fractured letters of the WAYNE Building.
A distant sky that burned red and thirsted for a blue-eyed boy that huddled in his closet when the screaming stopped and someone stormed out and someone stormed in place.
'M-Mommy? Mommy! Wh-Where did Mommy go?'
'What do I have to do to get you to shut up, kid?'
'………M-Mommy's gone! Daddy, please make her come back!'
'Nnnngh! She's DEAD, okay? Freakin' forget about her, you little shit!'
'I……I-I………b-but……'
'SHUT……UP! GOD! Am I going to have to feed your pathetic little mouth from now on too? Pfft……you're so weak and useless, I swear! I'll toss you to Two-Face's thugs if you don't shut the Hell up!'
"………………….," atop the Wayne Building, he laid Starfire down.
"Nnnngh….," she weakly raised a hand to him. "R-Robin…."
But Robin was dead. "I'm sorry." The Apprentice aimed the thermal blaster squarely at her chest.
Z-ZAAAAP!
…………….
…………….
……………..
'That's my boy……'