A/N: As a certain video game angel once said, "Sorry to keep you waiting!"

So, yes, I'm still alive and still writing. But almost four years without an update...where did the time go?! Yikes...I owe you all an apology. Especially those of you who've been waiting for so long. "Be ready for the next chapter," I said, but then procrastination, loss of interest, and life happened...bad combo for writing, don't you think? Still thanks to all you who put me on your Story or Author Alerts.

Disclaimer: As usual, I do not own these characters. The Titans belong to DC Comics, and Ben 10 belongs to Man of Action.

FYI: This is NOT the final chapter. I felt the rest of the story was getting too long for one chapter, so I split it into two. I also have a couple things to say afterwards. But for right now...enjoy!

Chapter 5: Fight!

Beast Boy looked up at the darkened higher part of the chamber, almost hope help would fall in from there. Then he looked down at everyone in front of him.

He, Raven, Albedo, and the ten Knights who were in the chamber with them had just seen the result of the experiment with the Imitator. And he and Raven were still stuck on the two examination tables.

"That was an excellent demonstration, Imitator," Albedo said to the machine. "You may have surpassed the skill of the green one!"

"Thank you, sir," it said in a weird, emotionless, mechanical voice.

"HEY!"

They all turned to look at Beast Boy.

"You take that back!"

"Make me," Albedo taunted him.

"Oh, I—YAAAAH!"

Beast Boy had forgotten about the anti-escape device until he had tried to escape and gotten zapped once again. The Knights laughed at his stupid mistake. Raven sighed and looked away.

"Perhaps," laughed one, "he has no brain!"

"You know very well that such a thing is impossible," Albedo told him.

"In that case, he may not use it very much!"

Albedo glared at him. The laughing stopped.

"Hey, that my line!"

Raven groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Back to the matter," Albedo continued. "It is time to equip the Imitator with the girl's powers."

No! If they get Raven's powers…oh, man, I don't even wanna think about it!

A Knight started to approach Raven. She hung her head in a seeming pose of surrender.

C'mon, guys! What's takin' you so—

Beast Boy's thought was interrupted by a loud crash. The door leading into the chamber suddenly flew halfway across the room! On the other side was the same guy who had freed him earlier. From his pose, he had just punched it in.

Whoa! Talk about timing!

This guy ran into the room, followed by five others. One of the others caught BB's eyes the most.

Wha—?! I didn't know that Star could duplicate!

"What?! Impossible!"

"Believe it, Albedo," said the guy who had caught Beast Boy's attention. "We took Mr. Ninja down back there!"

Albedo hadn't been specific enough, though.

"Ben Tennyson? Are you—?" he asked the speaker.

"Yes," said another hero. "He can now become one of me!"

Wait a sec…is that the guy who turned into that "Swampfire" thingy early? Now he can turn into Starfire?!

"I'll make this simple, Albedo," said the first speaker, now identified as Ben. "Unless you, the Knights, or the Imitator want permanent sunburns—" He raised his fists, which were glowing green. "—release the Titans!"

"NEVER!" shouted one Knight.

He lifted his weapon and took aim.

"No, you fool!"

Albedo's warning came too late; the Knight had fired. Ben had dodged the laser blast.

"All right, now I'm mad!"

He rose up a little high; Starfire joined him. The six free heroes got into their ready positions. The Knights started to lift their weapons, but they were a little slow…

"Everyone!" Robin shouted. "Go!"

Hard to do when I can't move, Beast Boy thought jokingly.

The fight was rather short; unconscious Knights lay all over the room. The stone guy had taken out the Imitator with one punch, sending it out of his field of vision. For some odd reason, it hadn't moved at all to defend itself...

That aside, Albedo had currently nowhere to hide. He was inching towards the wall to the restrained heroes' right.

"Game over, Albedo," Ben said.

"Not quite, Ben Tennyson," the silver-haired bad guy said.

Then he shouted.

"Imitator! Subdue them! Take their powers if you can do so!"

He turned around and ran towards the wall. He then pressed on it. A section of it suddenly rose; it was a hidden door! He bolted through it into the darkness that lay ahead.

"Get back here, Albedo!" shouted the redheaded girl other than Star.

Not wasting a second, she conjured up a pillar of pink energy to hold the door up.

"Gwen, what'r'ya—?"

The stone guy didn't have time to finish his question, as this girl, Gwen, ran for the door as well. Someone else flew towards as well.

"Star, wait—!" Robin tried to call.

Both girls had barely made it through the door when the pillar disappeared. The door fell closed with a resounding thud.

"NO!"

"Auto-repairs completed," said the weird, mechanical voice. "Command acknowledged."

Wha—? Wh-what's goin' on? Beast Boy thought.

The others looked up and exchanged looks of confusion at the voice.

"Oh, no!" the stone guy shouted, starting to look scared. "The Imitator!"

The next thing they all knew, there were a series of clanks and then an engine noise.

Uh-oh…

Suddenly, a motorcycle zoomed towards the four standing heroes and jumped over them. Six pairs of eyes followed it. Said motorcycle changed back into the Imitator in midair and made a quiet, graceful landing. Finally, it changed into a wolf shape, turning back towards the free heroes in order to snarl at them. Understandably, all of them started to back up.

"Rats!" the stone guy groaned. "Forgot how strong those things c'n be!"

"Oh, yeah?" Cyborg replied, raising a fist. "Well, it don't know ME!"

"Cyborg, I don't think that's—"

Robin's warning had come a little too late. Cyborg had already charged at the robot. He then gave the Imitator a knuckle sandwich. Only Cyborg's hand went into its mouth, and then it bit down. Hard.

"YEOWCH!"

Then its eyes seemed to close, and the whole thing seemed to vibrate. Cyborg tried to pull away as it did.

And the last time it did that was when—

"Oh, no! It's copying his system!"

"No duh, Kevin," Ben responded.

"Oh no you don't!" Robin shouted, drawing his bo. "Let him go, you rusty fleabag!"

But before he could reach them, the Imitator opened its eyes and started to spin Cyborg around so fast that it practically made a vortex around the two of them. Robin forced himself to stop.

Then the Imitator obeyed Robin's last command.

"Whoooooooa—!"

Cyborg flew straight past Beast Boy and Raven and—CRASH!—hit the wall on the other side. Both of them winced as he fell to the floor.

"C'n someone stop the room?" Cyborg mumbled groggily. "I'd like to t'get off, please…"

Aw, crud…

The Imitator turned to the others and changed back to its normal form.

"Now," it asked, "who shall be next?"

"You will," Robin snarled. "I'll make sure of it!"

"So will I," Ben added.

"Make that three of us!" Kevin put in.

The Imitator's right arm adjusted. It then pointed the sonic blaster, identical to Cyborg's, at the three challengers.

"I think not," it replied. "I shall destroy you!"

It fired at them, but the three heroes dodged.

"Keep it busy!" Ben shouted from the air. "I'll release the other two!"

He hurled a starbolt down to the Imitator, causing it to stumble backwards when it was hit in the face. Robin and Kevin charged at it, getting it its way, while Ben zoomed down towards Beast Boy.

Wait a sec…what if—?!

"Dude, wait!" BB warned. "My clamper-thingies! They might might zap you if y'touch 'em!"

Ben paused for a moment, and then reached out a finger towards one of the bonds holding the green hero in place. He hadn't quite touched it when he felt a shock.

"Ow!" He pulled his hand back and shook it for a moment. "Oh, man, you're right. Maybe I could melt off, or—"

He paused, looked over at Raven, and brought a hand to his forehead.

"How could I forget?"

"Forget wha—?" Beast Boy started to ask.

Ben then moved over to Raven.

"Ohhh!"

As he did before, Ben slipped his hands around the gag and tore it off.

"Thank you," she said. "Now you can—"

"Got it," said Ben. "Standin' back!"

Raven closed her eyes and concentrated.

"Azarath Metrion…"

They sprang open, glowing with black energy.

"Zinthos!"

The bonds were surrounded by the same sort of energy. A split second later, they broke open.

"All right!" Beast Boy leapt to his feet. "Beast Boy's back in the game! Let's take it—"

"Look out!" Raven shouted, conjuring a shield in front of the three of them.

He looked through it and flinched on reflex.

The Imitator had thrown Kevin, still covered in stone, in his direction and would have hit him with a painful force, had Raven not seen Kevin in time. The shield disappeared as soon as Kevin lay in a somewhat-uncomfortable position on the floor. There were several stoneless patches all over his body.

"Dude! You okay?" Beast Boy shouted, running up to him.

The other two floated over as Kevin sat up, rubbing his forehead.

"Never underestimate an Imitator," he grumbled. "I let up a little too much."

Robin was currently the only one fighting the thing at all! And it didn't look promising.

"I'll take care of it," Raven said solemnly.

"Wait," said Kevin.

Ben voiced the question on the others mind: "What're you gonna do, Raven?"

Before she could answer, it tried to throw Robin away as well. He was lucky enough to get back in control of himself to get to the ground without getting hurt. The Imitator turned towards the others.

"Watch," she told then.

She muttered the three words and levitated the Imitator as Robin sent Ben a thumbs-up. But after about ten seconds…

"Dude," Beast Boy said, not taking his eyes off the robot, "now's a good time to take that thing apart."

"You think I'm not trying?" Raven responded with a strained voice.

He then took a look at her face. A drop of sweat was dripping down from her forehead.

Sweat?! No way, somethin's not right here…

Her breathing had just gotten heavier when there was a humming noise from the Imitator. A few seconds later, Raven shrieked, falling to her hands and knees and breathing hard, like when Jinx the Wizardcat had stolen her power. And she dropped it.

"RAVEN!" Robin called out, running over.

He had just made it over when they heard the mechanical voice again.

"Auto-repairs completed."

The five of them looked up at the resilient robotic ruffian.

"I'll hold it back!" Ben called flying over, fists glowing.

"I'm comin', too, Tennyson!" Kevin said, first getting a new stone coat and then charging.

Robin stayed with Raven instead of joining Ben.

"I'm fine," she finally said, getting to her feet. "A little shaken, but fine."

"What happened to you, Raven?" Beast Boy wondered.

"I don't really know," she admitted. "I tried taking that thing apart, but it was…was…resisting me."

"Resisting?" Robin was a little confused.

"It was like there was another force holding it together. And the harder I pulled, the harder it did. Then that robot vibrated so much I couldn't hold it."

"Oh, boy," Beast Boy muttered, his eyes wide.

Sounds of energy projection drew Robin's attention to the fight. Kevin was just picking himself up off the ground, still covered in stone. The Imitator was holding Ben in its currently swollen right hand. The sound was Ben's blasting its shoulder with starbolts.

"I am not amused, Ben Tennyson. An insignificant amount of heat cannot hurt me," it said in its creepy robotic voice.

"Oh, yeah? How about this?" Kevin charged in and punched it in the red-hot shoulder.

This gave Robin an idea.

"Kevin!" he called out. "Rip its shoulder armor open!"

"Why would I wanna—?"

"Just do it!" Robin pulled out an explosive disk.

Kevin immediately understood. He did as Robin asked and then, very wisely, got out of the way.

Robin threw the disk. The Imitator didn't even try to defend itself.

KABOOM!

The robot fell onto its back, down one arm.

"Nice save, Robin," Ben said, freeing himself from said arm.

"Not a long-lasting one, though," Kevin commented. "This type of Imitator can self-repair like Swampfire."

"What?!" everyone else blurted out at the same time.

"Yeah, 'bout a Level 12. They send out wires to connect to the lost limbs, then pull them back in to repair themselves. That's what makes them really dangerous."

"You mean like that?" Raven asked.

Everyone looked. A wire crept out of its shoulder and connected with the severed arm. The wire pulled it back to the shoulder, and the arm fixed itself within seconds.

"Oh, man," Ben mumbled as the thing stood up.

One of its arms adjusted into a sonic blaster, which it once again aimed at the heroes. Ben could only think of one thing to do at the moment.

"Hey," he asked it, pointing. "Who's that behind you?"

The Imitator stopped and looked behind itself. No one was there.

And the reason behind the question became all too obvious when it got a punch in its chest.

"You tricked me," it observed as it had recovered. "But your attempt shall be in vain. I shall capture you all."

"I don't think so!" Robin shouted. "TITANS, GO!"

Everyone, except for the recalibrating Cyborg, went after the Imitator.

A/N: Hope it was worth the wait. I'll try to get Chapter 6 done when I can. But time for a couple announcements:

First, I'm changing my pen name. My new name will be "Roman Vulcan".

Second, I am planning and writing a new fanfic to publish soon after I'm done with Titans Forever. I won't give away that much right now, but I will say it is NOT connected to any of my previous works, outside of brief references. More info to come.

Thanks for reading!

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