Breaker Chapter 19, a teen titans fanfic

Chapter 19

He didn't perish.

Instead of disappearing into an icy slumber in the hollows of Raven's mind, Beast Boy was flung back into reality. Literally. He felt his body rise out of the portal mirror and fly through the air, his momentum stopping only when his back smacked into metal. He slid down the wall and crumpled on the floor, his every limb feeling like it weighed eighty thousand pounds. He felt like passing out, but then the ringing in his ears started to subside and the reality that he'd just reentered finally began to register.

He was in the middle of a battle.

There were screams and the sizzling of blast fire, and something hot and extremely dangerous suddenly exploded to Gar's right. He tried to spring away, but his tired frame couldn't support the adrenaline pumping through his veins.

"Beast Boy!"

In an instant Cyborg was next to him, looping an arm around his waist and helping Gar hobble down the hallway and into the nearest supply closet. He settled the changeling on the floor against the shelves, his blaster arm humming as it prepared itself for another shot. Out in the hall there was screeching mixed with the grunts of hand-to-hand combat, with a gentle underscore of the whizzing of Robin's discs.

"What-," Gar tried to say, but his throat was dry. He swallowed hard and Cyborg just shook his head.

"It's utter mayhem," he explained, wiping sweat from his brow before adjusting his cannon. "The minute you disappeared through that mirror this Raven went completely ballistic. It was like setting off an atomic bomb." He squeezed his eye shut as he pulled back on his arm, the sound of something locking into place making him wince. Beast Boy knew that sound; it happened when Cy was reconverting his power supply to take from a personal reserve. He was using his life support to fuel his blaster.

"Stop," Gar croaked. "You can't do that…"

"Have to," his friend groaned, gritting his teeth against the pain. "I'm running on empty and I can't plug into anything to recharge. We've been fighting for awhile."

"Has she hurt anyone?" he asked, his eyes going wide with dreaded anticipation. He let out a sigh of relief when Cyborg shook his head.

"I can tell that she wants to, but at the same time she keeps getting in her own way." He gripped the bicep of his blaster arm and hoisted the thing upward, forcing himself to hold it steady. "Within two seconds of you getting sucked into the portal she screamed like a freaking banshee and the safe room tore apart. Like paper. Like it was nothing. The paneling was peeling down like string cheese, for Pete's sake. She's practicing no restraint whatsoever, even if it hurts her." He just kept shaking his head, as if he couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. "Right now the only one who can hold her off is Starfire," he said, and his expression darkened further. "I forgot how vicious that girl could be in battle."

As if to emphasize his point the entire Tower rattled and creaked as something large was thrown around within its walls. The lights flickered out and it took a few seconds before the emergency generators kicked in, flooding the Tower with an ugly red glow.

"We need to move," Gar said, even though his body was still reeling from vertigo. He used the shelves as leverage to regain his footing, but it still took a moment for the room to stop spinning.

"Wait for my signal," Cyborg commanded, and cautiously peered around the doorjamb before sidling out into the hall.

Gar waited quietly. He could still hear the telltale sounds of battle, but they were growing distant. Even then Cyborg let off a few powered down shots before he called for the all clear.

"She's been sending shadows after us," he explained when Beast Boy came out to meet him. "Just sending out minions like some final boss in a video game." His furrowed brow was so much more prominent in the sickly lighting, and Gar couldn't remember a time when Cyborg looked so enraged. "That's not Raven," he murmured.

"Not ours, anyway," Beast Boy said, heaving a breath. His friend looked at him.

"Please tell me you were able to reach her," he said. "Or else all of this senseless violence would have been for nothing."

"It wasn't, and I did." Garfield took another deep breath, forcing his tentative nerves to solidify. "She wants to perform the ritual. The lobotomy ritual, or whatever it's called."

"How? I can only do so much. Majority of the procedure…ritual…came from her end."

"She thinks she can do it while still in her mindscape," Gar explained hurriedly, but even he was starting to doubt the idea now. "Her plan is to gather her untainted emoticlones and together they would perform their half of the ritual at the same time you did your half out here." Cyborg's already dumbfounded expression increased.

"At the same time?" he repeated. "How are we supposed to coordinate that?" He groaned when all Gar could do was shake his head.

"Luck," he said morbidly, remembering Raven's sad declaration. "I honestly don't know, but it's the only shot we have left."

"It's not going to work," Cyborg said right away, too unsettled to keep still. He started pacing around the dimly lit hallway. "It doesn't work in theory, so how is it going to work in reality?"

"We have to try-,"

"Try what?" Cyborg practically yelled. "Did she even tell you what my part of the procedure would entail?"

"No-,"

"Of course she didn't, because if she did then you'd know this is impossible!"

Gar squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold his patience past the dizziness that still lingered. "What do you have to do?" he asked calmly. Cyborg's response fell from his tongue in sharp, clipped sentences.

"Well for starters, we have to inject her with the serum again, but only after she's entered the transmutation ritual circle thing that she redesigned. Then the ritual needs to be done immediately after. You saw how difficult getting close to her was when she was contained, imagine how much worse it is now that she's loose?"

"Is that all?"

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if it was?" he hissed sarcastically, but Beast Boy didn't react to his tone. "The spell or whatever it is she's using is so powerful that it could wipe out the memories of anyone standing within a mile radius. We were going to use the safe room to help contain the red zone, but now that the place is destroyed I don't know where else to go." He hit his fist against a wall, the lazy blow still leaving a visible dent in the steel. "I had built that place with enough runes and symbolic-y crap to house a magical nuke. Without it Rae could risk the minds of innocent civilians."

"Then we have to rebuild the safe haven," Gar insisted. "Or else find a new place for the ritual."

"We can't."

"We have to. Didn't you build something similar in all the other Towers just in case?"

Cyborg stared at his friend in rigid astonishment, his mouth agape. "Well yeah, but none nearly as sophisticated as this one! And even if it were as up to date or thorough, there's no way we'd be able to catch this Raven and bring her over in time for the real Rae to perform the ritual!"

Garfield growled audibly, the roar tearing from his throat a mixture of human and animal. "There has to be a place," he grumbled, colliding with the wall and sliding down. Cyborg started to protest again when he was cut off.

"There is a place."

Both boys turned to see Robin staggering out of the red tinted shadows, one hand pressing into his side as he used the wall for balance. His cape was singed and his mask was threatening to fall off, but aside from a few nasty scrapes he looked better than he could have.

"Robin!"

"Where's Raven?" Cyborg demanded, running forward and converting his canon back into an arm. He helped him gently onto the floor.

"Still fighting. The girls went flying out of the Tower a few minutes ago. Star was trying to lead her away from the city the last I could see of them."

"She might have fractured a few of your ribs-," Cyborg started to say, checking along Robin's side, but the Boy Wonder shook his head.

"No, it wasn't her. I fell a couple of stories down when the floors collapsed under me, but Raven hasn't even come near me." He gasped when Cyborg hit a tender spot, and he grabbed his friend's arm to stop him. "Just give me a patch job and then be done with it. We have to get moving as quickly as possible if we're going to help Raven."

"You still want to help us save her?" Beast Boy asked, dropping down next to Robin. "Even after she's done all this?"

"I thought she was lost," he admitted as Cyborg pulled linen wrappings out of a hidden compartment and began working. "I thought she had fed into the darkness and we were battling an empty shell. But just now… she could have ended this the minute it started," he said, wincing when the wrappings were tied around his ribs. "But she keeps pulling herself back; stopping before anything fatal happens. Depravity is fighting us, but Raven is fighting Depravity."

"We can save her," Gar said, helping Cyborg unclasp Robin's cape so he could breathe.

"Yes, we can save her."

"We can try," Cyborg corrected, sitting back on his heels and shaking his head. "I want Rae back as much as the next person, but this plan is still shaky at best. We can't get our hopes up."

"You said there's a place," Beast Boy recalled, staring at his leader. "Where?"

"The underground temple of Trigon. The place Slade took Raven when she was used as the portal," he said, breathing heavily. "The runes and statues there were made to encompass the portal that would bring Trigon to this world. I'm thinking it's more than enough of a containment cell for Raven's ritual."

Cyborg sat up the tiniest bit, his head tilting to the side with thoughtful inquisitiveness. "That could actually work," he said through a furrowed brow. "It's got enough ancient residues to cushion the spell, and it's a perfect magical match."

"The problem is getting her to that temple," Robin hissed. "It's hidden near the industrial park, and the girls were heading south."

"Well, we can't exactly drag her there," Cy grumbled.

"And even if we could, we have no way of communicating what we need to Starfire. If she lets up on Raven for even a second she could lose her."

"Then we use bait," Garfield decided. His teammates stared at him. "Something she wants." Robin's expression darkened.

"No way-,"

"She can sense me from miles away. If I start maneuvering away from the Tower it'll spike her radar, and she'll come looking for me…especially if I start heading for a temple of Trigon."

"Normally I'd call you out on being a cocky bastard, but Raven was screaming your name every two seconds after you disappeared through the mirror," Cyborg said in a low, un-approving voice. "You'd really put yourself out there just to get her to the temple?"

"We don't know what she'd do to you," Robin pointed out. "And we don't have enough time to set up counter-measures just in case." Gar just shrugged.

"Neither of you are saying no, though."

"That goes without saying."

"We have to do it," he said, staring his best friend in the face. "If I'm enough to get her there-,"

"What does she want with you?" Robin asked, wincing as he tried to sit up straighter. "Why is she so desperate to get to you?"

"I think she—Depravity—wants to kill me," Garfield replied, speaking as honestly as he could. "There…used to be desire there. A gross, perverted attraction. But now I think she would rather see how interesting it'd be if I bled…"

"Dude." Cyborg gripped Robin's arm and hoisted him up. "Stop talking like that. You're freaking me out. Can you stand on your own?"

"Yeah. Just give me something to dull the pain so I can get through the next couple of hours." Robin stepped away and steadied himself on his feet. "But why? Why does she want to kill you now when before it was always about…"

"Because… it would destroy the real Raven," Gar said, picking up Robin's trailing words. "Killing any one of us would do the job, but I think I've royally pissed her off on more than one occasion."

"All that aside," Cyborg cut in, clearly not liking a conversation about imminent death, "this plan is still shaky at best. So many things could go wrong, and we're not all on the same page."

"And we're still running out of time," Gar emphasized. He locked eyes with Robin and his leader stared back. "I might have a plan."

"Are you sure?"

"No."

"All right," Robin said. "Let's do it."

The boys only allowed ten minutes to gather themselves before they set off for their seemingly impossible mission. Cyborg hung back to prepare a new injection of the serum, and Robin went ahead and took Beast Boy on his bike to Trigon's temple. They took the Titans' underwater tunnels into the city and covered Robin's bike in cloaking symbols from one of Raven's spellbooks, vying for discretion until the time was right for Gar to reveal his whereabouts.

They sped through the concrete passageways as fast as Robin could take them, with Beast Boy gripping his belt for leverage while he frantically tried to hone in on Starfire with his comm.

"I know this is your plan," Robin said, talking through the radios in their helmets. "But if things go south you have to let me jump in."

"Figuratively or literally?" Gar asked, frowning at his communicator. "Because in my head you just did it literally and it was really funny."

"If she gets within an inch of hurting you I'm stopping her," he said, glazing over Beast Boy's deadpan joke. "I can't exactly inflict any damage at this point, but I'll intervene."

"What if getting that close is the only way to ensure this crap plan works?"

"Beast Boy." The tunnel curved and both boys leaned together as one, theirs knees barely scraping the asphalt. "I left Starfire alone because I know she can take Raven's beating, but you're still only human." They hit the ramp that would bring them out from under the bay and Robin gunned the engine. "If we can't save her…well, losing two Titans in one day isn't going to be an option."

Gar didn't respond, but both boys seemingly came to an unspoken agreement. Within a few minutes they were out on the streets of the city and carving their way through the industrial district, where the hidden entrance to the temple was located.

"Did you find them?" Robin asked as they pulled up to their destination. Gar tugged off his helmet and nodded.

"Six miles from the city limit, still on the coastline. I think."

"Okay." They walked up to the cave's entrance and peered into its darkness. Robin pulled out a few flares from his belt and threw them in, illuminating the descent into the cold ground of the earth. "Then I'd say we have about eleven minutes, maybe less. Is that enough time to setup?"

"Let's hope," Gar mumbled before leading the way down into the house of a demon king.

Her mind was a torrent of color and sound, memories and feelings that were being eaten away from something foreign and black.

Depravity had underestimated the burden of what it meant to take control, to be in full power of a half human soul and half demon darkness. She was cracking, shattering, breaking under her own means, and Raven could feel her mind being cleaved apart. She was incorporeal and yet fully aware of her body being caught in the turmoil of power and emotion. She tried to concentrate, but there was no sane mind for her to focus on.

"Homo sum humani a me nihil alienum puto."

"I am a human being; nothing human is strange to me."

The incantation echoed around her as she focused on the words, willing them to be spoken through lips she couldn't even feel. She started to find herself again, to piece back together a puzzle that was nonexistent. She repeated the incantation and her conviction solidified, and when she said it a third time she felt herself reach out for Depravity and find a connection.

And when the connection was made all she could feel was the emotion's painful, agonized screams.

Starfire screamed as she plummeted through the air, red hair whipping around her face. She tried her best to grasp onto her power, to make herself feel the weightlessness of flight so she could cease her fall, but it was no use. She was too tired and too distracted to feel any semblance of hope or joy.

In a last ditch effort to remain airborne she brought her hands together and shot a starbolt into the ocean below, using the ricochet of the blast to stop her fall. She hovered for a moment before an arm snaked from behind and hooked her neck. Her own weight made the choke hold worse, and Star reached for her assailant's wrist, her fingernails digging through Kevlar into flesh.

"You're getting tired, Kory," Raven whispered, pulling on the alien's hair with her free hand. Starfire tugged on her arm.

"As are you," she said through a tight throat. "Perhaps we should stop this."

"I don't know, this is kind of fun."

With a grunt of effort Starfire swung her leg around, using the momentum to spin the pair and loosen Raven's chokehold. The alien girl reached around and hooked Raven around the waist, forcing both of them into a somersaulting free fall towards the ocean. They grappled for a few seconds, shoving elbows into ribs and smashing fists against joints. And right before they crashed into the water Raven gained the upper hand and was able to place her palm over Star's chest.

They were engulfed into the ocean, the water devouring the pair in a suffocating embrace. Starfire grabbed at Raven's arm, but the sorceress was already gathering black power at her fingertips. The space between their skins started to grow hot, and Star braced herself for the pain that would surely follow, but just when the heat started to reach a breaking point the girl's hand jerked away violently and Raven screamed a scream that was lost in the sea. Instead of ending the Tamaranean, Raven gathered them both in a bubble of her shadows and pulled them from the water, carrying them towards land and tossing the alien girl onto the sandy shoreline.

"No," Raven growled, hovering above her and yanking at her own hair. "Stop! Stop interfering!" She shrieked and boulders rose up around them, reacting to her endless output of unrestrained magic. Starfire coughed out salt water and sand before she forced herself to her feet.

"Raven! Raven, listen to me! You must fight her!"

"No-,"

Wind started to blow and waves lashed against the beach. The floating boulders trembled and the Raven that was not Raven looked wild-eyed and truly insane. Purple and violet and lavender smoke swirled in her irises, and Starfire backed away, afraid that she would actually implode. She hoped, (as only Starfire could hope), that somehow this nightmare would end and her friend would be safe.

And so, as if to answer her unspoken prayer, a beeping sound emanated from her belt and Starfire looked down to see her homing device blinking on her buckle.

She sought them out amongst the raging apocalypse of her mind. She called them to her: Happiness, Knowledge, Wrath and Love. The last pieces of her that were still willing to fight.

Finding them was hard. And painful.

Holding them was even more so.

Happiness was grey, Knowledge was deteriorating, and Wrath was torn between her similarities with Depravity and their vast differences. It was only Love that felt whole and solid and strong. Only Love that felt like it could survive the ordeal and come out of the storm made anew. Only Love felt powerful.

But even so…

Love conquers all; it was a time old saying, but Raven wasn't fool enough to believe it.

Love was powerful, potent, all consuming and all encompassing; and people so often considered Love to stand alone.

But Love is never alone.

It is held aloft by Trust and Compassion and Empathy and Honesty and Kindness and Passion and Wonder and Hope. Love is a beacon, and beacons are so much more effective when raised high. But how could she raise it if all of her building blocks were made from ash, crumbling even as she tried to stack them?

How could she love when there was nowhere for love to stand?

The wind died down, the boulders crashed back to earth, and Raven's eyes turned a deep plum wine. She looked down at Starfire and Starfire looked up at her, the beeping of her belt never once ceasing. The sorceress tilted her head to the side just the slightest bit.

"What is…" she started to say, and then the wine in her eyes changed to black ink and an ugly frown contorted her face. "Garfield," she breathed, turning her head to the right, back towards the city. "What do you think you are doing?"

She forced herself to sever any sort of attachment to her memories.

If there was even the smallest inkling of doubt then the spell would be incomplete and she'd risk killing herself instead.

She had to forget the look on Gar's face from that night on the rooftop, of the longing in his eyes. She had to convince herself that it was easy to let go, that he wasn't something she wanted to cling to.

She had to tell herself that he was replaceable; because it was the only way she'd ever see him again.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Robin asked. He was standing on the dank floor of the temple and watching as Gar darted around on the giant hand that protruded through its center. He had set up candles in a circle, and was drawing a strange design with a piece of chalk.

"I hope so," he answered breathlessly, staring at the page he had torn out of Raven's notebook. "I'm not sure how precise this has to be. There's a lot of symbols and medical terminology."

"The odds are stacking against us," Robin said, the foreboding clear in his tone. He shook his head and went back to setting up a second ring of candles along the base of the hand. "What's our time now?"

"Less than five."

"Could be closer to two."

"But really it's none."

The ominous shadow of a black bird filled the cavernous room, and Beast Boy and Robin were thrown back by the impact. Raven appeared like a hunched caricature of herself, her hair windblown and her face twisted in a snarl. She looked up at the circle set up on the hand and smirked.

"So that's what you two were planning," she hummed, taking wobbling steps forward. "Clever clever boys and girls, trying to take down the big bad." She flinched involuntarily and pressed her hand to her head. "But I'm stronger than you, Garfield Logan. I've always been stronger than you."

A steel-toed boot slammed into her back and the Raven that wasn't Raven went sliding across the floor.

"That's a manner of perspective," Robin murmured, solidifying his stance and gripping his bo staff. Before the sorceress could regain her composure he attacked again, bringing his weapon down on her head. She rolled and dodged, jumping to her feet and pointing a finger at Robin's chest.

"We've been here before," she hissed mockingly, gathering magic to her fingertip. But then Garfield was joining the fight, swooping down with a pterodactyl screech and lifting the girl by her shoulders. He carried her struggling figure high into the vaults of the ceiling before letting go and ducking the black orb she had conjured to trap him. Explosive discs flew from below, and Raven held up her arms to shield herself from the onslaught. Beast Boy transformed back into himself and landed next to Robin.

"Is Cy on his way?"

"Should be. Maybe four minutes?"

Raven shrieked above them and the boys braced themselves as the temple shuddered. "We're not going to last four minutes," Gar grumbled. Without another word he hunched down into a fox and darted for the shadows just as Robin silently disappeared amongst the pillars. Raven's pained yet maniacal laugh echoed through the cavern, and she screamed out Beast Boy's name with impassioned anguish.

Her heart was calming down, its beat turning steady.

Her mind was clearing, and she could feel her emotions in and around her.

There was still so much fear, but it was harnessed now.

No longer possessing her.

But driving her.

She opened her eyes.

It was two minutes of utter chaos confined to fit in an illogical spectrum. The moments of silence between each grunting strike or screaming blast was deafening, making even the gravel beneath their feet screeching to the ears. Robin was a focused blur of determined green and red, every second depleting the arsenal in his belt. Beast Boy was an ever-shifting mass of green, taking to the skies, the ground, and the shadows in his attempts to keep the sorceress distracted. But Raven was nothing short of a lightening bolt, the temple practically filling with the after images of her movements.

She was power manifest, and the boys were losing to her.

She started to chant.

"Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Now, this bell tolling softly for another says to me,

Moreiris Thou must die.

Hoc est enim corpus meum. This is my Body

Homo sum humani a me I am a human being;

Nihil alienum puto Nothing human is strange to me."

"I have to hand it to you boys," Raven cooed, panting as she leaned against one of the stone effigies. "I've got miles of power at my disposal, and yet you're both still somewhat standing. Impressive."

"Thanks, but not really," Robin grumbled, holding his staff in position even as he backed away towards the nearest wall. His leg was drenched in blood and he was limping, but he was showing no sign of backing down. He chanced a glance to his left and saw Beast Boy hiding behind a pillar, his arm wrapped around his waist as he bit back a grimace. "You're not exactly hitting us with your best shot."

"I'm not? Well, shame on me." She dropped to her knees as a snarl marred her features. "I can do better." She bowed her head as if she were dry heaving, and oozing smoky shadows curled out from beneath her cloak and splayed hands. They crept along the dank floor, twisting and curving in chaotic circles towards Robin. The Boy Wonder hobbled to where Beast Boy was hiding, his eyes keeping track of the darkness that was inching closer.

"Has he beeped you?"

"His comm is in range. He should be here."

"He's not."

"Yeah well, then there's that." Gar grunted as he tore off his belt and continued to press a hand into his side. "She's breaking down, isn't she?"

"Yes," Robin said, still standing guard against the shadows. "If she was all there then we wouldn't have lasted this long. And there are too many lapses in her actions. I think the real Raven is fighting back."

"Which means she's started her half of the ritual, and we're out of time."

"We need to get her to the circle."

"But its not finished! And Cyborg-,"

"Let's hope luck is on our side and he shows up in the nick of time." Robin pulled out a few of his smaller explosives, the only weapons left in his belt. "I can cover you, but I'm not dodging anything with this leg." He breathed heavily, his face paling from the loss of blood. Beyond their hiding spot Raven's shadows were circling them.

"I did volunteer as bait." Gar huffed a few breaths. "Okay," he said, grunting as he started to change. "Okay."

"On my count?"

"Yeah."

"One…two…"

With a small cry Garfield morphed into feathers and wings and an emerald green hawk swooped out from behind the pillar as Robin set off a barrage of strategically placed flash bombs.

Across the room Raven's laugh turned into a confused whimper.

There had been a moment—long before any of this—when she had considered the idea of loving him.

It was a year or two back, after Gar had gotten his growth spurt and she had to crane her neck to look at him. Things hadn't been exactly quiet in Jump City, but nothing the original five couldn't handle. Most days only one or two would go out to patrol the streets, allowing for the others to find some much needed rest within the peace of the Tower.

There had been a morning during that time; a morning when Raven had been reading on the rooftop, her legs dangling over the edge of the metal structure while behind her Beast Boy slumped against her back playing on his game console.

It had been an unexpected and random meeting: Raven usually sat in her room to read and Gar wasn't usually up so early in the day. But by chance the two had found themselves seeking the same spot, and neither found it particularly annoying to have another person around.

They had been like that all morning, with Gar engaging her in small talk every now and then. Sometimes he would laugh and it would rumble against her back, and sometimes he would twist around and glance over her shoulder at the page she was reading.

And then noon had come, and his stomach had growled so loudly that it made her jump the slightest bit, and he had suggested she teleport them to her favorite sandwich place downtown.

And she had agreed.

They had gone in civilian clothes, had sat discreetly in a booth in the corner, and she had brought her book and he had brought Robin's old CD player. And they had spent the next couple of hours exactly as they had spent the first few: sitting peacefully without being alone.

And when Raven had finished her tea, Gar hadn't hesitated to stand up and refill it, only to come back and slide into the seat next to her bearing a gluten-free, all soy vegan cheesecake slice for them to share. She had declined at first, but he had insisted, and when he offered to feed her she had grabbed the fork and taken a bite herself.

And then they were talking and he was laughing and she was rolling her eyes and before they could finish the cheesecake their communicators were beeping and Gar was answering it. And it wasn't until that moment did she realize how close they were sitting, that she had habitually crossed her legs and her knee was resting on his thigh, or that his arm was draped along the booth behind her, just barely grazing her shoulder. And all that time she hadn't minded how intimate their setting had been.

It was then, in those brief moments when he had been talking to Cyborg, that Raven wondered if they could ever be something.

Vaguely wondered.

Fleetingly wondered.

Because how they were had been unknowingly easy and comfortable. He hadn't pressed her and she hadn't fought back. And everything seemed normal for their friendship, with just a touch more familiarity than before.

Maybe, she thought, sometime and in some distant future they would revisit this scene with a little more attention.

But she had slid away from him, and he had closed his comm, and within seconds they were standing up and preparing to leave, and any affectionate thoughts she had had about the whole ordeal fell from her mind.

She'd never revisited the memory.

Until now, when it was about to be ripped away forever.

She had a little more coordination left in her than they had thought, and it resulted in an airborne grapple. Gar was forced to change back, and he threw up a block just in time to save himself from a blast of darkness from her hands. He pummeled down right into the center of the stone hand, his back cracking the stone and sinking a few inches. The wind was knocked out of him, but before he could regain any sort of composure Raven was straddling his waist, her fingers wrapping around his neck. He gripped her wrists and held her at bay, but she was still strong, even if her face was a confused mess of emotions.

From below he could hear Robin screaming, and after a second his bo staff came tearing through the air in a spear throw. Raven averted her attention just in time for her to catch the thing mid-flight, and she wailed obscenities at Robin before disintegrating the staff in her hands. Gar continued to tug at her hold.

"Rae-,"

"Don't talk!" She lashed her hand towards his throat, choking his voice in the blink of an eye. Gar sputtered and writhed beneath her, gagging and clawing at his neck. She started to laugh, but tears were forming in her eyes. "Stop chanting," she shrieked. "Stop chanting!"

"Fortis et liber Strong and free

Fortis et liber Strong and free

Sine metu Without fear

Hoc fundamenta inconcussa This unshakable foundation

Dictum meum pactum My word is my bond

Hic et nunc Here and now

Et sic de ceteris And so to of the rest

Inquam I say

Oblitus. Forget."

An explosion went off, the temple shuddered, and in a blaze of blue light Raven was thrown off of Gar. Strong hands hoisted him upward, and Starfire raised him to his feet while Cyborg struggled with the sorceress, pinning her onto her back as he drew out a syringe from his arm. She screamed and the stone debris that littered the room flew up around the temple and froze; a fragmented collage of broken things. An invisible power caught Cyborg's arm, and he screamed before all his limbs were forced apart, the robotic pieces splaying across the room. He fell from the hand in silent shock, and Starfire dove over the edge to catch him.

Raven turned back towards Gar, but before she could do anything her body seized up and she was dropping to her knees. Without hesitation he pulled out another piece of chalk from his pocket and hastily went to finish the ritual circle, ignoring the violent spasm of the Raven that wasn't Raven at all.

"Hic et nunc Here and now

Et sic de ceteris And so to of the rest

Inquam I say

Oblitus. Forget."

Raven shrieked and fell on her back, her bird's shadow exploding from her chest and rising up into the vaults of the ceiling. Beast Boy ignored the madness surrounding him, his brain concentrating on drawing and writing. When he finished he threw the chalk aside and jumped right over the edge, his eyes on the syringe lying on the ground. Above him one of the candles imploded, scattering around the room at velocities so powerful it left fissures in stone and flesh. He ignored, ignored all the sounds and tremors and focused only on what he had to do.

He used wings to cushion his fall, rolled on impact, and closed his hand around the serum.

Raven could feel herself clawing at a wall, her memories on the other side and begging for the end. She just needed that last push…that small little boost to help weaken Depravity and save them all from the hell she had so foolishly created.

She kept chanting, holding to the spell and hoping that her friends could hear her from the other side.

"Et sic de ceteris And so to of the rest

Inquam I say

Oblitus. Forget."

He forced himself to change and climb his way back towards the top of the arm, the syringe held in the jaws of his ape's teeth. He found his footing along the wrist and collapsed back into himself. In front of him Raven's eyes were blazing black fires, and shadow smoke was billowing from her fingers and hair. Her voice echoed around them speaking words of Latin, but it wasn't coming from her lips.

Raven, the real Raven, was breaking through.

"Beast Boy! Do it! Do it now!"

She was almost there, almost beyond the psychic wall leading to everything.

Around her the emoticlones had dissolved into her being, fueling her power and offering their support with energy and unison. She could feel Depravity crumbling from the weight of her will, and where there had once been fear in the thought of forgetting there was only hope.

"Inquam," she muttered, power welling inside of her. "Oblitus."

Cyborg's cry urged him forward, and Gar stumbled towards Raven with the needle poised. He wished the moment had been more intimate, had given him a chance to look into her eyes—her real eyes—and say good-bye. But moments like that were hopeless wishes, and the world didn't pause for simple affection. Instead all that happened was the Raven that wasn't Raven at all gripped his outstretched arm and yanked hard, saying through a mouth full of white fire: "Faciam ut mei memineris. I'll make you remember me."

Her touch burned like blistering ice, but he didn't waste any time worrying over her weak threat. He dug the syringe into her flesh all too quickly, and when he pressed down on the plunger she writhed beneath him, her muscles seizing and a feeble whimper escaping her lips. She reached for him blindly and went limp with the effort. Her voice choked in her throat, the shadows died away from her hands, and the fires burned out in her eyes. She tried to speak again, but instead slumped backward and crumpled to the stone with a wide-eyed, unseeing stare. Gar stood in shock for just a moment before he realized her chest wasn't rising.

"And so to of the rest, I say Forget."

If spells were easy then her mind would have been wiped clean of all its horror, no blood lost, no pain endured. But spells were never easy, and Raven knew that no magic came without a price.

As her incantation turned into action Raven felt energy of torturous agony cleft her lips apart. The bodily sensations she had been cut off from suddenly rushed back to her, and every ache and bruise and sting bombarded her senses. She felt as if a blade were cutting into her skull, ready to dissect her mind and pick out the pieces she needed to forget.

Pain. There was always pain no matter where she turned.

"BB, get out of there!"

He didn't register Cy's words at first, but then he realized he was standing in close proximity to a memory nuke that was about to go off, and panic flooded him. Adrenaline shot through his spine, and he nearly went headfirst off the hand. Thankfully Star was reliable as always, and she swooped in for the umpteenth time. She carried him to the tunnel that led out of the vaulted room, where Cyborg was already dragging Robin through the stone archway, his limbs haphazardly reattached. Once all four were on the other side Starfire slammed the marble door closed and Cyborg used his laser to carve a rune into the stone.

The next few minutes were no relief from the chaos that had just ended. There was probably a moment or two with only silence coming from the room, but then there was the biting sound of air being sucked in before a shudder ran through the earth and a hard, sound shattering wind slammed into the stone door, illuminating the symbol that Cyborg had drawn.

But then…

The Titans all clutched at their heads in unison, squeezing their eyes shut and doubling over. Beast Boy felt like his mind was being shredded apart, and he was suddenly thinking of the most obscure things and then forgetting them the next instant.

He forgot what his favorite color was.

What year it was.

His favorite pizza parlor.

His favorite television show.

The code to his locker in the shower room.

Tidbits of information were slipping away, and the more he tried to think of each thing the harder it became to remember. A loud ringing echoed around them, and he helplessly pressed his hands to his ears.

He forced one eye open and saw his friends cowering just like him, and he wondered what memories were being forcibly ripped from their minds.

"What is happening?" Starfire muttered, green light glowing behind her closed lids. "Who…who am I?"

"You're Starfire, you're Kory," Gar said, reaching for her. "Don't forget that. Don't give that up."

"Why?" she asked, attempting to open her eyes and then closing them quickly. "Why are we forgetting?"

Another blast hit the door, the symbol illuminated again.

"One of the candles," Beast Boy groaned. "It was destroyed. The circle wasn't closed. I think the spell is leaking out." The two Titans held each other, and Gar chanced a glance at their friends. Cyborg's one good eye was squeezed shut and he was muttering the same numbers over and over, as if trying to be sure he never lost the pattern. Next to him Robin was huddled over and still as stone, his head bowed as his fingers gripped his hair in a painful hold. Gar couldn't even begin to imagine what valuable secrets he was trying so desperately to hold on to.

"It hurts," Star said, her fingers on her temple. "It aches."

"I know."

"I cannot imagine what Raven is experiencing right now."

She wished she could pass out from the sheer gravity of the sensations, but how can a person black out if they're already unconscious?

Memories of entire days and weeks were being pulled from her mind, each one a long tendril of information that was being yanked by the root. She was screaming, Depravity was screaming, they were all screaming, but Raven knew it was for the best.

He couldn't remember the coordinates for the North Tower, or the entry code for the Doom Patrol's headquarters. He forgot how to ride a bike and how to say 'hello' in Swahili. He couldn't remember Raven's favorite song.

A third air blast hit the door, the symbol flared with light, and then a scream tore through the stone and echoed in their ears. It was a scream so different from before: no longer agonized or pained, but terrified in the worst of ways. In unprecedented unanimity the Titans flinched, their pain paling in comparison to that haunting, bone-chilling sound.

"Don't," Cyborg choked out. "We can't open that door until her spell is complete."

Another scream. Just as disturbed as the first.

"How long do we have to wait?" Star whimpered. "I am afraid for her. Something could have gone wrong."

"When the symbol burns white then we can go back in," he said, pointedly ignoring the last part of her words. "We have to wait."

In the midst of her bedlam, audible even beneath the cries clawing up her throat, Raven could hear and feel and taste Depravity. She could feel her fractured being, practically see how her malevolent spirit had broken. She could taste the blood and the bile that Depravity had fed upon, and even the confusion and fear that lined all of it.

And for the first time in a long time Raven felt sorry for that part of herself. That twisted, dark version of her mind had been created over years of misinterpreted and manipulated feelings. What should have been a subtle demon of the soul had evolved into a god of hell by Raven's own hands.

"Faciam ut mei memineris."

The words—Depravity's words—echoed in Raven's mind.

It could have been a threat.

Or simply just a promise.

But Raven knew that, either way, that was a memory she was undoubtedly going to keep.

"Faciam ut mei memineris."

Yes, Raven thought. I will remember you.

Silence filled the entire temple like an anvil, dropping onto the mayhem with clean absolution.

Just.

Nothing.

An utter nothing that shocked them all with its suddenness.

And then the light in the symbol went abruptly out.