A/N: I bet you guys thought I wouldn't be posting again so soon... but I did, so ha. I really liked this chapter, I liked writing it and I think it turned out pretty well. See you on the other side.
By the by, I don't own or am affiliated with anything DC. Though, I wouldn't say no if someone asked...
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Chapter 18: Anagnorisis
Control Freak was scared.
It was a feeling he knew all too well, but never to this degree. He had never been entirely safe in his life, really, but now, staring into the void, he was terrified.
Like some Lovecraftian paradigm he found that the void stared back even as he watched.
A sound reached his ears, a skittering like rats, only ones which had died long ago. Shaken from his trance, the young man noticed another tear near him, and from it a bony hand reached.
He cursed, turning the other direction and kicking off the ground. All around him were tears, rips in the fabric of reality. The one he had been standing before had opened quite suddenly, as he was looking for Deadpool; the Merc with the Mouth had gotten out of his sight.
So where was he then?
Well, that was a question that really had no answer, because this place, this endless corridor of dark brick, was nowhere.
Control Freak floated through the air, or lack of air for that matter, with no resistance. Here, gravity was an illusion, a rule that applied only when the poor fool lost in it touched something.
The hefty man saw a promising tear to his left, though it was small. Control Freak shifted and touched down, almost gracefully. He sent one quick look over his shoulder, and saw in the distance a skeletal figure emerge from the white tear in the distance. It hadn't noticed him... yet.
Turning back to the portal before him he leaned into a quick hop, and struck the barrier.
It still hurt, even with all his exposure. The fact that his last remote was crushed by those stupid Titans didn't change much, even with the dampening it felt like every cell in his body was bursting.
Not that he would complain; with all the places he'd been, he knew a little pain, however excruciating, was worth victory.
He knew this place; he heard the roar of machinery, spitting of machine gun fire, and the shrieking of Locusts. He'd been here, so many times, cried even. He watched as the small force of heavy and heavily armed soldiers was surrounded, watched as one in particular left the group.
"Dom," he whispered, but no one heard him. The scene played out like always, a vision of self sacrifice and honour. Control Freak wiped a tear from his eye as the depot exploded, and he knew it was over, that man was gone.
Control Freak pulled his collar up to the hot wind and turned his back on the scene. He was in his regular garb, his ability to change outfits gone with his remotes. He walked through the ghost town of Lambent, all of its sick inhabitants on the other side, leaving him unopposed.
As he walked he observed half heartedly the world about him. Always the same, it was always the same, no matter which version he saw. He sighed; there really was no hope.
He heard a telltale crackle, the sound of a tear opening. Control Freak paused, looking around for the portal. If it was forced open, and not a natural flux, he'd have to make a run for it... and he hated running.
Off to his right the portal sparkled, a white rimmed black hole about chest height, in mid air.
Control Freak waited, and when nothing reached through he breathed a sigh of relief, and approached the hole. Gingerly he pressed his fingers into it, not even flinching (outwardly at least). A quick pull on the corners and the hole tore open a little wider, and the nerd pressed his face forward.
Another battlefield, wonderful. This one looked a little twisted, cartoonlike, and he searched his memory for a match. A specter, flat and intangible, floated past, and he placed it; Psychonauts.
He withdrew his face, pondering whether to pass through or not. On the one hand, it was a cult classic, and there was always a chance the Titans could be there. Of course, there was just as much a chance that they were here, or dead.
Control Freak chuckled at that thought; they weren't dead, couldn't be. Not only would it defeat the story, but there was something about them. Like Connor Macleod, they always seemed to come out on top, heads on shoulders.
Just then he felt a chill along his spine, and he spun around. There was nothing there, only dusty, bombed and burnt streets. He tried to still his racing heart, cursing the damned Anakim by all their names, from Annunaki to Nephilim.
It wasn't really his fault, as much as that mattered. He huffed; it figured he would take the blame, he was always getting the short end of the proverbial stick.
Turning back to the tear, he let out a long breath. Might as well, he mused, it is a cult classic after all.
A few well placed tugs and the tear was big enough for him to pass through. Control Freak gave one last look around, wishing the author knew more about the games to have a longer scene here. Oh well, he stepped up to the barrier and pushed through, only to find the scene beyond had changed.
Where once he'd looked upon an empty clearing, now four Titans lay, in various states of batterment. Not sure whether to curse or thank his luck with this particular time dilation, his thoughts stopped, along with his heart, as he saw Deadpool.
The man's suit was torn and burnt, but not surprisingly the man was whole. What shocked him was also not Raven, who at the moment was desperately blocking the other's sword strikes. No, what caught his breath was Beast Boy, morphed into a cheetah. His lank form was in mid leap, and he saw Deadpool look his way.
He watched as the sword came up, and was silent as the weapon skewered the green cat. He saw, wide eyed, the silver poke through green flesh, saw dark, almost purple blood stain its length. Then he felt his heart skip as the two fell to the ground.
Raven was there of course, but it would do no good, even someone as anatomically dense as Control Freak knew a mortal wound when he saw one.
Why, why did it bother him though, to see the red on green, to see the hunched form of pale sorceress crying over still green shape-shifter? He fell to his knees, the joints only saved from his immense weight by their conveniently shock padded knee pads.
He looked on, and saw Deadpool sit up, and laugh, and heard his words, "Well hot stuff, looks like you'll need another beastly bedmate," Still, he watched the boy on the ground, for some unexplainable reason heartbroken at the sight.
Raven started to shake, and he saw the other Titan's hang their heads in sorrow, all while Deadpool did a lewd victory dance, singing crude insults about one Slade Wilson. Wasn't this what he wanted, what he'd set out to achieve?
Control Freak focussed on the green boy again, saw the boy's life drained with every traitorous beat of his heart. Their eyes locked, and the boy's features hardened with recognition, and Control Freak flinched.
Was that it? Could it be, after all this time...
Raven's cloak billowed out about her, lengthening and rippling with dark energy. He couldn't see, but he could imagine the four red eyes, glowing with pure hatred. He'd never seen them himself, but he'd heard stories.
Control Freak felt something strike his foot. Looking down, he saw a door there, a small, wooden door, no bigger than a few fingers. Looking up he saw a cloud of smoke high in the sky, some plane having exploded. He looked back down to the door, and decided to trust in luck, or divine will, or karma. He didn't really care.
Plucking the small item from the dirt, he looked from it to Beast Boy, who now was quickly becoming a corpse. It was time, after all this time, it was time.
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Raven stared into his still face, that sparkle that was Beast Boy all but gone. Deadpool danced, mocked, but she just stared, and started to shake.
It was not one emotion this time, not even two. As she looked down on that kind face, a face she knew better than her own, and saw it die, the whole spectrum rose up in her.
She looked from green face to red and black man, and felt her pulse restart. He would pay, was the only thought in her head, and she rose from her friend's side. Growing, she gave herself up to emotion, let go of her control. What was the point, if he was gone...
Black tendrils lashed out, but her eyes did not change. Not this time, this time it was no runaway aspect, this time it was her, in her entirety. She turned her attention, her full attention, on the unsuspecting buffoon before her, and she felt unbridled hate and wrath rise within her.
She did not raise her hands, did not speak any words, she just thought, and in a flash of black death Deadpool realized he'd made a horrible mistake.
His hands were gone, lopped off at the wrists, but he didn't get to comment, as he was engulfed in black claws, slowly tearing at his flesh. He hadn't ever been through this before... and he grinned. Maybe this time he'd take a while to heal; maybe even get to second base with death.
"You... wretch, cretin, animal, monster! How DARE YOU!" Raven screamed, voice multiplied and deep, the full weight of herself in it. She continued tearing him apart, slowly, reveling in the pain she felt through her empathy.
Robin called out to her, and Starfire made to rush to her side, but they were both slapped down by black tendrils. Cyborg had fallen to his knees, head in hands.
"HE WAS MINE!" she cried and brought the now limbless Deadpool to her face. She screamed, and he laughed. She screamed again, and at last the eyes appeared, splitting open even as her face did, revealing fangs and a forked tongue.
Like a viper she struck, catching the other much the same as Beast Boy had. She tasted the tainted blood, and heard the gurgle of protest, and it fuelled her. With a mighty tug, a bit of torque too, she whipped backwards, and Deadpool's head came with her. The rest, well, it didn't stayed atomized for very long.
She spit the foul thing onto the ground, and stomped on it, again and again, even as new tears began to fall over her cheeks, blinding her.
Raven only felt satisfied when the skull was pulp in its mask, and only then did her eyes fade, her cloak shrink. She turned back to Beast Boy, exhausted, only to find an intruder there, and it was him, the one who started it all.
Control Freak was hunched over Beast Boy, back to her. It looked like he was doing something to his head. Raven felt a roar break her lips, and Control Freak jumped, but refused to look her way, instead knocking on the boy's forehead.
Had she been in her right mind, Raven would have questioned why he did this, but for now she was beyond pissed. Raising her hands, she called on her magic, and before her very eyes Control Freak vanished.
The hefty geek shrunk in a matter of a second, and dropped toward Beast Boy's forehead. She couldn't catch him, and watched in confusion and horror as he passed through a tiny door that was now, for some reason, on Beast Boy.
The tiny wooden door slammed shut, and Raven raced to Beast Boy's side, hoping he was still alive after all of this.
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Air, the air was rich. That was the first thing he noticed, something he'd never noticed anywhere before, the air was alive.
Control Freak took a deep breath of that rich air, and opened his eyes. The sight was as rich as the air, and he wondered at it. There was thick grass, a warm golden green, stretching in tufts for as far as the eye could see. A solitary tree stood in the field, its trunk abnormally thick, small braches holding up a crown of gold leaves. In the distance, purple mountains rolled, staying low of the horizon, and above them rested a lazy sun, deep orange, ready to dip down at any moment.
How did Beast Boy have this in his head? It looked like a scene out of the Lion King, or Majora's Mask, now that he thought about it.
Control Freak shook himself back to reality, relative reality anyways. Beast Boy, he had to find Beast Boy. This was his mind, he had to be here.
The heavy young man stopped in mid-step and gave a frown towards nothing in particular. "Can you call me anything that doesn't call me fat?" he said, and continued on his way, practically swimming through the thick grass.
The intrepid geek, who nodded his head and muttered, "better," as he walked, reached his destination; the tree. It was tall, a lot taller than he was, and thicker too. The bark was smooth, and warm to the touch, more like skin than tree.
Control Freak looked up, into the branches, and called out, "Beast Boy?"
There was no answer, only the light wind rustling the branches. Shrugging, the horizontally challenged teen turned back to the plain. "What are you doing here?"
The voice was familiar, the anger was not. Control Freak caught a balled green fist on his cheek, and was spun around by the force of the punch. He could imagine the other winding up for another swing, and raised his hands, "Wait, wait, I'm not here to fight!"
He got a kick in the gut this time, and fell to his knees, but that was all. "What are you doing here then?"
Beast Boy, it was Beast Boy, and as Control Freak looked up at furrowed brow he almost sighed in relief. "I'm here to save you,"
Beast Boy, doom patrol uniform unblemished and looking like it just came from a wash, crossed his arms. "Why? And where are we?"
"Well, I... wait, you don't know where we are?" The green boy shook his head.
Control Freak thought for a second, "Okay... we're in your head."
"My head?"
"Your mind. We were in Psychonauts, I figured it would have been obvious."
"I never played it."
"Wait, seriously?" Control Freak gave Beast Boy a slightly reproachful glare, "and you call yourself a video game fan?"
Beast Boy rolled his eyes, letting his arms fall. For now anyway, Control Freak seemed more interested in talking than fighting. "I missed it, so what? I didn't even have a console of my own until I joined the Titans."
Control Freak grunted, deciding that the conversation served no purpose; some people just weren't cultured.
Beast Boy snapped his fingers, bringing the villain's attention back to himself. "Hey, so, we're in my head... why?"
"You... you don't remember?"
Beast Boy thought hard, but all he could recall was jumping at Deadpool, then...
With a gasp, Beast Boy fell to his knees, hands clutching his chest, looking for the wound, but found none. "It won't be there, your safe, in here at least," Control Freak explained, and Beast Boy gave him a dirty look.
"This is all your fault."
Control Freak opened his mouth to protest, but closed it, nodding instead, "Yeah, it's my fault. You're, you're dying, and it's all my fault..." his voice trailed off, and Beast Boy stopped his response, watching incredulous as his enemy shifted to sit, back against the tree, tears welling in his eyes.
"What are you doing?" he asked, voice suddenly softer; Beast Boy couldn't handle anyone crying, it didn't matter how mad he was or bad they were, and this was no different.
"What's it look like?" Control Freak grunted, wiping furiously at his eyes.
"Why?" was Beast Boy's only question, and he knelt before his enemy, his nemesis for all intents and purposes.
Control Freak gave a sad smile, "That's a loaded question. I guess, after all this time, I never thought I'd actually win," He pointed at Beast Boy's chest, to where the wound was, in another place, "I never thought anyone would die."
Beast Boy nodded, and moved around him, sliding down the tree to sit next to him. Over head storm clouds were brewing, and he could taste to moisture in the air. "Then why do it in the first place? Why attack us, over and over?"
"I can't just tell you that," Control Freak said, temporarily regaining his old energy, "Characters can't just come out and tell you their motivations, or how they feel. That upsets me."
Beast Boy raised his hands, "Fine, alright, don't tell me. It's not like I'll be telling anyone anyways," he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, savouring the taste of the air; he hadn't been here in years.
"I was lonely."
The words, whispered by Control Freak, hung in the evening air, and Beast Boy actually didn't register them for a moment. "Lonely?"
Control Freak huffed and stood up, grunting as he did so. Beast Boy followed, and put a hand on his shoulder. The geek turned to look the other in the eye, and he saw something there, something he didn't expect, something he'd never really seen before. It was understanding, and it wrenched his heart that this guy, who he'd tried to kill, and recently succeeded in killing, could listen to him.
"I had no one, before all of this. No one but my comic books, my movies, my television, and they don't make for good conversation." Control Freak took a deep breath, and continued with his exposition.
"So, when playing around in my lab, I stumbled on a frequency, some kind of electromagnetic field, and found out what it did, well," he paused, remembering, "I could make my own friends, out of anything."
He turned back to Beast Boy, "But then I met you guys. I was robbing that video store, my techno posse at my back, when in burst the Teen Titans, in all their glory. I loved you guys, watched you in the news, read about you online, on fanfiction sites, you were my heroes."
Control Freak raised a finger, like he was giving some kind of presidential speech, "I had to know you, but no one wants to know me. So I decided, then and there, I would make you notice me."
Beast Boy scratched his head, "so what, you're obsessed with us or something?"
"I was... until I went to prison." He frowned at the memory, "I had nothing to do, only a tiny TV with three channels. So I worked, and did I ever work, I stole a bit of dark matter, and diamond, and created another remote."
Control Freak shrugged, "I had no idea what I was doing, so much to my surprise, when I pointed it at the doors of my cell, a portal opened."
"Like, a Portal portal?"
"Yeah, sort of. I jumped through, and..." he stopped, breath catching in his throat.
Beast Boy waited, with growing impatience, wondering when the story would get relevant. He felt bad for the guy sure, but he had killed him, and Beast Boy reasoned that most people would be a little pissed about that.
"When you pass through these dimensions, what do you see?" Control Freak suddenly asked, and Beast Boy shrugged, "Nothing much, blinding light, static roar, why?"
"Imagine that, but for hours, never ending, never wavering. That is what I saw, and as I floated I started to see holes opening up, and in the distance there was a boom."
"A boom?"
"An explosion of some kind, like a supernova. It rippled through that other place, the in between place, and tore holes everywhere, far more than there ever should have been." Control Freak turned back to the tree, and leaned against it.
"I saw it all, everything, all that ever was, everywhere."
The statement was so matter of fact, it caught Beast Boy off guard, and he interrupted again, "Wait, you saw everything? Like everything everything?"
Control Freak shrugged, "Maybe not, but I saw enough. I saw the multiverse, torn open by that explosion,"
"where did it come from?" Beast Boy asked, completely forgetting his predicament as the story wore on.
"It came from everywhere, from nothing too. You know how every show, comic, story, ends up with some kind of meta or reality crisis?" Control Freak asked, turning to his foe, who looked like he didn't get it just yet.
"Dimension travelling! Every story has one, eventually, from Kim Possible to The Matrix, there is always some kind of crisis." He took a deliberate breath, "They all happened, but because the in between is not subject to time, they all happened at once..."
Beast Boy suddenly got it, and jerked his head back up, "Boom,"
Control Freak nodded, "Boom. The barriers crumbled, the holes tore open wider, and things started mixing. Even the other changed, into a Dark City vibe labyrinth. That's when they came,"
"They?" Beast Boy groaned; there was more to the story after all.
"I don't know where they come from, I don't even think they do. But they are there, always have been there, in the void, in that in-between place." Control Freak turned to Beast Boy, suddenly afraid, and he could smell it.
"They aren't alive, Beast Boy, they were never meant to be, that's why they're out there, they shouldn't exist!" Beast Boy grabbed the man's shoulders, which had begun to shake, and he steadied him.
"The Anakim, Annunaki, the Greys, call them what you will... they're hungry, and they hate all of us who do exist." He grabbed Beast Boy's shoulders, knocking down his arms, and shook them, "They found me, and chased me, and I ran, and I ran."
Control Freak shivered, "I figured that the dimension collapse latched on to my remote, which is how I could open that portal, and I used it to get back, but I was back in prison, alone."
"I don't want to be alone Beast Boy, I've seen what it does,"
Beast Boy pulled away, processing this. "So, you're a villain because you're... lonely?"
Control Freak sighed, "Yeah,"
"Dude, you don't have to be a villain for that," Beast Boy smiled, pain, resentment forgotten as he came back to Control Freak. "I'll be your friend."
The statement, so nonchalant, shocked Control Freak, and even as he took the hand offered him, he didn't quite believe it.
"My... my friend?"
Beast Boy nodded, and Control Freak felt tears rising in his eyes. This guy, this selfless, good man, and he was dying...
"No," Control Freak suddenly grunted, and Beast Boy was confused, "What?"
"You are not going to die, not if I have anything to say about it," Control Freak clapped his hands, "Now, this is your mind, so take us deeper."
Beast Boy was utterly lost now, "What?"
"Take us deeper,"
"I heard you. Why? And for that matter, how?"
Control Freak put a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder, and looked him in the eye, "We are going to save you, Beast Boy, my friend."
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A/N: So, what did you think? it got a little expository, but I don't think it was too much. I am a little unsure about the Raven/Deadpool fight ending, it might be a little too strong, not sure, I just think, in that situation, Raven would lose her cool. Plus, objectively speaking, she is one of the most powerful DC character, so really, none of her friends could stop her if she was set on it. I don't know, tell me what you think. Also, if there is anything you don't understand feel free to ask, I'm getting a little lore in here, and its not all from DC.
As always reviews and the like are appreciated, and I love hearing from everyone and anyone. Special thanks to the Brod Road again for suggesting Gears of War, I snuck a scene in. I love you all and bid you good night.