Chapter 11 Master of Games

Darkness. A darkness that Raven wasn't used to. A darkness that she had not welcomed nor requested. Chills ran up and down her spine. Not many things caused her to be afraid, but the inside of this floating stadium managed to pull it off. Her breathing sped up, as did her heart rate. She tried to take deep breaths, once more weary of the state of her demon.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she said. "Azarath…Metrion…" she let out a long breath, her emotions starting to fade away. "Zinthos…." Once more, her demon was pacified. Once more she could tap into her logical side and come up with a plan.

Okay. What did she know about this floating stadium? Obviously, she and her friends had been taken here by the five strange figures, figures who possibly had power duplication abilities. They were probably here, lurking in the shadows. Raven didn't know if she could fight them all by herself. If she was reunited with her friends, she might have a chance. A sliver of a chance, but a chance nonetheless.

So, she cleared her throat. "Guys?" No answer, so she took a step forward. She held out her hands, allowing them to act as her guide around the stadium. "Robin? Starfire? Cyborg, Beast Boy?"

"Mama!"

A jolt of relief shot through Raven's heart. "Beast Boy! Where are you?"

"We's here, Mama! We's all here!"

Raven turned on her heel and followed the sound of Beast Boy's voice. "Are any of you hurt?"

"Nope," said Cyborg.

"We are all the fine and the dandy," Starfire said.

Robin snorted. "You guys barely put up a fight against those masked figures. Shameful Titans, shameful!"

Raven's brow scrunched up. "You got taken by them too, genius."

A pause, likely caused by Robin fishing around in his head for a comeback, hung in the air. Raven counted about thirty seconds before Robin produced a response. "It was all just a part of my plan. You guys would have no hope at all of fighting off whatever's in here if I didn't get taken up with you."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Inspiring and humble as always, Robin."

"Thanks!" said the Boy Wonder, his voice dripping with even more arrogance than before.

Raven shook her head and continued stumbling around in the dark. Part of her worried that she would accidentally run into one of the masked figures as she did, but she ultimately pushed those worries to the side. She needed to make progress, and she couldn't exactly do that if she was cowering in the corner. She stumbled through the dark until she ran into something. It had soft skin, and hair that flowed all the way down to its knees. The sorceress broke into a smile.

"Starfire?"

Starfire giggled. "You have found me, Friend Raven!" She embraced the sorceress in a hug, a series of giggles still expelling from her throat. "This is the most fun game of the hide and the seek ever!"

Beast Boy laughed, the volume of the sound telling Raven that he was right there beside them. "It's goods that we be reunited, Mama!" He spoke the next sentence with some level of intrigue. "And ons a platform from another universe! Not everyone's be saying that they have managed to do that!"

"Exactly." Raven looked around, not that there was much that she could look at. The darkness was so strong that she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face, let alone anything in this stadium. Regardless, she still did not allow herself to feel afraid. "Man, this place is creepy," she uttered.

"And you are an expert on creepy, aren't you Raven?" Robin asked with a condescending laugh.

That really grinded on Raven's gears. She turned toward the sound of her leader's voice. She opened her extra set of eyes, allowing all four of them to glow a fierce red. This allowed her to see Robin in the glow.

"I DARE YOU TO SAY THAT AGAIN!" she screeched. "I DARE YOU TO…"

You will succumb!

Raven gasped at that loud, demonic whisper. She pulled back, practically turning into a shivering pile on the floor. She uttered her mantra, keeping her hands up near her gem as a sort of extra protection against her demon.

The four other Titans stepped closer to her. "Raven?" Robin asked.

"Are you the alright?" Starfire asked.

Raven held herself, the shivering and trembling so strong that she could barely move, barely speak. "I…I…I…."

Beast Boy put his hand on her shoulder. "Mama, it be okay. You don't have to worry."

Allowing the reassurance of those words to wash over her, Raven finally found the strength to stand up. "Thanks, BB."

The minute she was done saying those words, a light came on overhead. Raven blinked, and she could see that the other Titans were doing the same thing. Cyborg opened his mouth to ask a question, but before he could, a voice echoed throughout the stadium.

"WELCOME TO MY ARENA, TITANS!"

To Raven's complete and utter shock, a strange man floated over to them on a platform that looked like a pink game piece. While far from the strangest creature that Raven had ever seen, he still looked pretty bizarre. His skin was cyan, and about a quarter of his height consisted of his forehead. His white hair reached up to the ceiling in spikes, and his red eyes looked on the Titans with a sense of giddiness. In his hand he held a scepter of sorts, with a pink orb resting on the top. Each of the Titans looked beyond confused as they stared at him.

"Who are you?" asked Robin.

"I, young fellow, am the Master of Games." The Master of Games smiled. "I am ever so excited to meet you, after all this time!"

Raven squinted. Something about this guy was…off. His emotions didn't seem genuine; she was picking up a sense of greed coming off of him, as well as the mischievousness that usually accompanied the tone of a liar. What did he want, exactly? What was his story?

As if he had read Raven's mind, the Master of Games laughed. "I suppose you five are wondering why I'm here, and why I dragged you all to my stadium!" He grinned. "Well, I didn't buy this floating stadium off the internet for nothing; I'll tell you!"

The Titans' raised eyebrows lowered. In fact, with the exception of Raven, all four of them smiled. They approached the Master of Games, a sense of excitement present in all of them. Despite her own reluctance, she approached the Master of Games along with her team.

"You see," the Master of Games said as he floated around the team. "I have been around the entire multiverse in search of one thing!"

"A smaller forehead?" Beast Boy asked.

"A spray tan that covers your blue complexion?" asked Cyborg.

"The kitty?" asked Starfire.

The Master chuckled. "No, no, and no. I have been in search of something else. Something…different."

Starfire's shoulders slumped. "Aww. I like the kitties…"

The Master chuckled again. "You see, I have been around the multiverse…searching for the greatest version of the Teen Titans!"

Raven raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean….version?" Her incredulity was going off the charts; each thing that this strange, alien man said made her want to trust him even less.

"Why I'll tell you, dear Raven!" The Master waved his scepter, and holographic projections formed a circle around the Titans. Raven gawked. These projections looked like…planets. Earths, even. One was a cube instead of a sphere, one had rings like saturn, one was mostly destroyed, one was on fire…they looked intriguing, to say the least.

"You see," The Master said. "You guys are the Titans of this Earth. But there are actually infinite Earths. And each one is different."

Beast Boy's eyes grew wide. "Wait. Does…does that means that there are other versions of the Teen Titans?"

"Ding ding ding!" The Master said. "You are correct, Beast Boy! Each Earth (or at least every Earth that I have been to), has a different version of the Teen Titans!"

Beast Boy exchanged a look with Raven. There was a very real excitement in his eyes, which only made their glimmer all the more stronger. He looked like he was about to squee and jump up and down. However, while he might have been excited, all that she could think of was the dream that she had. Where she met taller versions of the Titans. Where her demon half overtook her…

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she recited. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

Beast Boy's excitement faded away into a look of realization. He went up and put his hand on his ex girlfriend's shoulder. He leaned and close to her ear. "Are yous alright?"

Raven could barely speak. "No. No, I'm not."

The concern in Beast Boy's eyes grew. He turned toward the Master of Games, about to speak up and ask him something. Before he got a chance, though, Starfire and Cyborg surrounded the Master with giddy exclamations.

"Is there an Earth where we be the mermaids?" Starfire asked.

"Or a steampunk Earth, where we wear goggles on our top hats?" Cyborg asked.

"Ooh! Or an Earth where we're the animals!" Starfire asked.

Cyborg gasped. "Oh man, that would be so cool!" He got out a whiteboard and a marker. "I could be Cybunny, who's a bunny who's also half robot! Oh, and Starfire…could be Starfishfire!"

Starfire cast Cyborg an uninterested look. "Actually, Cyborg, I was thinking that I would be the tiger."

"A tiger?" Cyborg stammered through the next words. "But…but…Starfishfire! It's too perfect! Besides, what would I be if I wasn't CyBunny?"

Starfire smiled. "I am the seeing you as the grizzly bear!"

"A GRIZZLY BEAR?!" Cyborg exclaimed. "Well then, what would that make Robin? A monkey?"

"HEY!" Robin exclaimed, his face turning red.

"That's enough!" said the Master of Games. "The more I listen to your idiotic speculations, the worse the headache in my humongous forehead becomes!" He grinned again. "What if there was an Earth where you were actual superheroes? An Earth where you are beloved by all, and were willing to sacrifice everything for the greater good?" His grin grew even bigger. "Surely, an Earth like that would mop the floor with you guys."

The Titans blinked, a silence strong and potent in the air. Then, Starfire, Cyborg, and Robin burst into laughter.

"That's hysterical, Master of Games!" Robin said through his chuckles. "The only Teen Titan who's beloved by all in any universe is me!" He puffed out his chest. "Besides, even if such a world did exist, there's no way its Titans would beat us in combat."

The Master smirked. "Oh really?"

"Yes," said Robin.

"Oh really?"

"Yes, that's what I just said.

"Oh, REALLY?"

Robin's eyebrows scrunched up. "Yes! Why do you keep asking that?"

The Master smirked. "Because, Robin, you've already met."

He gestured to the other side of the stadium. A spotlight came on, illuminating the five figures who had dragged them into the stadium. As Raven put two and two together, her eyes grew wide.

"Wait. You don't mean…?"