"No."
"What do you mean, 'no'?" Raven asked again, trying to keep her calm. Judging by the smile on the demonic face in front of her, she was failing. "You did something to them. Admit it!"
"I did no such thing, really." Anger was now smiling in a very unnatural way that made it look even more predatory than normal. "And you know I am not lying."
"Lying and omission are two different things, and I am well aware of that." Raven responded, clearly unconvinced. "I cannot find Courage…"
"You mean 'badass'?"
"However she calls herself." Raven answered, barely controlling herself. "Where is she?"
"You are asking the wrong question. Why is she not here, Raven? And to think that I am supposed to represent your mindless side."
"Fine, whatever. I will find her myself." Raven left Nevermore and opened her eyes, taking slow, deep breaths to calm herself. Meditation was supposed to help calm my nerves, she thought bitterly, not make me even more annoyed.
Whatever was happening, it was clearly getting out of control. She couldn't find Courage, and her powers were acting up. Worst of all, her attempts to just power through the issue with even more meditation did nothing to help.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden alarm. "Titans, trouble!"
It was Friday, late evening, and normally the small video store 'Case and Casettes' would be at its peak of popularity, with people buying or renting movies to watch at home during weekends.
However right now people were running away from it, with those unfortunately enough to be inside scrambling to the exit as fast as they could. Fortunately for them, the suddenly alive TV screens and shelf did not pursue, content with just scaring them, while the villain continued his (really, really long) speech to the deathly scared clerk. He was waving around his remote, the same one he used minutes ago to animate things inside the shop, and was lost in his own voice explaining advanced nuances of one of his favorite shows.
"… And that is why Warp Trek Five should be put at your 'favorite rentals' list. Do you understand, or do I need to explain it again?" The overweight and not very menacing villain asked. Of course, the fact that the entire shop was full of scary monstrosities added somewhat to his intimidation factor.
The clerk just nodded her head, too scared to do anything else. "Yes, absolutely, I will do that!"
"Huh, that was surprisingly easy. Now…" Villain started saying, only to be interrupted as a blue beam of energy pierced one of his monstrosities, blowing it to pieces. He turned to face the exit, and then smiled with satisfaction. "Ah, and if these aren't my nemesis… nemesie… nemeses, the Teen Titans!"
"Wait, do we know you?" Beast Boy asked, scratching his head. He looked at his friends, but they just shrugged. "Sorry, we have no idea who you are."
"I am your biggest nightmare…"
"Please tell me you aren't Doctor Destiny." Cyborg interrupted, now worried.
"No! He's nothing compared to my might… and who even is that?" The villain shook his head. "Never mind that. My powers are amazing…"
"You don't look like Amazo." Beast Boy pointed out.
"Shut up! I am the tallest of mountains, the roughest of waves…"
"More like the widest of mountains." Cyborg said, chuckling.
"Hey! That was mean. There is nothing wrong with having some body fat, and besides, people can have some illness or other condition that makes it hard to lose weight." Beast Boy pointed out. "Our society is too focused on external looks, and it's not healthy to anyone."
"Why do you have to make everything a big societal issue?" Cyborg groaned.
Starfire was slightly confused, and the villain seemed unsure what to do. Meanwhile, both Robin and Raven looked like they wanted to facepalm.
"Look, whoever you are, the mood is gone. Can you just surrender?" Robin asked, resigned. He loved his team, but sometimes they were too much for him.
"I am Control Freak!" The villain finally shouted, his voice turning into a scratching pitch as he waved his hands in frustration. "And I will be your worst nightmare!"
He clicked his remote, and a big, widescreen TV suddenly turned on. An evil-looking drawing of a face appeared on it, and it started levitating, tearing out the cables connecting the TV to the wall. It screeched, and slowly moved towards the Titans.
Raven was unimpressed. "Really? What is this supposed to be?"
Cyborg just blasted it and moved forward, towards the villain. "Alright, Coach Potato, come quietly or there will be trouble."
"Robocop, nice!" Control Freak said with appreciation, quickly turning into anger. "And my name is… Hey!"
Cyborg tried to grab the remote, but was instead grabbed by a bunch of cables sticking out of one of the flying animated TVs. "Seriously?" The Titan asked. "Flying TVs?"
"Yeah. See, animated swords, or armors, are much cooler." Beast Boy said, coming into the shop and grabbing a bunch of cables, trying to save Cyborg. "Huh, they are quite strong."
Suddenly, the lights went out. Moments later, they returned, but much dimmer and now bloody red in color. The living TVs and walking shelf suddenly looked much scarier.
"You will fear me." Control Freak declared, now visibly furious that his opponents were refusing to take him seriously.
"Wait, is that it? Red light? Are you like Doctor Light's sidekick or WOOOOAH!" Cyborg shouted as he was suddenly pulled deeper inside the shop by multiple TVs.
"Cyborg!" Beast Boy jumped after his friends, only for two shelves to come to life and crush the Titan so tightly between them, he found even transforming hard.
"Let my friends go!" Starfire flew inside, only for two cash registers to suddenly fly at her. "Ow!"
Starfire was suddenly peppered with rapid-fire coins shot out of the cash registers. Moments later, a soda dispenser shot cans at her, and she was so surprised she actually flew into a wall, getting entangled in multiple animated TVs. She blew one of them out with a starbolt, but it only allowed more cables to slip out and grab her.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." Raven said, focusing on her power, and a TV that tried to grab her was instead sent to the other side of the shop. In parts. "You are really annoying."
"Magic, huh? Let's see you counter that!" Control Freak clicked his remote.
A huge demon – a promotional 3d poster of some video game – suddenly came to life. It looked like a stereotypical demon from any fantasy book, and Raven had to hold back the urge to facepalm. "Really? That's it?" She then tore it in half with her power. "Not impressed."
Suddenly, boxes on the shelves near the exit opened, and CDs and DVDs flew out, hitting her. She waved her arms to disperse the swarm, but suddenly found it much harder to do; she looked at her hand, and to her surprise saw that a bunch of mini-CDs and some full-sized DVDs were now on her fingers, making it impossible to move them. "Azarath Methrrrrrow!" Her incantation was interrupted when multiple CDs flew into her mouth, and she almost choked on them.
"You know, for a sorceress, you make for a pretty good DVD player!" Control Freak clicked his remote, and a screen popped out in front of Raven's face, playing one of the DVDs that were currently in her mouth. "Nice, I am just in mood for some good action movie!"
Robin groaned. Cyborg was barely visible on the other side of the shop, fighting against the machines, and losing. Beast Boy tried changing into a fly, only for predatory DVD box to literally swallow him. Starfire was fighting thick cables sticking out of the wall, fortunately somehow not getting electrocuted, and Raven looked like a mummy made out of CDs and DVDs.
"Alright, team, that's it. You are all getting extra training this week." He announced. This got their attention, and everyone started protesting, although most of them were unable to vocalize it fully thanks to the animated objects effectively gagging them.
"Wait, what? You didn't react so much even to my most devious monsters, but a mere mention of training gets you all worked up?" Control Freak looked at his enemies with shock. "Even I do not hate training as much!"
"You've never seen Robin's extra training, Coach Potato!" Cyborg shouted from the other side of the shop.
"Still, there will be no training if you are defeated now! And I, Coach Po…" Villain stopped, realizing what he almost said. "Look what you've done, you almost made me say it!"
"Not my fault it's you official superhero name!"
"Is not!"
"Totally is!"
Robin facepalmed and threw his bird-a-rang, hitting the water sprinklers. Water suddenly showered everything in the shop, and the moment Control Freak's remote sparked and died, Robin was already next to him, cuffing the wannabe nemesis. "Seriously, team, how did you managed to get beaten like this?"
"Ermmm… oh, look! Wicked Scary Director's Cut! Weren't we looking for something scary for a movie night?" Beast Boy changed topic, grabbing an undamaged box.
"Is it really good? I heard the prequel sucks." Cyborg said, shaking off the remains of multiple TV-monsters and coming closer.
"Prequel was done by a different team, this is the sequel made by the original director! Definitely worth it." He looked at the clerk, fishing in his pockets for some not-soaked money.
"Just, just take it." The clerk said, still half out of it after seeing this craziness.
"Thanks!"
"Beast Boy, do not think you can escape this conversation." Robin said, pushing the handcuffed villain outside of the shop, towards police officers already waiting for him.
Beast Boy managed to escape this conversation in the end. He and Cyborg were completely hyped for the movie, and Starfire was happy to spend time together so she joined them in hype train. Raven was the only rational one besides him, but since they all promised to try movie nights again, she had no choice but also join them in he living room while the boys made popcorn.
Robin put the broken remote – first making sure it was irreversibly broken – in the evidence room, alongside few other trophies they gathered. Making sure it was secured, and all alarms were on, he joined the rest of his team in the main room, on the couch. He sat next to Raven, and both of them exchanged long looks of suffering while Beast Boy put the DVD in the player.
"Ladies and gentleman, I present to you… Wicked Scary!" The green Titan announced dramatically.
"I fought Joker. I don't think a horror movie is gonna scare me." Robin pointed out, resigned.
"You'll see." Beast Boy promised.
Two hours later, Titans, scared to death, looked at the end credits in stunned silence.
"Is it over? I am afraid to open my eyes." Starfire said, indeed holding her eyes closed and holding Robin close. Beast Boy, while keeping his eyes wide open, was basically cuddled to Robin from the other side, and for once their leader did not protest, too scared.
"That was… a thing." Cyborg said, the first thing he said in over an hour.
The tense silence was finally broken, and they all started laughing, first nervously, but then just happily. "Told you, and you didn't believe me!" Beast Boy said, smiling widely.
"Yes, yes, you were right, it was… scary…" Robin only now realized his position, sandwiched between Starfire and Beast Boy. He awkwardly cleared his throat, and both his fiends jumped away, falling of the coach; this started another wave of laughter.
The only person not laughing was Raven. Robin looked at her, and saw she was unmoving, and her face was even more emotionless than usual. "Raven? How are you?" He asked delicately.
"Fine. I. Am. Fine." Raven answered in a way that was clearly not fine. Her friends stopped laughing, instead looking at her with worry. "Friend Raven, are you truly alright? Perhaps you need some hugs, or a traditional Tamarnian battle song to recover your spirit?" Starfire proposed.
"I am fine." Raven repeated, slowly getting up. "I will go to my room now."
"You know, Raven, it's alright to be afraid sometimes." Beast Boy pointed out.
"I don't do 'scared'. I am not afraid, and I am fine." Raven repeated, slowly walking out of the room, not even bothering with turning on the light.
"… One day, that girl is gonna hurt herself with that attitude." Cyborg said with worry as she left. "Someone should go with her, make sure she is alright."
"I am not volunteering to piss her off, thank you." Beast Boy quickly answered. "We'll see how she'll be in the morning."
"I am not sure…" Starfire hesitated. While she knew Raven best out of all the Titans, even she never saw her in a state like this. Losing control with anger, sure, but not scared. "But she truly seemed to desire nothing but silence and rest, so perhaps we should just give it to her."
""Thanks for agreeing. Now, let's go to sleep." Beast Boy yawned.
"Good idea. Get some rest before the morning exercises."
To say that this statement was met with protest would be an understatement.
"What? We just fought a supervillain! Don't we get a day off for it?" Cyborg protested.
"It was a small fly, and you all failed miserably. You get a day off once you prove you can take a coach potato without getting defeated." Robin answered, already going to his room.
"Wait a moment, streetlight, we just spent half a night watching…" Cyborg run after him, trying – and failing – to convince the team leader to change his mind.
"Well, great. I'm not sure what's scarier, the movie or the idea of getting woken up for Robin's 'special' morning exercises." Beast Boy sighed, before looking at Starfire. "So, can I…" He hesitated.
"Of course, friend Beast Boy! The movie was scary, and I would very much enjoy your presence in my room tonight." Starfire answered, knowing already what her friend was asking for. They slept in the same room routinely at this point, with his Agamemnon-related nightmares only slowly receding, but he was always making sure she didn't mind.
"Thanks, Star. You're the best. I'd hate to sleep alone tonight." Beast Boy answered with relief as they went to her room.
"No problem, friend Beast Boy! Although I am worried about friend Raven." Starfire looked in the direction of her friend's room. "She could also use someone with her tonight. She was so scared."
"Raven? Can you even imagine her admitting to having emotions, or asking to be with her when she needs it?" Beast Boy shook his head sadly. "She's been lonely for so long, she can't find it in herself to depend on others."
"Speaking from experience?" Starfire asked quietly as they got ready to sleep.
"No anymore." He answered, hugging her.
They fell asleep without much trouble, knowing the other one is there is they need them. Meanwhile, Robin just run through his harshest mental defense training routine before sleep, and Cyborg simply did not dream anymore.
A sudden scream sounded in the Tower. It was loud enough to wake up Raven, who instantly jumped out of bed, before realizing to her horror that someone was in her room. Instinctively, she used her powers to feel the room around her, only to feel a presence, familiar but unsettling, slowly moving away. She quickly grabbed her communicator. "Raven here, what was that scream?"
No answer. Not even the usual static. The communicator was on, but there was no sound coming out. Raven shivered, only now realizing that she… no, she was not afraid. Not. Afraid. She pushed all her emotions down, as deep as she could, and moved to the living room.
There, she found the other Titans, all wide awake and visibly nervous. "What was that?" She asked, looking around.
"No idea, but none of us." Robin answered, trying to figure out what was going on. "Raven, could this be Doctor Destiny? I heard he's not showing any sign of brain activity, but who knows, maybe he just moved to some kind of a dream realm?"
"Wait, you think we're inside someone else's nightmare?" Beast Boy looked around, his animal instincts on high alert. ""whatever it is, it feels unnatural, let me tell you that."
"I don't think so." Raven focused on her powers. They felt… weird… alive, in a way that she didn't feel them for almost a year now.
"Raven, could you tone it down?" Cyborg asked, scared, and when Raven opened her eyes she saw her shadows slowly moving on the floor, in abstract, but unnatural forms, and other Titans eyeing them nervously.
"Sorry." She said, pushing her power down despite its resistance. "I can tell you that I am definitely awake, not asleep."
"Well, if that's the case, what's going on with the communicators?" Cyborg tried once again to contact other Titans, but even at this range, there was no signal.
"I will try to reach the League, maybe their frequencies are not jammed." Robin took his communicator out and switched to League emergency channel, only to almost drop it when he heard the voices.
There was… something, coming out of his communicator. Like voices, many different voices, so quiet they were like a whisper, so many that they couldn't understand them. Or at least, understand the words; it was not hard to understand the general message.
The voices were crying, screaming in fear, begging for mercy.
Robin turned off his communicator. "What was that?" He asked no one in particular, while "trying to connect these weird things to any known villains.
"Magic." Raven answered, causing everyone else to instantly tense. Even in hands of a small fry like Mumbo Jumbo, magic was extremely dangerous and unpredictable. And whoever was attacking them now, was far from incompetent if they managed to take out the communication system first. This left them isolated in the Tower, without any means of communication with the outside world.
"We still have cable connection." Cyborg said, connecting to the Tower's systems. "It's much easier to jam radio waves then cable connection, I'll try getting some help."
"Cyborg, I don't think it's a good…" Suddenly, the lights turned off, alongside their main computer. "… idea." Raven finished in the sudden darkness. A sudden flash of lightning lit the room for a moment, blinding them for a split second and leaving in the darkness again.
"What just happened?" Cyborg turned on his flashlight, only to scream in fright.
There was a monster standing between the Titans. It looked somewhat similar to the thing they saw in the horror movie, but much, much more unnatural. It was somewhat humanoid in shape at the first glance, but its 'head' had no mouth; only hundreds of unblinking, red eyes, looking in every direction.
There were many mouths on its body; one of them opened, slowly pushing out a tongue made of a dozen of hands, joined together in a long string of bone, sinew and muscle; fingers with long, crooked nails were growing on the 'tongue' like spikes on a hedgehog. Instead of hair, it had long arms without hands, and instead of arms it had two long tentacles, splitting into dozens of smaller, slick and wet appendages.
Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy screamed in fear and jumped back, while Raven stood there in shock, suddenly unable to summon any strength to move, fight, do anything. One of its eyes fixed on her, and a long tentacle crept up towards her on the floor… only for the monster to suddenly be hit by a bo staff.
Robin quickly executed a combination of hits, trying to push the abomination back, only for the multiple arms to suddenly extend and grab him. Cyborg deployed his cannon, but hesitated for a moment too long and the monster threw Robin at him. Starfire started panicking and firing starbolts at the thing, but it simply moved aside. Another salvo missed and hit Raven, throwing her to the floor, as the monster suddenly materialized next to Starfire and hurled her at the wall.
Robin jumped up at this moment, but the monster was gone. as if it had never been there at all. Cyborg increased the power of his flashlight and swept the room, finding nothing but them. Not even a single trace of a battle that took place here moment ago. "What was that?!"
"I don't know. Better question, where did it go?" Robin asked, keeping an eye on the ceiling. He was not going to be jumped by this thing again. "Is it only me, or this storm only started moments ago?"
Everyone looked outside; indeed, where they could previously see the moon clearly, thick clouds and heavy rain obscured vision. Even the occasional lightning was weak and barely visible, drowned out by the darkness. They could barely hear a thunder through the sounds of rain.
"Wait, where is Beast Boy?" Starfire asked, suddenly noticing their friend missing. As if to answer, a horrible scream of agony and fear, clearly Beast Boy's voice, sounded from below them. She flew toward the stairs, only for Robin to grab her. "We need to help him!"
"We won't help anyone if we split up or run into a trap. Raven, can you help?" Robin asked. She didn't answer them. She just stood there next to them, frozen to a spot. "Raven?" He tried again, only now getting a reaction.
"My powers, they… they are gone?" She said to herself, She said to herself, as if she didn't even hear the question. Deep inside, she found herself unable to use her powers. It was impossible. She could still feel her demonic heritage, deep inside her, but she couldn't reach it. "I… I can't…"
"Raven, snap out of it." Robin stood before her and gently grabbed her face. "Raven, look at me." She did, but her eyes were unfocused and dazed. "We can get through this, but we need to do this together. I know you're afraid…"
"Afraid? I am not afrAID!" She answered, her voice changing in the middle of the word. Suddenly, she sounded much closer to when she tortured Doctor Light than to her normal self. "I AM NOT AFRAID. I CANNOT BE AFRAID."
"…Raven? Please, don't leave us." Starfire said quietly, the only one to realize exactly what had happened; although moments later, Cyborg realized it as well. Robin was the only one who took a step back, confused, but by this point Raven's eyes regained focus.
"What…" She stopped when she realized exactly what happened. How dare you, she angrily asked her demonic part. How dare you take over me like this!
Do you have any other choice?, demon asked. Embrace your anger, or be consumed by fear!
"No, I will… not…" Raven said, still not fully there, but then she felt something. Warmth. She opened her eyes – she did not remembere closing them – only to see Starfire hugging her. "Starfire?"
"Friend Raven, do not worry. We are here." The Tamaranian said, not letting her go.
"Yeah Raven, we've been through worse." Cyborg said, keeping watch over them. He really didn't want to be surprised by this monster again.
"Raven? Can tell us what's going on?" Robin asked. While he was definitely worried by what just happened, and felt like he was missing something important here, for now he was focused on their survival first. "What was that thing?"
"I'm not sure, but…" Raven realized something. This thing, it felt familiar, which means… "It must be some kind of demon. And judging by its actions, it's one that feasts on fear."
"It eats fear? Damn, it must see us as a plate of appetizers and the main course in one!" Cyborg looked around, his flashlight showing the empty room.
"How do we beat this thing?" Robin asked, trying to remember if anything in his training with Batman could help. The conclusions he drew were not too encouraging. Scarecrow was already extremely dangerous, a supernatural being would be even worse.
"I don't know." Raven tried to reach her powers again, only to fail. She felt helpless and weak, but the continued hug from Starfire helped her regain her strength. Instead of despairing, she focused on the knowledge she learned from the demonology books. "This demon wants something from us, that's why it left us for now. Either it just wants to feed on our emotions, or it wants to weaken us first before doing something worse."
"Wirse? What can be even worse?" Cyborg asked, powering his sonic gun up to over a hundred percent. It would burn out after a few shots, but he was absolutely going to vaporize whatever it hits, demon or not.
"It can kidnap and torture you until it breaks you, and then make you sign a demonic contract to forfeit your souls. It can use you as a lure for your friends and family, so they can also be taken. It can take everything but fear from you, and make you immortal, allowing it to sustain itself on your forever while you suffer eternal nightmare, not even knowing anything but pain and suffering. It can…" Raven started listing things she read in her books.
"Um, Raven? I don't think you're helping." Robin interrupted her. Raven looked around, only to see Cyborg even more uneasy then he was before, and Starfire hugging her much closer than before.
"Oh. Sorry. But we need to either beat this thing, or get out of the Tower." She summarized.
"Yeah, I heard enough. Star, can you fly us out of here?" Cyborg asked, nervously looking around.
"Bad idea. Do you want to fight this thing in the storm?" Robin asked, pointing to the violent weather outside. "Besides, we would need to split up, and it could first take out whoever is flying and then the rest. We need to either beat this thing, or get to the garage and to Jump."
"Let's go to the garage, then." Starfire proposed, her voice only slightly trembling. "If it wants to fight is, we will do the fighting. If it does not, we will leave and alarm the others."
"I agree. Titans, let's go." Robin instantly decided to avoid the elevator; the risk of a sudden attack was too much. Instead, he chose the stairs. While the Tower was quite tall, and it would take a moment to get down, it was still a better option.
Raven followed her friends as they descended the stairs, still trying to understand what was going on. Her Anger could access her powers, she could feel it. At the same time, Raven could not. Why? It made no sense. Maybe the demon somehow blocked human magic, and allowed only demonic? But she was still using demonic magic, so it wouldn't work on her.
"Raven?"
"In a moment, Beast Boy, I am… Beast Boy?" Raven turned around, alongside other Titans.
Just few stairs above her, was Beast Boy. But when Cyborg's flashlight shown him in full, everyone could see that something was wrong. His eyes were black. Or rather, he had no eyes; instead, two endless pits of darkness remained behind. Cyborg armed his cannon, but hesitated before shooting. Beast Boy, or rather what once was Beast Boy, ignored him, focusing only on Raven.
"Raven. Why?" He asked slowly. His shadow on the wall behind twisted and turned, like a separate, living being. "Why did you do this?"
"What?" Raven whispered, shaking, unable to move, to look away.
"You bring this thing here, Raven. You did this to me. How COULD YOU?! Beast Boy screamed. And his voice, endlessly bouncing off the walls, was nothing but agonizing pain. "YOU DID THIS!"
And then, he was gone. In his place, stood a monster, composed of endless jaws and arms. And at the end of each arm, there was screaming head of Beast Bo, each a different animal form. A cat, a dog, a dinosaur, a monkey..
"NO!" Cyborg jumped in front of Raven, blasting the monster with his cannon. The creature was thrown back, and the wall behind it exploded, spraying everyone with debris. "Star, get them out of here!"
"No, Starfire, wait…" Raven tried to say, but before she managed to finish, her friend had already grabbed both her and Robin and flown downstairs. as fast as she could, leaving Cyborg alone.
"Alright, whatever you are, demon." Cyborg announced, aiming his sonic cannon at the thing, barely visible inside the cloud of vaporized wall. "You are not getting past me!"
To his surprise, the thing suddenly grew smaller. And as is stepped outside of the cloud, it smiled, and suddenly looked much more familiar.
"I DO NOT NEED TO."
Starfire landed roughly on far, far below, breathing heavily. "Is it me, friends, or we should already be in the garage?" She asked, looking down. Now without Cyborg's flashlight, her starbolts were their only source of light.
"You are right, Starfire." Robin said, looking around. "I think something is blocking our way here, making these stairs go on forever. Raven?" He asked the other Titan.
"I cannot. I did this, I cannot, I did this…" The grey-skinned half-demoness repeated to herself, visibly shocked.
"Friend Raven! Please, I'm here, stay with us!" Starfire hugged her, but to no avail.
Robin looked around, and tried to focus. Somehow, despite all this, it felt… familiar. Like he already was here before, and he didn't mean the staircase. It was cold, and dark, and it was this peculiar feeling.
He slowly breathed in, and out. In, and out. Batman taught him many exercises to keep his mind calm and analytical no matter what, including a (horrible and something he swore never to do to his teammates) training against diluted fear toxin. He now called upon all of this training, trying to figure out what he was missing.
Fear. It was the mind-killer, to quote a movie Beast Boy made them watch once. It felt like they were trapped within their fears, like in a never-ending nightmare. But Raven said she was awake… but she couldn't access her powers! And this place, it must have been…
"Raven, listen to me." Robin said, kneeling on the ground next to the shaking Titan. "You are afraid. Fight it! You must fight your fear. Only you can get us out of this!"
"I am NOT AFRAID!" Raven suddenly howled. An explosion of power radiated from her, and the staircase fell apart around them. Starfire tried to fly up, but found herself falling down no matter how she tried. She tried to grab her friends, but couldn't see them. She was alone in this darkness!
Robin landed gracefully in the darkness, alone as well, but not afraid. As the giant monster emerged from the darkness, the Boy Wonder only smiled cockily. "Not gonna work anymore, sorry."
Black-eyed marionettes of his friends emerged from the darkness, followed by the League. And then, finally, Batman, a horrible, warped creature shrouded in the dark. But Robin didn't even flinch.
"Look, I know what you are. You do not scary me anymore." Robin said, putting away his bo staff. Batman looked at him with disappointment. "Oh, don't give me that look, not-Batman. I know, I know, this is exactly what you warned against and all that. But I'm not you. I trust her, even now, with my life. She won't fail me. Won't fail us. You'll see."
The Boy Wonder simply sat down and waited.
And after a moment, the darkness sat down and waited as well. It had time.
Raven slowly looked around. She was alone, and somehow she was in the Tower's living room. The storm was still raging outside, even worse than before. The scared girl shook, and then cried.
It was all wrong. She brought this demon's attention on her friends, and now they were all gone. How could this have happened? She promised this would not happen! She promised…
The darkness, oily and black, thick and unmoving, slowly filled the room. It was drowning her, suffocating her. She could feel the demon inside, raging against it. Power. She needed power! She could still save anyone, she just needed to reach for the power, let it control her, just for a moment!
Yes. Raven slowly reached for it. It was inevitable, wasn't it? She was… Raven.
She was Raven. Suddenly, she realized it with a crystal clarity.
"I am afraid." She said out loud. It was surprising, even to her. The darkness around her froze, as if it was also shocked by this. "But I am Raven, daughter of Arella." She slowly got up. She was crying, but it did not stop her. "And I would rather die, than betray my friends!"
The darkness hesitated, and Raven continued, finding a new strength within herself. "I will not surrender to you. I will. Never. Surrender! No matter how scary you are, no matter how hopeless, I will not give up!"
"I will die before betraying them, so do your worst!" She finally declared. And upon this declaration, the darkness receded. The storm suddenly calmed down, and… was she falling?
She landed in the Tower's living room. It was still night, but without a single cloud on the horizon, and the sunrise was close. More importantly, her friends were there!
"Raven!" She wasn't sure who said it first, but after that, everyone was hugging her. And she found herself not minding it this time, and hugging them back.
Robin was the first one to break the hug. "You took your sweet time there, Raven." He said, cool as always. "We managed to discuss what's going on and started to get bored, you know."
"I'm… I'm so, so sorry, everyone." Raven said, looking down. It was so obvious now, so painful. "I lost control. I hurt you."
"Nah, it takes much more than that to hurt us." Cyborg said, trying to sound nonchalantly. "But damn girl, don't you have a scary imagination. You could be a great horror writer!"
"Thanks, but I think I have enough horror for a while." Raven actually joked, before looking at her friends. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, it just grabbed me and dumped in a dark room." Beast Boy shrugged. "But I heard you got some high-quality body horror out there, so I'm happy I missed this."
"You were very scary, Beast Boy."
"Are you suggesting I am not scary when I want to be? Rawr!" Beast Boy tried to sound scary, but accidentally – or rather, on purpose – turned into a cute little kitten, causing everyone else to laugh.
They sat on the couch for a moment longer, before Cyborg decided to speak. "Listen, Raven…"
"I should give you something to protect you from me." She interrupted him. "I can try to make some amulets and wards, in case that happens again."
"No." Robin answered. When she looked at him, surprised, he clarified: "I appreciate the thought, but none of us are called Batman and brooding in a dark cave. We are the Titans. We're not going to keep some secret weapons stashed somewhere just in case. We trust you."
"Yeah, girl, you're one of us! You're like a family." Cyborg agreed. "And I already saw how this type of 'countermeasures' looks like, and we're not having it in the Tower. Or anywhere else."
"But, I could have seriously hurt you." Raven protested, although she had a tiny bit of tears in her eyes, hearing her friends, once again, putting trust in her despite her cursed abilities. "I don't want to risk this happening again!"
"Actually, we talked it over already." Beast Boy hesitated. "Sorryfor doing this without you, but kind of had a moment with nothing to do while you were doing that last bit with the darkness."
"Friend, have you considered that you may benefit from doing the therapy?" Starfire bluntly asked.
"Therapy? But I'm not…"
"Afraid?" Robin interrupted her.
"Friend, there is nothing wrong with therapy. Most of us had it after Batman betrayed us." Starfire pointed out. Robin winced a little at the wording, but he knew Starfire had every reason to still be furious at Batman. "And it helped a lot!"
"But I don't want to do this with J'onn, and who else could help me?" Raven protested. She really didn't want to have to open her mind to the Martian Manhunter; too big of a risk that he accidentally gets tainted by her powers.
"You know, a normal therapist can also help a lot. You can always start there, and see how it goes." Cyborg answered. "I'm not going to pressure you, and we're going to leave you alone if you wish. But, if you reconsider, let me know. I can find someone who can help you."
Raven hesitated, before slowly shaking her head. "Thank you for the idea, Cyborg, but for now, I'd rather just be left alone. I need to meditate a little, and get some sleep."
"Well, Raven, since you actually successfully fought and won against something, feel free to go to sleep. The rest of you, get to the gym, it's time for your morning training!" Robin ordered.
"WHAT?!" Raven heard as she left for her room, and she smiled as the protests changed into a wrestling match, with Robin trying – and failing – to get out from under a massive gorilla that was currently trying to tie him up, while Starfire laughed happily in the background.
Her home was back to normal. She entered her room, now devoid of any hostile presence, and took her mirror, effortlessly moving to Nevermore, where her Anger was waiting, alongside her Fear and Courage.
"Could have just told me." Raven said to her demonic half, while giving a hug to both Courage and Fear.
"I could have." The four-eyed Raven admitted freely. "But what would it give you? A false sense of security? What will you do once Trigon arrives, come to me crying?"
"No. We are going to beat him." Raven declared without a shred of doubt, while her Fear shook for a moment and Courage smiled with pride.
"We do not have this kind of power." The demonic Raven countered.
"What makes you think I was only counting myself? I said 'we', after all." She remembered her friends. "And together, we will give my father a fight of his life."
Outside, the sun set up, and the horrors of the night were forgotten.
Few weeks later, it was a cloudy, but not too cold day in the Jump City. For Linda East, a psychologist specializing in helping LGBT people, it was also a busy day. Normally, she would have a small window to rest and eat a launch right now, maybe take a short walk to clear her head, but a new client in need of urgent help took that slot today.
And so, after saying goodbye to her previous client, and filling in the papers, she invited the new patient to her cabinet. She was a teenage girl, quite shy but also very disciplined at a glance, trying and mostly succeeding not to show any emotion. "Welcome, miss Rachel. What can I help you with today?"
"Right, about that…" Raven cleared her throat and, after making sure the doors are closed, dropped her disguise spell, causing the therapist to almost jump. "My actual name is Raven… but I do need your help."