Fan Fiction ❯ Will D. Beest ❯ Seeing Red ( Chapter 6 )

Notes: Sorry for the wait, as usual. Seeing Terra on the brink of insanity last night convinced me to post this today. Sad part is, you didn't even have to know the storyline in advance to know she'd turn on them. I mean, they made it so friggin' OBVIOUS. And is it me, or did the opening to Justice League Unlimited make it seem like Supergirl was the star? Which I don't have a problem with, but still. She never even got her own animated show…until now, apparently. Heh.

~…~ is telepathic speech.

Chapter 6: Seeing Red

It was a lot like watching a horror movie, but infinitely worse, as she couldn't just walk out.

Raven knew for a fact that every blow that sent Wildy (or as Jinx had called him, Woolly) reeling came from her very own hands. Hands that, frighteningly, were starting to resemble claws more and more as time slipped by. In the end, there would probably be little difference between the thing she was becoming and the thing she was fighting. Unless you considered the fact that one of them might not be living then.

There was honestly not much she could do to stop herself. At first, she had merely been fighting to keep her father's taint in check for fear of hurting Wildy, but now the situation had changed drastically. Woolly had proven to be capable and willing to use lethal force more than once, and Raven's body had accepted that before her mind had. While her brain insisted that Wildy shouldn't be hurt, her body insisted that it wasn't just going to sit there and get beaten to death. Unfortunately, in order to fight back, her body was drawing on the most readily available power source it had: the taint of Trigon.

In the past, unleashing that particular power had resulted in everything from short-term memory loss to total repression of the things Raven did while under her father's spell. This time, however, she could see her body inflicting pain on a loved one, and worse yet, she was gaining a kind of twisted pleasure from it.

There was no rationalizing her actions in the part of her that would still call itself Raven: this was wrong, she was wrong, and the outcome would be wrong.

Woolly, of course, was not aware of her inner struggle. If anything, he'd probably figured out just what Nana (Jinx) didn't like about the Bad Lady (Raven). Probably it had something to do with her glowing red eyes, all the snarling, and the way all the shadows in the room seem to gather around and flow into her. Still, Nana had told him to do something, and he had every intention of making her happy. That was, after all, what Good Boys did.

* * * * *

As she soared across the night sky, Blackfire glanced down and smiled faintly. A few feet below her, she could make out her new partner in crime, surfing through the air on a small rock. A while back, she never would've even considered working with a loose cannon like Terra. It was just that there had been so many benefits to accepting Slade's offer.

She still had no idea how deep Slade's connections ran, and part of her had no desire to find out. But if he could reach halfway across the galaxy and into her old cell in Centari, there was no telling how much influence he held in the right circles. All Blackfire knew was that he'd given her a choice: continue to rot in jail, or come work for him.

And it had been work, at first. Blackfire loved a good party as much as the next girl, but she'd still considered herself a hard worker. Then she had met Slade and learned HIS idea of hard work. It was more than a few steps above her own ideas, to say the least. But by the time he had been willing to put any trust in her abilities ("When you work for me, Blackfire, the training never ends," he was fond of saying), she could see all the improvements his watchful eye (as far as she knew, he only had one) had wrought.

Terra had popped up on the radar rather unexpectedly, but Slade had apparently had his eye on her for quite some time. Blackfire had been curious about his plans for her, and she soon found out when Slade gave her a real challenge. He had said, "Teach her everything I taught you. When you're done, any weaknesses I see in her, you will be held responsible for." It wasn't as ominous as he'd made it sound, of course. He merely made Blackfire work twice as hard when Terra messed up…and in turn, Blackfire made Terra work even harder so that it never happened again. Terra hadn't like that at all, and even being teacher's pet hadn't made up for it, at first. But once she figured out that Blackfire didn't actually hate her, they became fast friends.

"Hey, Blackie!" Terra suddenly shouted, breaking into the alien girl's thoughts.

Blackfire dropped down a bit until she was flying alongside Terra's rock. "What's up?"

"I know you told me why you've got it in for Starfire, but you never said why you hated the other Titans."

"I don't, really," Blackfire admitted with a shrug. "It's just…they make good targets. And we need the practice. And if you go after one, the others will come running. So I'd have to take them all on eventually. Besides, Slade wants us to. We don't need any other reason."

Terra nodded. "Yeah, I know. I just wondered if there was another you wanted to handle personally."

"Maybe Robin, for choosing Star over me. I mean, I got over it, but just the thought still bugs me a little."

The blond girl smirked. "Would it make you feel better if I hit on you?"

Blackfire rolled her eyes. "No, but I appreciate the thought…I think."

"I thought you were open-minded?" Terra joked.

"I thought YOU were madly in love with Slade?"

"Whatever," Terra muttered, though there was a hint of red in her cheeks as she looked away.

"I wouldn't judge you if you were," Blackfire said quickly, sensing her partner's feelings. "As older men go, Slade wouldn't be a bad catch, exactly. Rich, powerful, brilliant, and-"

"Never takes off that damn mask," Terra interrupted with a frustrated sigh.

"Well, not to rain on your parade, but maybe he was in an accident as a kid?"

Terra shook her head. "Slade wouldn't hide something like that, he'd use it. He only wears that mask so no one can get past the name. Harder to track him down that way."

"You mean harder to get close to him, right?"

"Both," Terra muttered, clenching her fists.

"I wouldn't worry about it. He never made passes at me."

Terra grunted. "He doesn't make passes."

"No. But he pats your shoulders, brushes your hair, and stares into your eyes long enough for me to notice. I'd tell you if he'd done that to me, and he hasn't. Maybe it means something, maybe it doesn't. If he didn't think you were cute, he's going about showing it the wrong way."

Still, Terra shook her head. "Slade manipulates people. He knew you wanted to get back at Starfire, and he knew I didn't want to be alone anymore. But he's conned us both into taking out the Titans."

"Not really. He told us up front that we'd be doing this eventually," Blackfire reasoned.

"But beyond your sister, neither of us really has a good reason for it," Terra argued. "There's plenty of heroes around, so why start with them?"

"Because you don't start with the Justice League and work your way down, silly. Anyway, they have something Slade wants. Maybe they're the only team that has it. Either way, it wouldn't matter. He wants it from them and no one else. It's not our job to question that."

"So if he told you to kill Starfire, would you question that?"

Blackfire shrugged. "No. But I wouldn't do it, either."

* * * * *

"That's it, Woolly Bully!" Mad Mad cackled. "Give 'er the old one-two!"

"Why are we taking orders from this guy again?" Gizmo whispered.

"You have to admit, his plan IS working," Jinx muttered, scowling as Raven dodged another wild swipe. "I just wish he was better at naming the grunts."

"Well, now that we know the Thinking Cap works, why do we need him?"

"Did you forget that Slade paired us with him? Do you really want to disobey that guy?"

"No, but I swear if he calls me 'dearie' again, I'm gonna chew off his leg and beat him to death with it!"

Jinx smirked. "Don't worry, Giz. No way this fix is permanent. Once Slade sees how well we can work without Mad Mod, I'm sure he'll ditch this loser."

Before Gizmo could answer, a small device on his chest began to beep. "Looks like we'll get our chance. The other losers are loose."

* * * * *

"Do I even want to know how you came up with a creature that drools acid?" Cyborg asked as Robin led them down the hall.

"Dude, at least YOU don't have the aftertaste in your mouth!" Beast Boy complained, sticking out his tongue in disgust. "I swear my taste buds are still tingling, and NOT in the good way!"

"I was most impressed with how you melted our shackles without melting us," Starfire commented.

"Speak for yourself, Star," Cyborg muttered, glaring at a tiny, smoking hole in his arm.

Robin shushed them. "Keep it down, team. I still can't get a response from Raven, and there's no telling what else HIVE has in store for us."

"Something tells me it's not honey," Beast Boy murmured before Cyborg smacked him. "Hey!"

"Less joking, more keeping an eye out for traps," Cyborg suggested.

"Hey, between my eagle eyes, bloodhound nose, and your high tech sensors, what could we possibly miss?"

"Me?" asked a rumbling voice behind them.

"…dude, didn't I TELL you to check both ways for Mammoths before crossing the hall?!" Beast Boy demanded.

"Shut up and fight!" Cyborg shouted as he spun around, his sonic cannon blazing.

"Titans! GO!" Robin ordered as he leaped at their foe.

* * * * *

Raven scowled as she finally came to accept that she wasn't going to win. At least, not at the rate the fight was going. Both her and Woolly had only managed glancing blows that did little or no damage. There was no point to wearing herself down any further, since the HIVE brats would just come in and overpower her when she was too weak to defend herself.

On the other hand, she couldn't just tell Woolly to stop, either. For some reason, he believed that Jinx was her, and that Raven was…someone he really didn't like. It most likely had something to do with the strange helmet he wore, but he wouldn't stay still long enough for her to yank it off or destroy it.

Even the part of her that held her father's taint was starting to get restless. It was used to whatever it attacked either falling at once or in a matter of minutes. Quick kills were the most enjoyable ones, and anything that took longer became utterly boring.

She was brought out (rather, knocked out) of her thoughts when Woolly's palm caught the side of her head. Raven went tumbling across the floor, slamming into the wall so hard that stars clouded her vision for a few seconds. By the time she shook them away, Woolly had already raised a foot to stomp her.

However, he never got the chance. A blur of red and black suddenly tore through the wall and threw itself onto Woolly's back. The huge, hairy creature roared in pain and backpedaled, clawing frantically at whatever had landed on his back.

Raven moaned as she sat up, doing her best to ignore her body's painful protests to any further fighting. She made it to her feet, leaning against the wall for support.

~"Are you injured, Seedling?"~ asked a concerned voice at her ear.

Raven turned too quickly, making herself a little dizzy and stumbling back to the wall. But, finding no one there, she reached with her mind to reply. ~"Sylvan? Where are you?"~

~"Never mind that now. You must remove the helmet. It is the only way to stop him."~

~"I tried that already! He moves too fast."~

~"Wait until I've…distracted him. Now!"~

Raven looked over to see Woolly attempting to pin the red and black thing on his back against the wall. Focusing her power on the helmet, she raised her hands. "Azarath Metrion…Zinthos!"

Woolly roared angrily as the Thinking Cap was torn from his head, but the roar turned into a confused whine as his body began to shrink rapidly.

Raven sighed and sank against the wall, totally exhausted. ~"Sylvan? Are you still there?"~

~"I…am here, my sister,"~ he replied uncertainly.

She suddenly became aware of a presence next to her, and gasped as the red and black creature stood over her. It looked a great deal like a gargoyle from one of her ancient texts, save it bore her father's face. The skin was crimson and leathery, except for the wings, which were black and riddled with holes (some of which were slowly dripping blood). The taloned feet clicked against the floor as it approached her.

"Stay back!" Raven cried, trying to get to her feet and failing.

"Do not be alarmed, Raven," it said in a voice like gravel, reaching out to her. "It is I. Your brother."

"…Sylvan?" she asked uncertainly.

The yellow eyes faded to forest green. "I am sorry. I did not wish for you to see me like this. But I was not certain I could rescue you without transforming…" He looked away. "This creature…is yours?"

Raven blinked, suddenly remembering Wildy. She hurried over to him, and was relieved to find him glancing around uncertainly, a confused look on his face. "Wildy? Do you know me now?"

Recognition flooded his face at once, and he began to happily crawl towards her. However, his gaze landed on the bloodstained slashes in her cloak, and he froze. "Nana hurt," he said, pointing.

"Oh…that's nothing," Raven said quickly, hoping she was right.

But Wildy was shaking his head now. "Baby hurt Nana," he whispered, his eyes growing damp.

"What? You remember…?" Raven asked in surprise. "No, you didn't really-"

"Baby bad," Wildy murmured sadly. "Nana punish Baby?" His bottom lip quivered as he stared up at her.

"Wildy, don't," she pleaded as he began to bawl. Raven sighed and picked him up. "I'm not mad at you, so don't cry. I'm fine, see?"

"Perhaps my appearance upset him?" Sylvan suggested, sounding much more like himself.

Raven shook her head as she bounced Wildy gently in her arms. "I doubt it. I mean, he sleeps in the same bed as Beast Boy." She was relieved to see that Sylvan had reverted to his usual appearance and looked far less sinister. "So…why did you help me?"

Sylvan frowned at her. "Surely you don't think I would allow you to die?"

"I don't know, you seem so interested in trying to kill me lately," she said with a smirk.

"You would never unleash your full potential if the crisis were not real. But I would never do you mortal harm, Raven. You are, after all, the only family I have left."

"You know you just volunteered yourself as a babysitter, right?" Raven asked.

Sylvan gave no indication that he had a problem with that. In fact, he even reached out and took Wildy, balancing him carefully in one hand. "He fights well for one so young. But he lacks control and is too easily swayed. He could prove to be more dangerous than helpful, without proper guidance. I suspect you would be a better teacher for him than I, Raven. You have managed to resist our father's taint much better than I have."

"Well, you seem pretty good at using it, so let's make a deal. I teach him how to resist being controlled, and you teach him how to regain control if he loses it."

Sylvan nodded. "That is acceptable."

"Good. Then I guess we'll have to postpone our little rivalry for a while." Raven shot him a curious look. "Maybe even indefinitely."

"That is bad strategy, Raven. If we tried to defeat Trigon together, he would turn one against the other."

"And if only one of us tries, he'll just turn that one because there's no second child to distract him. Either way, one of us would end up dead. I do think we should be used to fighting each other, just in case, but I also think we should be working together. Do you honestly think he'd expect us to?"

"No," Sylvan admitted after a long moment. "We are…two very different beings."

"No argument here." Raven paused to check on Wildy, who had at least stopped crying, but still looked pretty upset. "Shhh. Everything is fine now, Wildy."

"Raven."

"Not now, Sylvan; I'm trying to-"

"Raven. This battle is not over." He frowned thoughtfully. "Reinforcements are coming."

She scowled. "They never know when to quit. But at least you're here to-"

"I cannot help you," he said at once.

"Why not?! What did I just say about working together?!"

"You misunderstand, Raven. I have nothing against cooperation between us. However, we cannot allow ourselves to rely too much on the other's strength. We must stand alone before we can stand together. You must fight your own battles. I only intervened because I felt you were in mortal peril."

Raven glared at him. "Fine. Could you at least take Wildy to Starfire, then? She'll be the one with…well, she'll be the EXACT opposite of me."

Sylvan nodded and carefully took Wildly from her. "May fortune be with you and yours this night."

* * * * *

Robin ducked as Cyborg flew over his head and crashed into the wall. "Cyborg! You okay?!"

"Yeah, yeah," Cyborg grunted as he picked himself up out of the rubble. "But seriously, you got another plan in you, man? Mega Mammoth is really starting to wear down my batteries, if you get my drift."

Robin drew a length of thin, powerful wire from his belt. "Just one more. If we can get him off his feet, that should buy us some time. First, we'll need a distraction."

Cyborg simply put up his hand, grinning as he caught Beast Boy easily. "One distraction ready."

Beast Boy stopped yelling and opened his eyes. "I could've sworn I was supposed to hit a wall…HEY! Why am I always the distraction?! Starfire's more distracting than I am! I mean, she glows!!!"

"Look at it this way, shorty. When you can toss Starbolts with the greatest of ease, then you can stop being a distraction. Until then, make with the noise."

Beast Boy grumbled a bit, but finally turned into a seagull. He took to the air and began to repeatedly announce his position with a loud, whooping cry.

It didn't take long for Mammoth to get annoyed and abandon swatting at Starfire in favor of shutting the noisy bird up. He ran after the seagull, as it lead him back towards Robin, who had stretched the wire across the hallway. As Mammoth's ankle hit the wire, he stumbled a bit, and windmilled his arms wildly in an attempt to stay on his feet.

Cyborg watched in slight annoyance. "Rob, what I'm about to do next makes your trap just a tad ironic, but…" He charged his sonic cannon and fired. The blast caught Mammoth full in the chest, reversing his momentum and knocking him backwards, where he landed flat on his back with a terrific thud.

"Well…he IS off his feet," Robin admitted. "Can't say I have a problem with that."

The seagull landed on Mammoth's head and reverted to Beast Boy. "Forget that; this guy's out cold! We won!"

Starfire flew in for a closer look. "Where are Jinx and Gizmo? Should we not be certain they are cold as well? And what about Fuzzy?"

Cyborg suddenly glanced around sharply and typed a few commands into his arm. "Hey, don't take this the wrong way, but this city isn't on a fault line, is it?"

"No. Why?" Robin asked warily.

"Because my sensors are saying that we're about to have a major-"

"EARTHQUAKE!!!" Beast Boy shouted as he was thrown into Cyborg's back.

"Move it, Titans!" Robin ordered. But the words were barely out of his mouth when the roof caved in on them.

Beast Boy pushed his teammates down and transformed into a huge turtle. But as he drew himself inside the shell to make room for the others, he couldn't help noticing that someone was missing.

* * * * *

Starfire was not quite sure what had happened to her. One moment, she'd been standing next to Robin, and the next, she'd felt herself pulled into the shadows. But instead of hitting the wall, she'd passed through it, as if it-or Starfire herself-didn't exist.

Now she was standing outside, by herself, with no idea where she was. Before she could even think of taking a step, the ground began to tremble. Starfire was thrown to her hands a knees as the earth itself split open less than a few feet away from her. She turned, horrified to see that the warehouse that still contained her teammates was being swallowed up. She was on the verge of crying out their names when she heard a familiar laugh.

"Like shooting nandersaws in a balorfel bucket!" Blackfire laughed from somewhere above her.

Starfire looked up as her older sister continued to rain down Blackbolts on the collapsing warehouse. Beside her was another girl, whose gloved hands were surrounded in a yellow-brown aura.

"If that's the same as shooting fish in a barrel, I agree," the girl answered. "But I thought at least one of them would make it out in time."

"You better hope they didn't. Each one that gets away is one more Slade will be pissed about." Then Blackfire looked thoughtful and grinned. "But we shouldn't worry. As long as we get even one of them, the rest will come back for more. They're stupid that way. C'mon, let's see how many we can dig up."

Anger filled Starfire's heart as she began to rush them. Suddenly, a clawed hand clamped down on her wrist. She whirled around to see a pale-skinned creature glaring at her. Thinking he was with her sister, she raised a hand to give him a Starbolt at close range.

Then he raised his free hand, revealing…

"Fuzzy!" Starfire cried softly as the baby was handed to her. "You are unharmed!" She hugged him tightly, covering his little face with butterfly kisses.

"You cannot stay here, and you cannot hope to defeat them alone," the pale creature told her, pressing something hard and cool into her arms. "Recover and regroup, or your friends are lost to you." With that, he vanished into the shadows.

"Wait!" Starfire sighed, realizing he was already gone. She looked down to see the familiar communicator with a white letter T on it. "Is this…Raven's?" she asked, looking thoughtful.

Off in the distance, Blackfire laughed triumphantly, and yanked out a limp figure by it's torn black and yellow cape. "Found one, Terra! The rest are here, too!"

Starfire's first instinct was to rescue Robin, but then Fuzzy cooed softly in her arms, looking as if he wanted to be put down for a nap. She paused, looking between the two, before finally biting her lip and retreating. There was no way she could just leave Fuzzy and go fight, and she was not taking him into battle; that was how she'd lost him the last time. At any rate, she would need complete focus to defeat Blackfire, and there was no telling what the other girl could do.

"I am sorry, my friends," Starfire whispered, tears falling from her green eyes. "I swear I will come back with help and save you." She floated into the air and flew away, staying close to the ground to avoid being spotted.

Blackfire grunted in frustration as she dragged Cyborg out. "See if you can reach Raven."

Terra gazed down into the hole where they'd found the other Titans. "Uh…I don't see her."

"What do you mean? She's got to be there! Starfire and the little monster, too!"

Terra shook her head. "They're not here. Maybe they were in another part of the warehouse?"

"Maybe. We'd better check."

"Let me," Terra volunteered, raising her hands. "If they're here, I'll find them."

The surrounding area responded instantly to her command, breaking apart into smaller, easier to search chunks. But after an hour of searching, the only traces they found of Raven were the torn, bloody remains of her cloak.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Next Time: Starfire (along with Fuzzy) must recreate the Teen Titans to save their friends, but who can they turn to? What does Slade have in store for our heroes? And where's Raven?