Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ /The Chronicles of Pain: Doon's Story/ ❯ Chapter Eight ( Chapter 8 )

Author’s Note: Ok, this was going to be a huge pivotal chapter, but there was just too much prep work that needed to be done first. So here’s chapter eight. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I’m not even sure if I have to do this…but just in case. I do not own Weezer (awesome band) or Converse (awesome shoes). Now I feel stupid, I didn’t even have to do that, did I? Well, while I’m at it, I do not own teen Titans or any of their characters/plots. I do, however, own Doon. ~Chapter Eight~ “Preparation”  

Doon awoke on the cold cement of her floor with a horrible headache, a stiff body, and blood in her mouth. She pulled herself onto her hands and knees, and then shakily stood. She felt her knees give out, and she hissed as she felt her knees hit the floor harshly.

“What happened to me?” she asked herself. She shakily stood and stumbled over to the wall for support. She leaned against it, trying to catch her breath and get rid of the splotches of color that dotted her vision. She eventually steadied herself enough to walk over to the sink and cough up blood and saliva into the sink.

She washed out her mouth and splashed cold water onto her face. She dried it and stared at herself in the mirror. She had dark circles under her eyes, she was very pale, and she looked sick and tired. She sighed and walked over to her small wooden table and sat down onto the stool there. She picked up a pencil and scribbled a message there.

She stood and walked over to a pile of crumpled clothes in the corner. She picked out a ripped Weezer t-shirt and faded jeans. She pulled them on and slipped on her old, worn black and white Converse over some socks. She walked over to her door and pulled it open after grabbing the note. She made a quick trip to her shabby kitchen, picked out a few pieces of bread, and ate them slowly at the table.

Upon finishing, she went upstairs and walked to the laboratory. She slid the note under the closed door. Slade wouldn’t notice it, or that she was even gone, for an hour or so. Enough time to take a walk and clear her head, Doon figured. She walked to the front door and opened it; stepping outside. She gave one glance back into the house, then sighed and shut the door behind herself.

The cool morning air felt good on her skin as she walked down the gravel path towards the highway. It was a ways to the road from the mansion walkway, about a half mile, actually. When you’re a super villain, you tend to favor seclusion, after all.

She softly pushed off from the ground when she was halfway to the highway. She found it helped if she walked a while first before using her newly regained powers. She rose higher and higher into the soft blue sky and drifted along peacefully, thinking of the glimpses and memories she had witnessed in her sleep.

ooo (that same morning, Raven’s POV…)

Raven woke with a horrible feeling in her stomach. She sat up slowly in bed and thought she was about to retch right there. She ran over to the bathroom and leaned over the toilet, but nothing came. She rose shakily and went over to the sink. She looked pale, paler than her usual gothic-emo kid pale. She had dark circles around her eyes, and she looked extremely tired.

She knew perfectly well why. She had recently been meditating on the roof until the early hours of the morning. She had only gotten three hours of sleep, at the most, and then she had to fight with the rest of the team all day. The stress from meditating constantly from hours on end left her exhausted and sick feeling, which explains the early-morning vomiting. She tried to conceal a yawn as she shut the door for a shower. She knew she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, so might as well get up and ready.

As she stood in the shower, letting the warm water cascade over her shoulders in a calming, continuous rhythm, she thought back to her meditation session last night. She had seen, talked to, and fought with Trigon in her mind. He was becoming harder and harder to control, and she was afraid that someday he might be let loose.

(A/N: Trigon DOES NOT use Raven as a portal in this story, he’s just there in Raven’s head, a constant reminder of her past, and such.)

Her father that night has almost pulled Raven backwards, into the very walls of her own mind. She hadn’t been able to sleep more than a few minutes at a time because she was terrified he would capture her in her sleep. Therefore, she did not sleep; and her performance that day, she feared, would definitely show it.

She was right, she found out, as a few hours later the Titans were battling yet another monster. It was a giant, hairy creature; and he would prove to be a challenge for the new heroes. As the Titans were hacking and slashing away at this beast, Raven started to feel her father’s presence growing stronger inside her mind. She stopped levitating a bench at the monster when a huge slash of pain ripped through her entire body. She hunched over in the air and gripped her head. She groaned in pain and tried to overcome him.

She was not successful. She hunched further over in pain as she felt a sinking feeling; he was taking over her. A new, horrible Raven emerged. Her body was elongated, and turned completely black. She opened her four, red eyes and stared horribly at the monster. She levitated everything in her vicinity at it viciously. The other Titans had stopped their attacks as soon as she had made the transformation. They were now staring at her with open mouths as she pelted the bewildered beast.

It didn’t take long before things got out of hand. The monster had shrunk to the streets as buses, cars, chunks of concrete, benches, and anything else that was unfortunate enough to be in Raven’s telekinetic path were levitated at it all at once, and with no pauses. It was making horrible whining, whimpering, almost crying noises, but Trigon had no compassion.

The other Titans had been trying to survive through the steady stream of debris that was flying everywhere and bring Raven under control. It was actually Beast Boy who saw an opening, and took it. He morphed into a pterodactyl, flew hard and fast around the various makeshift-artillery materials, and reached Raven. He morphed into gorilla form in mid air and tackled raven. She struggled firmly against his grip, but he was determined.

Beast boy could see that she was trying desperately to regain control. A tear rolled down her cheek as she started to writhe and groan.

“I…I won’t let you…control me.” she choked out. “Get out of…my head!”

Finally, the evil presence of Trigon subsided and Raven turned back to her normal form. Beast Boy, after making sure it was Raven, morphed back into human form and loosened his grip.

“Raven?” he hesitantly asked.

She looked down at her lap. She suddenly tore out of his arms and stood up. She called out a huge, black Raven made of telekinetic power and disappeared as it enveloped her.

The rest of the Titans had made makeshift handcuffs by bending a metal pole around the monster’s wrists and left it lying on its stomach in the middle of the street. They were now running over to Beast Boy, who was slowly rising to his feet.

“Where’s Raven? Is she okay?” Robin asked.

“I don’t know. She just ran off.” He looked up at the sky, as if hoping to see her flying by. He shook his head.

“Something’s wrong with her. We should go try to talk to her.” Cyborg said.

“Oh, I hope friend Raven is alright.” Starfire said.

The Titans took off towards Titans Tower. They could only hope that Raven would be all right.

ooo (A few days later…)

Doon took a deep breath and refocused her energy.

“Concentrate harder. You’re failing to grasp the concept…”

Slade and Doon had been in training for three days now. It had been hard on her body, mind, and spirit. Slade’s constant belittling of her work wasn’t helping at all, and she was beginning to think the consequences of arguing with him were not so bad.

Doon repositioned her feet, wider this time, and raised her arms. She summoned her energy from the depths of her mind and channeled it through her entire body. She then proceeded to gather some of that energy and send it through her fingertips. The invisible telekinetic energy cut through the air and molded itself around a rice paper bulb that they were using as training.

“If you can manage to control your energy enough as to not rupture the paper, then you will be able to target an organ and do individual damage to it and it only. Concentrate.”

Her eyes were closed through this entire process, which only took a few seconds normally, but because of the delicateness of the object, took a few minutes. She allowed her thoughts to trail off the bulb for a mere second, and it shattered in her mind’s grip.

She hissed in frustration as she opened her eyes and looked at the crumpled bits of paper that were floating slowly to the ground. She closed them again as she heard Slade slam his fist against the wall of the underground training facility.

“You lost your concentration.” He looked over at her and walked up beside her. “You’re hopeless. How are you going to excel as a Titan if you can‘t perform a simple concentration exercise? It‘s because I let you take a break from training for those few months…”

For once, Doon agreed with Slade. It was because she didn’t practice her powers for a large gap of time that she was failing now. She had been sent out alongside Slade to complete a mission in which they stole Plutonium (A/N: I don’t know, I couldn’t think of anything else…) from a warehouse down by the pier.

A guard had showed up and aimed a gun at them. Doon had panicked and ignored Slade’s orders. She had almost killed the man with a telekinetic grip around his throat. A large number of reinforcements had showed up just when the man’s last bits of life were slipping away. She had let him slump to the floor unconscious only when Slade grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away from the Warehouse.

Doon had been petrified of her powers, more than usual, for three months, where there was absolutely no training. Probably because Slade was intimidated by her powers too. She had actually tried to forget how to use her powers then. Although Slade had forced her to keep in contact with her powers, she had forgotten some of the things Slade had taught her. But when your exposed to such harsh training for years, even three months that are void of training can be very damaging to your technique and overall power.

Now they were here, in the training facility, to rekindle her powers’ fire, and to ready her for the Titans.

“Once more, concentrate.” he commanded in a cold voice. He produced another rice paper bulb, and she refocused her energy. She reached a level of energy balance and remained with her concentration. She didn’t hear Slade make any negative comments, or remind her to keep her eyes open, so she opened her eyes. The bulb was spinning in midair, not a dent or any sort of fracture on it.

“Finally. Next exercise.” Slade said.

If you knew Slade well enough, and Doon knew him better than any one still living, you would notice that he was no longer scowling, but the corners of his mouth had the slightest upward curvature. The smile of an appreciative parent, perhaps?

Not likely. The smile of a scheming devil, to be precise.

ooo (Late that same night, Robin’s POV, Raven’s POV, etc…)

Robin was spacing back and forth in the living room. Everyone had long since gone to sleep. He was the only one left, as usual, pondering about the events of the day.

During the past few days, things had gone as normal as possible for a team of teenage super heroes. Three or four villains, all put behind bars. A pretty good set of days, to most people’s standards. But not Robin’s. He was constantly analyzing his every move, thought, and decision.

Why did I do that? Was that the right thing to do? How could I have done that differently? What would have happened if I did this instead? Did I give that 200%?

A mass swarm of self-analytical questions asked by voices that constantly buzzed around in his head, nagging at him to improve. However, sometimes all they did was make him question his authority. But this was the work of a leader, to analyze, improve, and question. So he sometimes welcomed them, instead of merely trying to tolerate and answer them, knowing that was his responsibility.

He sighed. He needed a break, and he knew it. He stopped pacing and hesitantly walked over to his door, and out into the hall. It was dark, and he had to stand there for a few seconds while his sight fully adjusted. He navigated his way thought the house, until he reached the roof door. He climbed the stairs and went up onto the roof, where he always went to think.

But he realized that on the moonlight-bathed roof top, he was not alone. Raven sat with her legs dangling over the edge of the building, looking up at the moon with a depressed look on her face. He slowly approached her and sat down next to her. From this close position, he could see dry tear streaks running down her cheeks.

“I didn’t know you came up here too.” He quietly said.

“It’s dark and solitary. My place to be.” She responded.

“Raven, if there’s anything you need help with, anything any of us can do, ask; that’s what we’re all here for. OK?”

Raven looked out at the moon again.

“My problems can’t be helped.”

“Have you ever tried?”

She looked over slowly and stubbornly at him, examining his face. She turned back to the night sky before softly snapping at him, if such a thing is possible, this one word that threatened to whisper all of her secrets:

“Fine.”

ooo

Author’s note: Oh. My. Gosh. I’m so very sorry for the extremely late update, I really am. However, I have been SWAMPED with homework, work, and other responsibilities. Plus, I got my computer taken away for a day there. I am about to kill everyone, no one is safe from my wrath! Sorry… I get pissy sometimes. Oh, and I had an author-uncertainty attack. For all of the normal people out there who don‘t have weird phrases like me, when you kind of lose your sense of where your story is going. Therefore, I had to re-plan and rethink some things, but I think it has been sorted out… for the most part.

Anyhow, I would like to thanks all of the readers, reviews, and ask the readers who are not reviewers to swiftly convert into reviewers, or else I’ll be making a not-so-friendly visit to you house. Just kidding =D. Nevertheless, I would seriously love it if you just posted one word. Like “good”, “crap”, “wonderful”, “update”, “queerdo”, anything! Well, I’ll try very hard to update soon.