Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans. If I did, this story would be a movie!
XXI
Coming to Terms
The silver barrier collapsed; Robin rushed forward blindly, aiming straight for the beast. He didn't care if the beast was Beast Boy being controlled by a villain, something inside him had snapped – his mind screamed out one thing and only one thing, and it kept repeating in his head like one of Raven's chants: I'llgetyou, I'llgetyou, I'llgetyou…
"Robin!" Starfire called out, and flew after him, with Cyborg following close behind. Four steps were all they managed to take before a rush of white erupted on all sides and surrounded them entirely, blocking the beast from view.
"What the–" Cyborg whirled around, but almost every visible surface was filled with white, and as the white moulded into shapes and began to take the form of dozens and dozens of men in white like the one they'd first fought in the research facility, the man in black's voice was heard.
"Give it a rest. I've only taken two of your number. If you don't want to lose anymore teammates, Robin, then stop giving them away."
Robin turned to the right, left anywhere that wasn't already teeming with white men and glinting red eyes, but they kept on coming, crowding out his vision until even the faint green outline of the beast disappeared completely from sight.
"NO!"
Behind him, he felt Starfire brush against his back as the three Titans were pressed into a tight circle, an absurdly coloured bunch among cold white shapes.
"Robin?" Starfire called out, seeking permission, and out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of a starbolt.
"Hit him with everything you've got," Robin said through clenched teeth. He drew out his fighting staff.
"My pleasure." Beside him, Cyborg readied his sonic cannon.
"Titans, GO!"
Raven landed with a thud on black sand, completely out of breath. She felt warm hands grasp her shoulders and pull her to her unsteady feet. A voice swam into hearing – "Raven… Raven, are you okay?" – and it sounded so concerned, so familiar that she let herself collapse into his embrace. The beginnings of tears sprang to the corners of her eyes as her breath let itself out in a long, shaky sigh.
She felt the blood rush to her head, and a second later realized that it wasn't blood, but something closer to emotion that had gripped her mind and wouldn't let go, no matter how much she tried to clutch it, stuff it back into the cell that had been built for it. This time it would not listen, and standing there in the middle of nowhere, in Beast Boy's arms, she understood for the first time how it felt to be overrun by emotions – positive ones.
"I thought…" she began, and stopped as his eyes sought hers, finding her thoughts lost in the green depths of the windows to his soul.
"I thought you'd…"
"I would never betray you. Never. I trust you."
"I…" she felt like the words had been stolen from her mouth.
"I'm glad you're here, … Raven."
For an instant she felt his hand slip into hers, comforting and sweet, or maybe it was she who had, in a moment of gratitude of overwhelming need, grasped his hand. But it was only a second, a fleeting, transient whisper of time, and then they were standing side by side, no longer touching.
Smiling widely, he turned to her.
"Ready to kick some shadow butt?"
She looked at him with a straight face, but her eyes were twinkling.
"Ready."
He watched as the white figures swarmed the Teen Titans, but as the energy continued to stream out from underneath his cloak, creating figure after figure, he felt the strength drain from him. Finally, when the last man was moulded from the tendrils of smoke-like substance, he stumbled backwards, and the barrier that had kept him from a possible Titan attack dissolved into thin air.
The disappearance of what had been his sole bulwark did not bother him in the least – the Titans were now surrounded by a sufficient number of obstacles for him to make his escape with relative ease.
And this was what he proceeded to do.
The man in black began to make his way towards the far side of the cavern, towards the beast, and towards the place where an opening was hidden deep in the shadows.
Green starbolts grazed a path through the white as Starfire sent the energy bolts flying at the row of figures nearest to her. This time, they seemed far less able than the first white man the Titans had fought; these white men burst into white clouds upon contact with her starbolts. Feeling empowered, she sent a few more starbolts out in front of her, and then several white men latched themselves onto her. Starfire struggled to throw them off, but more kept swarming over her until the weight was too much to bear… and then suddenly a flash of light blue evaporated a load of them from off her back.
Beside her, she caught a glimpse of Cyborg's grin before he barreled into a tower of white men, toppling them over like soft dominos. The men fell, and the half-robot Teen Titan proceeded to pick one up by the heels and swing him into a group of others, and they all subsequently burst into white smoke.
But it was Robin who was making the most progress. Driven by pure anger and sheer adrenalin, he whirled his staff through the air, slicing a row of white figures neatly in half. Robin added a few smoke bombs to the explosion of white that resulted, then dived through the smoke screen and felled a figure with a spin kick, followed by several lightning-fast moves that effectively caused the men in white to vanish. The men continued to swarm around him, but he let loose a few more bombs and a flying Birdarang that took out another row of men. The leader of the Teen Titans moved with an incredible speed, so fast that his arms and legs were coloured blurs against the backdrop of snow white. Robin continued fighting, clawing his way through the thick wall of white until finally, at long last, he broke through it and, in the darkness of the hole he'd created, he caught a glimpse – a shock of green amidst the white and black.
Robin headed straight for it.
The man gripped the rough surface of the wall and as he made his way fumbling forward, felt the hard stones scratch the palms of his hands. The pain didn't matter that much now, not when he was nearing the back of the cavern, where the doorway remained hidden in the shadows. A couple more steps brought him nearer the large skulking figure of the beast, which had been waiting for him.
"Come now," the man murmured, raising a hand to grasp the slightly damp fur, "we shall make our quick exit."
Using his powers, he reached out to the beast's mind, but this time found resistance.
"We don't have time for sulking; the Titans – "
A low growl that came from deep within the beast's throat stopped him in mid-sentence. The beast under his control had never growled at him before.
And then, quick as a flash, the beast whirled around and lunged straight for him. He felt large paws seize his shoulders and slam him into the ground; felt the hard stones scratch his back; felt the hot animal breath in his face.
"I see… it has to come to this."
With his mind he reached for the mental block once again and pushed at it, hard, but still it held, and the beast pressed its paws deeper into his shoulders, sharp claws drawing first blood.
I'm much stronger than you think I am, the voice of Beast Boy wormed its way into his head.
"Whatever help you've been given, it's not going to last."
We'll see about that.
The man tried to telekinetically move the beast out of the way, but given his limited strength, it seemed impossible.
The beast was closing in now…
Then there was an earth-shattering yell – a flash of green, yellow and red – and Robin came flying out from the fast deteriorating mass of white, charging straight towards the beast.
A/N: For the record, I'm not too happy with this chapter. But, I'm back.