Adult-FanFiction.org : Comics

The Titans: Triptych	By : hentaigoten Category: DC Verse Cartoons - Teen Titans > Crossovers > FemmeSlash Views: 1932 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or JLA. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
A/N- Feel that I should put a quick explanation and apology for the lack of updates recently (two months is a tad too long a time, I'm sure...)- a bout of writer’s block followed by essays is not the most fun thing in the world, that I can tell you. However, I’m back in the game now- I’ve got a couple of one shot chapters lined up, and after that some larger chapter arcs. All the while continuing with the characters arcs, of course… That, and another story entirely I’ve got planned- another Titans story, one quite different to this one, though it is not an entirely new idea- it’s one that’s been around the DC ‘verse for a fair number of years, and one that’s made appearances in one form or another here, in a few stories. I just hope what I’m preparing will be interesting…

Now, enough of my yapping- you probably want to the read the chapter, don’t you? Well then, read on is all I can say…

#9

Inner Dark

Chapter 3 of 3: Confrontation

The waves lapped at the shore slowly, calmly, like they had all the time in the world.

Soaring high above, riding air currents, intermediately flapping its wings, a great bird of prey, a tiny mote above the city.

It turned sharply, diving to an island in the middle of the bay.

Slowing its descent as it neared the island, and the building that sat atop it, spreading its wings to slow itself, turning and flying through the open doors of the tower.

It landed inside, and froze. Motionless, it surveyed the surroundings.

A blur of motion, and it was gone, replaced by another, a gazelle that tore through the corridors at speed. Running past doors thrown open, debris spilling down the corridors.

It stopped once, in the rec room. It’s form shifting into a human form for a second, before another creature took its place. A wolf, sniffing loudly as it tracked scent trails, steering clear of a decaying, putrid formation of rotting flesh and bone.

It found its way into the med bay.

A light illuminated a figure placed reverently on one of the beds. Machines hummed.

A figure spun round, energy springing into being around its fists, its eyes glowing with the same energy.

The energy drained from around it the instant it saw what had entered the room.

She turned back silently to her vigil.

Garfield, shifting form as he moved across the room, took in the sight.

“What happened? Kori, is she-?”

“She…I think she’s hurt. I’m not sure how. There are injuries, but nothing serious. I’ve done tests, I’ve done what I can think of…” Koriand’r said, gesturing near aimlessly towards Raven. Stepping closer, Garfield could see the bulk of bandages, hidden underneath a plain medical garment.

“When did you find her? I got away as soon as I could…”

“Twenty minutes ago. She must have been fighting something…the same thing there must have been in the garden.”

“There was something, next to a great big hole in the rec room floor. Didn’t smell right. At all.”

“I don’t know enough about…about what to do. I don’t know if it’s mental, or physical, or mystical…I don’t even know what she fought…”

“She’ll be alright. I know her. If anything, she’s gone into a healing trance. But, we can always try and get some help if we can. The League has some guys who can do this sort of thing. She’ll be pissed at us if she finds out, but if your willing to risk it…”

“Who have they got?” Koriand’r asked, turning to face Garfield, glancing back at Raven even as she did so.

“Well, there’s always that Professor Fate guy. Bit of a nut job, I think, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be able to help. Might be a bit hard contacting him directly, would have to go through the League. But, all these mage people, they’re all a bit like that.”

“Since when did you know so much of the members of the League?”

“Hey, I ain’t just a pretty face, you know. I do pay attention. Y’know, sometimes.” Garfield said, trying to raise a smile from Koriand’r with a put on shifty looking expression. Failing, he carried on speaking. “Well, as I said, there’s that Fate guy. There are some others too- heard of someone called Zatana, maybe she-”

“No.”

“What? Don’t you want Raven to get-”

“Not from her.”

“…I’m missing something here, aren’t I?”

“…it’s private.”

“Okay, fine. Forget I said anything. We can always wait, see if she does her get-up-and-say-boo thing on her own before we try anything else.”

“…thank you.”

It was like coming up for air. Rising from the depths, her thoughts jagged and chaotic, pupils contacting in the light.

She sat bolt upright, earning a startled yelp from her watcher, and a thump as they landed on the floor.

Giving him little more than a glance, Raven mentally grumbled at the exaggerated surprise Garfield was now professing.

“Where is she?”

“Huh? Kori? Got her to take a break. She went for a calming drink of mustard. Eventually.” Garfield replied, looking at her carefully, examining her seemingly…

“How long was I out for?” Raven asked, swinging her legs off the bed, deliberately turning away from Garfield.

“Forty minutes, I think. I mean, I’m not sure how long after you’d…well, whatever happened…until Kori found you.”

She sat motionless for a second, looking out the window, into the dark outside, illuminated by the ever present glow of the lights of the city.

“We have been struck at. We will retaliate. I have some things to check. I wont be long, so be ready.”

Forces surrounded her, compressed into her, and she disappeared from the med bay.

There was a tap on the door, repeated twice.

A telepathic scan was unnecessary, an examination of the empathic waves she received was unnecessary. All the information she received from her metaphysical and physical senses were all unnecessary to tell her who was at the door.

She knew.

“Come in.”

The door slid to the side, the light from outside blocked partially, as the figure stepped inside the dimly lit room.

“I heard you were awake. I wanted to see if…”

“I’m fine.” Raven responded, moving across the room to pick up her cloak, where it was draped over a chair. She paused, and spoke again, changing her tone, moving away from the abrupt tones she usually adopted. “Thank you for ensuring so.”

“I did the same you would do for me.”

“…yes. True. But still, I wanted to…”

Raven paused, and then pulled away from what she was saying, instead pulling on the last garment of her uniform.

“Raven…what happened? I think you were attacked, I want to be sure how I can help…”

“I know you do. That’s why…” Raven said, stepping closer, faltering over her words, starting again. “I…was made an offer, back in the garden. I was attacked here because of my answer.”

“I thought so. I will hunt them down. I will make them pay. No one should be allowed to harm you.”

“…thank you.” Raven paused, reached out, telekinetically pulling an item into her hand. Two others, exactly the same- at least in terms of superficial physical appearance- were left on a desk, surrounded by the distorted sensations that were the by product of magical usage.

“You’ll need this where we’re going.” She said, pressing the simple ornament into her hand. “Keep it close. It’ll help.”

“I’m sure. I do trust you, you know.”

“I know, Kori. I’m sure.”

The briefing was short, simple.

They had been attacked. They were going to hit back. Hard.

There were a few minutes explanation of what they could expect to find. Of where they were going. Of…

Koriand’r listened, accepted the information as it was directed in her general direction, her mind whirling around three words, that boiled everything down to their most basic format.

They hurt her.

Whatever was said to her, whatever attack had taken place…it was a question of honour for Raven, and for herself, it was a case of…

The briefing ended. Raven gestured the others to stand, her eyes closing, senses starting to warp and distort as syllables not designed for human vocal cords came from Raven, almost sub-vocally.

She said them all with ease.

There was a lurch in the back of her stomach, a taste of bile in her mouth.

They had arrived.

Taking to the air immediately, Starfire glared at her surroundings, her eyes glowing an omnipresent green. Taking in everything.

They were in a vast and intricate cave. Walkways wove in every direction, spanning the abyss of the bottomless cave. Nebulous forms slowed, paused, in whatever tasks they were undertaking. All turned to gaze at the three intruders as one.

With a roar that scrapped against the back of the mind, they charged. Their forms shifting into daemonic visages, a flurry of claws and teeth and poison.

Starfire blew apart the first wave with a sweep of energy, collapsing walkways with a sweep of her gaze, sending dozens of shifting creatures to plunge into the endless depths.

Below, an endlessly shifting green form, tearing into enemies left and right. Great bears, felines, gigantic creatures of all kinds, all before shifting into yet more forms, small and fast, evading blows with ease.

Between them, hovering serenely, Raven. Her eyes closed, her legs drawn up under her, crossed neatly. Her lips moving imperceptibly.

Seconds, minutes, passed.

And she opened her eyes, and she pointed. And the three of them tore their way along the cave complex, through the swarm of daemonic inhabitants.

Though narrow passes and open caverns, through claustrophobic warrens of corridors caved in randomly and across endless, bottomless pits.

Ahead, a monolithic door rose. Phalanxes of creatures arrayed before it. A writhing, distorted mass of muscle and bone and sinew, eager to rend their fangs and claws into their flesh, empty poison sags deep into their tissues, fill them with digestive juices to devour them from the inside out.

The three tore through them, in close, chaotic, formation. Sending hordes tumbling from the sides, laying broken and battered upon the sidelines. At points flying overhead, dropping down to fight only when sheer weight of numbers pulled them down.

The door loomed overhead, impossibly high. They were specks against it. Tiny. Miniscule.

They neared it.

A single slab of stone, taller than any building any of them had seen, bigger than any structure had the right to be.

Even the miniscule imperfections in the stone were larger than they were. Too large to be seen against the cold grey stone.

It was utterly flat. Impenetrable. How could they break through? How?

Raven grabbed at Starfire’s arm, and she instinctively grabbed Beastboy’s.

Raven’s fingers brushed against the stone.

There was a pull, at the back of her mind. Like a fishing hook, caught underneath her flesh. Slowly pulling grey, bloody matter out.

Searing.

It took less than a second.

Koriand’r fell to her knees, her eyes screwed tightly shut. Nearby, she heard Garfield. His voice wavering slightly as he spoke. She marvelled at the fact that he could still speak.

“Where…where are we…?”

“It has no name. At least, none that you could pronounce.”

“Try me.”

“You want me to graft new organs into your throat, and invert your tongue?”

“Not really, no.”

“Then you can’t pronounce it. Now shut up, will you?”

Koriand’r looked around, slowly rising to her feet. All around, there was a void. Not the airless void of space, empty and black.

This void stretched off to beyond eyesight. Utterly featureless, blank and white. She could barely feel anything beneath her feet. It was hard to tell if she was even standing. It almost felt like she was flying.

There wasn’t even anything to indicate direction. They could be some explanation. Psychic scramblers, tuned into their brainwaves, disorientating them. Holographic projectors on a scale unimagined. Telepathic misdirection.

There had to be some explanation.

“There is none.”

Koriand’r glanced round, saw Raven gazing off into the distance.

“This is not physical, this is not mental. This isn’t something we usually deal with, remember?”

“I didn’t think I spoke.”

“You didn’t.” Raven half glanced round, added, “Sorry. I’m just…receiving a lot from you guys. There’s nothing else here. There’s something about this place…”

Koriand’r walked over to Raven, as Garfield nervously shifted form rapidly, moving from creature to creature.

“Is there where we are meant to be?”

“I think so.” Raven replied, unmoving. Tense, almost frozen. As if concentrating on something.

She glanced round as she felt Koriand’r’s fingers looping over her shoulder. A half smile tugging at her lips.

A sharp intake of breath made her focus on the Tamaranean.

“What?”

“Your eyes.”

“What? Oh…they’ve changed colour, haven’t they?” Raven said, ruefully.

“Yes. They’re red…”

“Can’t expect anything less. This is not a mortal realm. But I have enough control over myself not to go completely-”

She froze mid sentence, turning away from Koriand’r with a sudden motion, her lips curling back in an instinctive snarl. Energy swelling around her, forming into a bewildering amalgam of shapes and motions.

The energy breaking against a self made barrier, restrained barely feet away from a figure that stood behind them.

He seemed to be on the bridge between a mature young man, and a young looking middle aged man. His hair was unnaturally white, and his clothing matched the colour of his hair near perfectly. His skin was rough in places, seemingly from a life time of hard work. His feet were bare, and dripped something that looked like tar.

“Good evening.” His voice was cultured, well refined, educated. He smiled benignly, examining them each in turn, with a slow, careful, gaze.

“I see you’ve found your way in. Congratulations.”

“Might’ve had a bit of difficulty with your mates out there…” Garfield said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“Hmm…? Oh, those. It’s only in their nature. Had you managed to land a fraction a dimension away, you would not have been treated so, I assure you.”

“Let me guess. They’d only have tried to eviscerate our souls?” Raven said at last, her tone of voice level and devoid of emotion. Her expression flat, shards of energy darting around the man’s feet.

“Still, you did remarkably well,” The man mused, seemingly ignoring Raven’s comment. “Tracking the dimensional signature of a creature you mystically dismembered. You actually landed in the realm of their ‘relations’, if you’ll forgive me for using such a crude and inaccurate term.”

He glanced at them, seeming to expect a reply.

Realisation seemed to dawn on him.

“My apologies- I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Virgil.”

“The poet?” Raven replied instantly.

“Not quite.” Virgil said with a smile. “Though I am glad you recognize the name. You’re quite well read, I believe.”

“I didn’t come to discuss my reading habits.”

“Of course you didn’t.” Virgil said, his expression rapidly losing any trace of good humour.

“The one I sent to recruit you. He was over eager. That I know. I will be having words with him.”

Raven didn’t reply for a moment. She stood frozen, almost imperceptibly still, but for the dancing weave of energy around her. Then, she gabbed her finger in Virgil’s direction, and spat out,

“Don’t take me for a fool. Don’t claim it’s the nature of the beast. Remember who you’re facing. Someone who bridges the gap, someone who-”

“Is fired by the passions of youth, yes. You may control them, but they burn strong. Young passion, young love, young hate…a wonderful time to be alive, as a young being. Only recently aware of the moment…”

He paused, a smile touching his lips.

“You’ll no doubt wish to return to your plane of existence.” He said, a tone of resignation in his voice.

“I can handle it.” Raven replied bluntly. Turning away from Virgil, a string of unpronounceable syllables muttered low and quiet…

She didn’t see his expression, as she turned from him, as she teleported away. He was…impressed.

Mildly impressed, maybe, but it took a lot to do even that. It’s not like he hasn’t heard these things before. How many times would it be this time…?

Idle speculation, really. The challenge would be worth it. The anticipation of the challenge more so…

There was a sudden, screeching stop. As if her brain slammed back into her skull at tremendous speed.

Blinking despite herself, Koriand’r grinned at her surroundings.

Letting out a whoop of joy, she looked round at Raven and Garfield, seeing their reactions. Raven was impassive as always. Garfield looked most unhappy. Quite why eluded her- but then, it didn’t matter. They were back, they were alright, and they’d done the right thing. All was well.

Unhooking the amulet from around her neck, she held it out, as it lay pooled in her hand.

“Thank you for the loaning of the thing of protection.”

Raven looked up at her oddly, for a moment. Deep in thought. Focused on her, though.

“Consider it a gift.” She said at last, folding Koriand’r’s fingers over the amulet. “It’s the least I can give you.”

She smiled happily, knowing Raven meant it. What that meant, exactly, was…well, it was difficult to interpret Raven. But still,

“Th-”

“Besides, it’s not like we wont be needing them again.”

Garfield shifted uneasily as Raven glared at him, her face frozen in an expression of pure…well, it was a Raven-glare. He didn’t like them.

“Only stating the fact. He’s plainly evil, he’s got an army of some kind…the only thing he didn’t do was say ‘this isn’t over!’, but y’can’t have everything, can ya?”

Ducking out of the room faster than did his image any good, plainly deciding to leave before he incur something worse than a glare, Garfield hightailed it out the room.

A moment passed, and then Raven withdraw her hand from Koriand’r’s, hurridly.

“Thank you.”

The movement happened in barely seconds.

A kiss on the cheek, dangerously close…

As Koriand’r walked out the room, humming to herself, Raven stood stock still.

After a moment, she left. Headed for her room.

Control. It was all about control…

It would take time to regain.
- 8
- 9
- 10
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Titans: Triptych