Fan Fiction ❯ After The End ❯ Dreams of Failure ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, unfortunately. Any views or opinions expressed in this fan-fiction are strictly those of the author, me. The latter statement is probably just a formality, unless I somehow work my love of all things Canadian (GO CANADA) into this fan-fiction.

 

Note: I'll be using this fic to get out of the hole I dug for myself in my previous fic. Unfortunately, those of you waiting for the next in the `The Titan' series will have to wait through yet another fic… unless I give in and decide to do 3 at a time (which I am leaning towards).

 

Please Read and review. Constructive criticism wanted.

 

Chapter 1: Dreams of Failure

 

The flames stretched out endlessly, laying waste to anything in its path. Sadly, its path was nothing else than Jump City, the very city that was to be forever protected by a young group of heroes, the Teen Titans. None of its citizens ever suspected that their greatest enemy would be one of their protectors. Although it had happened once before, they never dreamed that it would happen again. Betrayal. Yet, they did not know the history. They did not know the truth. They were given no reason to fear Raven.

 

All of the Titans knew of Raven's true destiny. She had told them long ago after Slade had made his unexpected return as a servant of Trigon, Raven's father. They all knew what was prophesized to happen, but they still chose to fight fate, one even more than Raven herself. None wanted to lose a teammate, a friend. They fought, but when you fight against fate, fate will win every time.

 

Slade seemed to keep coming, though. No matter how much of a beating Raven gave Slade, he never died. Most of the time, that was what the other Titans were hoping that Raven was going for. It was something un-hero like for them to think, but they all knew deep down that Slade was a person their world could live without. Just once, they would look the other way, but they never got the chance to. Slade never fell, nor did Trigon got tired of sending Slade in harm's way.

 

The longer the Titans' war with Slade waged on, the cockier each of them got. It was not the boastful kind of cockiness, but the subliminal kind where you let down your guard because you know that you will win. If they had sensed what was going on inside their heads, maybe they could have stopped what was to come. Yet, before any of them knew it, it was too late to stop it. Fate dictated that the prophecy had to be fulfilled, and it was in spite of how hard one Titan fought to stop it.

 

llllllllllflashbackllllllllll

 

The sounds of Raven' screams echoed throughout the dark, man made cave Slade had built directly beneath Jump City. Each scream pierced the heart of a certain shape shifter of the Teen Titans. Hearing Raven scream was the worst torture he could ever experience. He wanted nothing more than to go to Raven, but at the moment, he was preoccupied.

 

Beast Boy hit the wall hard after being thrown by Slade. Nearly instantaneously after he hit the rock wall, a wave of pure fire connected with his body. Pain engulfed his senses, making it impossible to think straight. Out of sheer instinct, Beast Boy transformed into a small turtle, hoping that his newly acquired shell would offer at least some protection from the devastating flames. It did nothing.

 

Once the barrage of fire halted, Beast Boy struggled to revert back to his human form. It looked no better than how his turtle for did after Slade's attack. Beast Boy's green hair was charred at the tips. His uniform was torn and battered. His skin was scarred. Yet, his resolve still stood firm. It had to if he was ever to save Raven. With great pain, Beast Boy stood to his feet and glared at the only thing standing between him and Raven, Slade.

 

“Face it changeling,” Slade mocked Beast Boy cockily, “I am victorious after all. After all those months of unleashing Raven when I showed up, I find that the people that were meant to protect her are powerless to do anything but fail. You cannot win without Raven to fight your battles for you, especially not when you are all alone. It seems that Raven's so called friends do not care enough about her to even attempt a rescue. You seem to be the only one who actually cares about her fate, though I can say that you will not be around to care for much longer.”

 

“Shut up, Slade,” Beast Boy coughed roughly. The taste of blood filled his senses as he felt a warm liquid work its way from his throat to his mouth when he coughed. “I was the closest to this place. They will come, and we will stop you. I-We won't let you do this to Raven. I will get past you, Slade, and I will stop the prophecy from being fulfilled. I will stop you, with or without my friends.”

 

Ignoring his immense pain, Beast Boy transformed into a rhinoceros and charged at Slade. The changeling's anger further fueled his animal form's muscles to work harder and faster. Beast Boy ran with complete rage and hatred for Slade and what he was trying to do. He ran faster than any normal rhinoceros ever could, and he was hell bent on ending Slade's plans right then and there.

 

Slade clearly saw Beast Boy coming, but did not make a move to dodge his oncoming attacker. Instead, he stood perfectly still as the green rhinoceros charged at him. At the very last moment, Slade grabbed beast Boy by his horn and swung him around and into a nearby wall. Dizzy and disoriented, Beast Boy unwillingly transformed back into his human form, and he was immediately clutched at the throat by Slade.

 

“You see, changeling,” Slade laughed, “not even you best can hold a candle to me. Speaking of candles,” Slade snickered as his hands began to grow warm and then scolding hot as they gripped Beast Boy's throat, “how would you like to be a true human candle?”

 

Beast Boy wanted to speak. He wanted to scream in agony, but Slade had him by the throat with such force that his trachea was almost flat from the pressure. Absolutely no sound escaped his lips no matter how much he wanted it to. Instead, Beast Boy used the last of his strength to kick Slade in the crotch. Slade's eye twitched briefly after Beast Boy's foot made contact, but his grip on Beast Boy never faltered. It only got tighter.

 

“You are going t with that you had not done that, child,” Slade said angrily. I was going to let you live just long enough for you to see the other Titans fail, but now you've really pissed me off. You get to die fir-” A blue beam of sonic energy collided with Slade's masked face, sending him flying backwards. Caught off guard by the attack, Slade's grip on Beast Boy faltered, and the changeling fell to the ground.

 

“Booya,” Cyborg said coldly unlike any other time he had said his signature phrase. There was nothing but loathing in his voice now. After all, this was hardly the time to be enjoying life.

 

Starfire, who entered the cave just after Cyborg had, gasped when the fallen body of her friend came into view. “Beast Boy!” Starfire screamed, and she hurriedly flew over to her injured comrade. The young Tameranean gently tried to get Beast Boy to say something, desperate to not loose a friend. “Beast Boy,” she pleaded, “you must wake up. We will help you.”

 

“No!” Beast Boy struggled to say. It hurt when he spoke, but he did it anyway. “Don't waste time with me. Just o help Raven.” Merely speaking drained most of what little energy the changeling had left and he could feel unconsciousness creeping up on him.

 

Slade stirred, and began to stand to his feel as his head cracked back into place. Yet, as soon as it did, he could feel the chill of cold metal forced tightly to it. Robin had made his presence known.

 

“Don't even try and move,” Robin said coldly. “Just tell us where Raven is.”

 

Slade laughed a wicked laugh that struck fear into each of the Titans' hearts. “Even is I told you where she was, Robin, you would never make it in time. The prophecy will be fulfilled… now!”

 

Suddenly, the entire cave began to shake as what seemed like a earthquake was ripping through Jump City. Yet, Jump City never had earthquakes before, and it would never again. This was a disturbance of pure demonic influence, and it was threatening to bring the entire cave down atop the remaining Titans.

 

Beast Boy was growing weaker by the second, but the last things he heard sickened him to the core.

 

“We have to get out of here before the entire cave collapses on us,” Robin yelled over the roar of churning earth around them.

 

“Robin,” Starfire said confused, “what about friend Raven? She is still inside.”

 

There was no answer from Robin, and Cyborg was the first to take the hint. “You, Rob, you aren't seriously thinking of just leaving her he-”

 

“It's too late for her,” Robin said sorrowfully, “and it just might be too late for Earth too. We need to get out of here, now. We don't have time for Raven. I'm sorr-”

 

Beast Boy was not able to hear any more from his friends. During Robin's mournful speech, the changeling blacked out, but the way he was helpless to even remotely get close to Raven was permanently sketched in Beast Boy's mind.

 

llllllllllend flashbackllllllllll

 

Beast Boy abruptly woke up with a desperate gasp of fear. Lying completely still, Beast Boy tried to will his nerves soothed, but no matter how hard he tried, the feeling that dream brought with it still lingered. It never went away. He hated that feeling. He hated that dream, but most of all, he hated that it was not a dream at all. His subconscious mind would not allow him to forget what happened that night, nor would it allow him to forget that he failed in preventing it.

 

Beast Boy lay awake on the cold, hard cement ground of an abandoned warehouse in Jump City. He longed to feel the comfort of his own bed, and be welcomed by his messy room each night, but neither he nor any of the Titans could go back now. Too much had happened, and too many things were lost.

 

“It was that dream again, wasn't it,” Cyborg's voice spoke softly to the right of Beast Boy.

 

Beast Boy reluctantly sat up and faced his best friend. It was not that he did not want to see Cyborg, he just did not want to face another new day. If he did, he would again be accepting his present circumstances. He wished for nothing more than that dream to be just that, a dream.

 

“It was the same as the one I had last night,” the emerald titan sighed, “and the night before, and the one before that, and the same as it has been for the past week. That night still haunts me, Cyborg. So many things went wrong, and not one went right. I-We failed, and now Raven is the one who has to pay the price.”

 

Cyborg lowered his head, averting his gaze from Beast Boy. “That is not exactly what's going on here, Beast Boy. At least, that is not the way Robin is making it out to be. I want to believe you when you say that Raven is the victim, but you have to open your ey-”

 

“Raven is the victim here, Cyborg!” Beast Boy yelled in anger. “We failed her. We let her get captured out of carelessness. We let Slade do what he did to Raven to Release Trigon. And, we are the ones who did nothing while Trigon did what he did to Raven. You know that Raven doesn't want to be her father's pawn. You were there when we saw how much her hatred for him had grown throughout her entire life. Raven has fought will everything inside of her to fend off Trigon's control, and the fact that we are the reason she failed makes her a victim.”

 

“I understand that, Beast Boy,” Cyborg spoke solemnly, “but just look at everything she has done in the past week. It's hard to believe that she is the victim when so much has been destroyed by her, her father's, and Slade's hands.”

 

Beast Boy clenched his fist and looked at the ground. “Raven would never willingly do any of those things, Cyborg. You know that!”

 

“She looked pretty willing when she destroyed the tower, our home,” Robin's voice echoed as he walked into the warehouse carrying supplies with Starfire at his side. “She sounded quite willing when she laughed over the rubble as Slade set it ablaze. She seemed extremely willing as she smirked while Trigon killed anyone who was unfortunate enough to let them selves be seen. I understand where you are coming from, Beast Boy, but the fact is that Raven is our enemy now, even if our failure is the reason. We have to accept th-”

 

“Don't you dare tell me to accept that, Robin,” Beast Boy snarled angrily. “I can not and I will not accept it. Raven may be acting differently, and even the red skin makes her look differently, but I know that somewhere deep inside is the real Raven unable to get free even though I know that she is doing everything in her power to try.”

 

“That may be so,” Robin said softly, “but we still might have to be prepared for the worst. We are Titans and we have a responsibility to protect out city. Right now, that is exactly what it needs the most. However, actually doing may require us to kill Raven.”

 

Beast Boy swiftly turned around and muttered angrily about going for a walk or something, completely disregarding the rest of Robin's speech.

 

“It was hard dealing with just Slade,” Robin spoke louder in hopes that his voice would reach Beast Boy as he walked off, “but now we not only have Slade to deal with, but Raven and her father in the flesh too. To get through this, we have to take them down no matter the cost.” Beast Boy slammed the door of the warehouse behind him.

 

“Robin,” Starfire said worriedly, “is it safe for Beast Boy to go out on his own with everything that has happened to our city.”

 

“No,” Robin said, “no it is not, but he's got a lot on his mind right now and he has Cyborg's spare holographic disguise generator that Cyborg altered to fit him, so I don't think anyone would be able to recognize him… unless he does something stupid.”

 

“So,” Cyborg hesitantly spoke up, “How's the city, Robin? What's the news on Trigon?”

 

“They're not in the city right now, but that could change at any moment. Trigon, Slade, and Raven are expanding beyond Jump city. They want the world, Cyborg, and unless we stop them, it would be only a matter of time before we are left with no choice to fight back with everything in our arsenal.”

 

“What about all the other super heroes, the JLA especially?” Cyborg questioned. “This affects the world. Why have they not made a move?”

 

“They have,” Robin answered. “They evacuated all of the surrounding cities, but they are not going to fight Trigon, at least not yet.” Robin sighed as he noticed Cyborg's quizzical glance. “I understand that we may end up killing Raven to save the planet, but I will not do it unless there is no hope of redemption for her. I've asked the JLA to give us a few more days before they lead every super powered person on Earth against Trigon. Trigon can't win, but that also means that we've only got a few days to save Raven if there is a way to save her at all. After that, …we won't be getting a second chance.”