Fan Fiction ❯ Will D. Beest ❯ True Colors ( Chapter 11 )

Notes: Thanks for all the support, despite some dislikes. There is a vague South Park reference hidden in this chapter (just to annoy one reader). Easy to miss, as it's not a dirty phrase. If you find it, Beast Boy will lick you in a place of your choosing. Or Starfire will hug you. Twice!

Chapter 11: True Colors

"Raven? Can you sense anyone?" Starfire whispered.

"No need to whisper, Starfire. They can hear you just fine."

"That's so like you, Raven," said a voice above them. "Always so direct. You just have to suck the fun out of everything, don't you?"

"That's your opinion, Jinx. But if you come down here, I promise at least one of us will have a lot of fun."

"Aw, still sore about the last time I beat you?" Jinx asked as she bathed her body in violet light. She grinned at Wildy. "Hey, Woolly! Don't you remember your Mama anymore?"

Wildy snarled and prepared to leap.

Raven placed a steady hand on his wrist. "No, Wildy," she said softly. "Not yet."

Wildy continued to snarl, but settled down after a few soothing pats from Raven.

Jinx scowled. "You ruined him! He was the perfect killing machine! Lucky for me Slade found someone even better."

Raven could sense another mind in the room, but it seemed to be all around them, and she couldn't get a definite fix on it. Suddenly, the floor itself seemed to come alive as it opened up and swallowed her whole.

"RAVEN!!!" Starfire screamed, but before she could move, she was tackled hard to the ground.

"Hey, baby sis," Blackfire laughed in her ear. "Nice running into you! Let's go for a little walk."

Starfire tried to break her sister's grip, but for some reason, Blackfire seemed to be even stronger than the last time they'd fought.

Blackfire grinned as she dragged her sister away. "Like my increased strength? Been trying this new workout program. Does wonders for muscles, don't you agree?"

Wildy tried to go after Starfire, but found himself surrounded by Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo.

"Let's dance, Bigfoot," Mammoth growled.

Jinx and Gizmo shared smirks at that as all three closed in on Wildy.

* * * * *

Static blinked as Livewire grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the sewer. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Livewire asked as she glanced around what appeared to be a storage room.

"That spark, when we touched."

"Oh, that." She shrugged. "When we touch, we share energy. I guess we're both too used to absorbing and releasing it not to. Kinda tickles, huh?"

"Doesn't feel bad," Static admitted without thinking.

"Imagine what it'd be like if more than our hands were touching," she added with a wicked grin.

He shook his head. "I thought it was guys that were horny 24-7?"

Livewire tapped his nose lightly. "Keep hanging out with me, Sparky, and I promise you will be."

* * * * *

Raven slammed into a wall so hard that she saw stars for a few seconds. As they faded, she could just make out someone with blond hair, cold blue eyes, and a confident smirk standing over her.

"We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Terra, the last person you'll ever see. And this happens to be the last thing you'll ever see, otherwise known as my fist."

Raven's head hadn't cleared enough for her to see the approaching fist, but she still erected a shield of dark energy fast enough that Terra punched it instead of her head.

Terra frowned at her. "Cute. But you're not the only one around here with powers."

"You noticed?" Raven asked sarcastically. "Maybe you're not dumb as a rock, then."

Terra's eyes flared golden. "Funny you should mention rocks."

Raven cried out as something sharp struck the base of her neck, making her stumble into Terra.

"What's everyone got against rocks, huh?" Terra snapped as she locked her arms around Raven in a fierce bear hug. "I think they're awfully useful. They make easy-to-care-for pets, and they're great for smashing unwanted pests. Don't you agree?"

Raven struggled to break free for a few moments, and then decided to try the same trick Terra had seconds before, levitating a rock and hurling it at Terra's head.

But despite the fact that the rock was coming from behind, it halted inches from Terra.

"I see you don't get how my powers work, Raven. I'm one with the earth. Which means if you throw a rock at me, I don't have to see it to know where it is and stop it."

Raven glared at her. "Oh. Thanks for clearing that up. But tell me something. If all you can control is earth, then what are you going to do about THIS?!" Raven reared back, scowling as she brought her head forward quickly in a vicious headbutt that left both their skulls throbbing as they stumbled away from each other. Normally, Raven was above fighting dirty, but she figured Terra was only moments away from it herself. Anyway, that bear hug had REALLY started to hurt.

"Didn't see that coming," Terra muttered, rubbing her forehead. "But that's the last cheap shot you get."

Raven's ears were still ringing, and so she didn't notice when Terra's fists began to glow. She did, however, hear something that sounded an awful lot like a wounded giraffe, and dove aside in time to avoid a boulder as big around as her slamming into the dirt.

Even as she scrambled back to her feet, Raven finally sensed another mind within the room, and she looked high up to see something distinctly green hanging limply from a ledge.

"Beast Boy!" she shouted, at once forgetting about Terra.

There was no response, and that scared her worse than she'd expected. But she had no time to dwell on it as Terra's foot connected with her already bruised ribs. Raven sucked in a shriek of pain and spun away, gasping desperately for breath.

"Guess you prefer green freaks to rocks as pets," Terra commented. "But if you want yours back, you have to beat me. Simple, right?"

Raven quickly ran through her options as she studied her opponent. If Terra was as closely connected to the earth as she claimed, then maybe crushing a large amount of rocks would drain her. Of course, Raven currently had neither the strength nor the time to attempt that.

She could try to fight Terra off in hopes that Beast Boy wasn't was hurt as he'd first seemed, but planning on an assist at this point didn't seem wise. He wasn't even speaking to her mentally, which indicated how hurt he really was.

The only real option was to wear Terra down, or at least stall until someone else could help. But considering that Terra hadn't been thrown into a wall, there was little doubt in Raven's mind who would win such an endurance test. If Terra was working for Slade, she could probably go on like this for hours if need be, and Raven had no intention of prolonging her own suffering if the end result was still defeat.

~"How can I stop her?"~ Raven asked herself. ~"I can't afford to waste any energy on something that might not work. Whatever I do, it has to incapacitate her long enough for me to get Beast Boy to safety. But she's so strong. What's her weak point?"~

The problem was that Terra hadn't really shown any weak points. The moment she'd entered the room, the blonde had been confident, proud, in control, and very much able to back up all her boasts. While she had gotten chatty about her powers and definitely said more than she needed to, Raven was in no position to exploit that. Her only hope now was that Terra might slip up and unknowingly reveal some other weakness while singing her own praises.

"Something wrong, Raven?" Terra teased, her fists glowing again. "You don't look so confident anymore."

This was true enough, but not for the reasons that Terra assumed. For as the girl began to access her powers again, Raven had finally found a chink in her armor, so to speak. Whenever Terra reached out to manipulate the earth, she literally spread her consciousness out, placing tiny bits of it into whatever she was moving, and withdrawing it before said objects exploded or impacted to avoid hurting herself. It was remarkably similar to the way Raven moved things with her telekinesis. There was a big difference between them, though, and that was the key.

When Raven manipulated objects, she did so while keeping the core of her mind heavily guarded. It came from years of self-discipline and restraint, and she did it more out of habit than any conscious effort. Terra, however, focused so strongly on moving earth that she left her mind largely unguarded. Though Raven hated to do so, even to a villain who arguably deserved it, her best chance was to force her way into Terra's mind, and hope that her mental defenses paled in comparison to her physical ones.

Raven waited until she sensed Terra extending her mind again, and knew that it was time. Pressing her fingers to her temples to help her focus, Raven began her assault. Though her eyes were shut tightly, she knew Terra would now be seeing (and with any luck be startled by) the towering black bird that represented Raven's soul-self, the totality of her mental prowess. In all honestly, she was a bit surprised at how easily Terra's mind was penetrated in but a few seconds, and chalked it up to her soul-self being more frightening than she'd hoped.

But the reason for her success soon became all too clear. Terra's mind was a mess of images, almost all of them having something to do with violence. Raven didn't inspect too many of them, for all the ones she did see were of Beast Boy, and what he had suffered at Terra's hands.

For a single moment, Raven forgot that she was only supposed to be knocking Terra out for a while. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to destroy all the images, which would at the very least erase Terra's memory of the last few days of her life. At the most, it might've shut the girl's brain down permanently. But at that moment, Raven had no problem with either possibility.

Raven was certainly not the most sociable person alive, and she did tend to snap at her friends quite a bit, occasionally even hurting their feelings. But she would never have physically harmed them with the intent of doing serious damage. From what she found in Terra's mind, the reasons for beating Beast Boy so consistently had ranged from anger to, of all things, boredom.

Almost as a reflex, Raven's soul-self streaked at the images, bent on destroying them completely. That, however, turned out to be a mistake. For while Terra's mind had no real defenses, Raven had failed to identify the warning signs of a strong mental offense. And sometimes, the best defense truly is a good offense.

Terra's mind had little idea of how it had come under attack, but it knew for certain that it was under attack, and it reacted the only way it knew how.

Both Raven and her soul-self screamed as the jumble of violent images were thrust back upon her, and for a horrible instant, she replaced Terra in them, and it was her tormenting Beast Boy so mercilessly. Something in Raven, more primal that she would've cared to admit, immediately lashed out, severing the connection and leaving both girls drained mentally and physically.

It was the first time in a long time that Raven had been thankful for her father's taint. If there was one thing her father's blood despised above all others, it was having it's own methods of attack turned and used against it.

Terra was the first to recover, and from the look on her face, she knew exactly what had just transpired.

"That's the LAST time you'll ever go stomping through my head!" she screamed, tackling Raven to the ground and locking her hands around her throat.

Raven tore desperately at the hands on her neck, but Terra's strength seemed to have been increased threefold by her anger. Even now, spittle was flying from her mouth and landing on Raven's face as she ranted incoherently, her eyes bloodshot with rage. And as a dark cloud threatened to descend over Raven's mind and guide her into unconsciousness, her last thought was of Jade, and, strangely enough, if she would ever return Wildy to his normal size.

* * * * *

"Why won't you go down?!" Mammoth roared as he tightened his grip on Wildy's neck. "Shoot him, Giz!"

"I AM!" Gizmo snapped, more irritable than usual. "I shot him up with enough tranq to knock out a whole herd of elephants! The hairy crud-stuffer's just shrugging it all off somehow!"

Jinx watched the scene with a mix of worry and amusement. The beast was tossing and bucking Mammoth around like he was a doll, and that was no easy feat. Nor was totally ignoring Gizmo's tranquilizers. Jinx had suffered one as part of a practical joke in the past, and as far as she knew, she was still missing a week of her life.

Something had to be driving him to brush off all of their attempts to put him down. But what?

The answer came to her at once, and Jinx grinned as she cupped her hands to her mouth. "Hey, Woolly! You missing your Nana Raven, huh?"

At once, Wildy came to a complete stop, and, not expecting it, Mammoth was sent flying headfirst into the wall.

"Bet you're real worried about her, huh? Aw, poor baby! Baby gonna cry now? Boo hoo!"

Jinx could almost hear the snap as Wildy roared like a thing in pain and charged at her with frightening speed. Even though according to her plan, he would never reach her, Jinx found herself throwing up a violet shield, just in case.

But the plan worked perfectly, and inches away from his target, Wildy received a rather rude and painful shock, especially around the base of his neck. He whirled around, only to find Thunder and Lightning glaring up at him.

"He insults us by not falling to our might, brother!" Lightning said pompously. "Shall we make him bow before us, then?"

"Truly, he will not soon forget the day he met us, my brother!" Thunder rumbled, bringing his hands together in a mighty clap.

Wildy was thrown clear across the room, where he slammed into the wall with an ominous crunch. But still he rose, slowly but steadily, one arm hanging limply at his side.

"Bring him down!" Jinx ordered, and the brothers instantly moved to comply, helped along by more of Gizmo's rocket tranqs, for all the good they did.

All things considered, the plan was going remarkably well.

* * * * *

Starfire had known from the start that Blackfire would fight dirty. It was something she had never been able to understand about her sister. Blackfire claimed to be (and had proven more than a few times) that she was better at a great deal of things than Starfire was. Yet, she still felt the need to cheat in order to win. If winning mattered to her that much, Starfire would've gladly let her do it, except that Blackfire hated it when her opponents didn't try.

It wasn't enough that Blackfire had dragged her to some odd, glowing chamber. But the violet, pulsing light was not just for mood: her sister had explained that the light effectively stripped them both of their Tamaranean powers. Apparently, what Blackfire really wanted was a fist fight and nothing else. And it soon became all too obvious that Blackfire had been practicing fighting without her powers. Starfire obviously had not, and suffered accordingly.

Ten minutes in, Starfire finally got tired of picking herself up off the floor. She had yet to even land a hit, and not even the sight of Robin gagged and bound at the far end of the room had motivated her enough. If Blackfire wanted to prove she was better, surely she had by now. The younger sister could see no point in continuing this way.

"How long will you do this?" Starfire asked. "You know I cannot defeat you this way, sister."

Blackfire glared at her. "That doesn't mean you get to stop trying. Now get into a stance or I'll knock you down again."

"No," Starfire said softly. "There is no point. I am defeated, and my friends need my help."

"Did you forget about Robin?" Blackfire asked. "He needs your help, too. And you can't save him unless you get past me."

It was very hard for Starfire to limit herself to a glance, but she managed it. "He doesn't seem to be badly hurt. And I have no idea what your new friends have been doing to mine. They need me more." With that, she turned to leave.

"You walk out that door, then Robin's mine!" Blackfire snapped.

Starfire paused. "Take good care of him, then." She kept going.

"HEY!" Blackfire ran after her sister and spun her around. "You do NOT walk out on me, Star!"

"What do you want from me?" Starfire asked. "I have already admitted that you are better at the fighting."

"But that never stopped you from trying!"

"I never had other friends to worry about," Starfire replied, pulling away from her. "I am sorry, Robin, but we will come back for you, if we can." She ran out before Blackfire could grab her.

For a long moment, Blackfire stared after her retreating sister in disbelief. Then she stomped over to Robin, yanking off his gag.

"Don't look at me; I'm just as surprised as you are," he said at once.

"I figured that," Blackfire muttered, tearing away at the ropes.

"You're letting me go?" he asked, unable to keep the shock out of his voice.

"I bet she planned this," Blackfire snarled, ignoring him. "She wanted me to feel guilty about kicking her butt. It was the only way she could win."

"But I thought you won?"

"Yeah, well, so did I, before she pulled the guilt trip on me."

"She had a point. Why all these contests and challenges if you beat her so much of the time? Doesn't that prove you're better?"

"No. Just means she didn't try as hard she could've sometimes. And that's what pisses me off more than anything: never knowing who's better."

Robin shook his head. "I know Starfire, and she wouldn't lie about anything."

Blackfire rolled her eyes. "I know her better. She'd lie if she thought it would make me feel better about myself. That's the kind of sister Star is."

He had to admit that did sound like Starfire. Even after that first betrayal, Starfire had always spoken of Blackfire with nothing but admiration and love. It was almost sad, in a way, since Blackfire would probably never live up to the high standards that Starfire constantly held her to. But it had never stopped the younger sister from believing in the elder one.

"So why DO you hate her so much? She sounds like a great sister."

"She IS, actually. That just makes it worse. It's like she's rubbing it in my face."

Robin was actually appalled. "But you KNOW she's not!"

"Yeah, but it still FEELS that way," Blackfire insisted. "It's felt that way ever since we were kids, and it probably always will. Maybe I'm nuts, but that's the way I feel. Go on, get outta here."

"You coming?" Robin asked as she handed him his utility belt.

"I'll catch up," Blackfire muttered, turning away. "Need to do some thinking."

Robin nodded and ran out, hoping Starfire hadn't gotten too far ahead. He didn't know who these new friends were, but she needed to know that Beast Boy had been compromised, and might still be…

* * * * *

Supergirl bent down to pry open an air vent. "It'll be a tight squeeze, Jade, but I think if you can make it to the other side, we should be able to get through undetected. I don't suppose you have a talisman that makes you tiny?"

Behind her, Jade glared in silence at Supergirl's back. Instead of replying, she stuck out her tongue, and a huge fireball flew from her mouth, headed straight for the superheroine's back.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Next Chapter: Unleashed

As a confrontation with Slade draws near, the Titans find themselves in ruin. Starfire questions her loyalty, Beast Boy is haunted by a hasty decision, and Raven finds Wildly in a murderous rage that even she is powerless to stop. But to reach the final battle, the New Titans will have to get past two dangerous defectors: Jade and Livewire.