Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Evermore ❯ Mocking Bird ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6: Mocking Bird

Author's Notes: In response to BCS' (I adore your work, and I'm glad to have you as a fan ^^) questioning of Anbu's presence in the fic; on the FF.N copy, that is; I do have a rationale for this, but I wasn't planning on explaining such things until the sequel to Evermore. So, to anyone who doesn't feel like waiting until then, just drop me a line in my e-mail, and I'll happily explain things to you. Otherwise, just trust in the fact that I have my reasoning for Anbu being there instead of Trigon.

"Starfire . . ." Robin began, as he, Beast Boy, and Cyborg all stood behind the Tamaranian girl's seat at the side of Raven's bed. Starfire cut him off, though,

"Yes, what is it, Robin?" She sounded like her usual cheerful self then, but there was a certain little quaver in her voice which betrayed the ultimate truth of the matter, and all three caught it.

"Star, you've got to take a break from this, you're falling apart." Starfire blinked, and then shook her head angrily.

"I am not falling apart, I am- . . ." She stopped there as an octopus Beast Boy grabbed her head in a number of tentacles and stopped it from moving, before forcing her to look at a mirror a another tentacle was holding up.

"Dude, you've still got Raven's blood on your face from yesterday, how can you say nothing is wrong?" Starfire made a sound of annoyance and wrenched her head free from Beast Boy's tentacles, causing the green-skinned Titan to stumble back to his place beside the other boys. Cyborg stepped up to the plate next.

"I've been looking through the security footage, and I haven't seen you even lay down for a nap." As Cyborg spoke, the lines and creases around the edges of Star's eyes, as well as the deep bags beneath them, grew all the more pronounced. "And those cameras tell me that you stopped eating after yesterday too." Starfire's stomach started into a growl at the word, "eating," but a quick, utterly vicious glare from the Tamaranian down at her stomach silenced it before it got far.

"And you're scared out of your wits, just look at you, you're shaking even now..." Robin said quietly, as he reached to touch Starfire's quivering shoulder, hoping to calm her somehow through physical contact, but before he could even lay a finger upon her, Star leapt into the air and just barely managed to float at that point.

"Yes, I have not slept for the last two days, and the last meal I had was consumed yesterday morning. I have not had the time to cleanse myself or my uniform of Raven's blood and I am scared, and rightfully so!" With righteous indignation substituting for fitness and health, she launched off into what was obviously going to be another of her lectures, though this one was going to be considerably more angry than any of those that came before. "How can you sleep at night while you know that our friend lies in this bed, unable to wake up from the hellish nightmare she is trapped in, bursting out in inexplicable wounds with no visible assailant to blame for their appearance? How can you just go about as if everything is normal, as if Raven is not suffering?" She yelled in both frustration and confusion, actually asking her fellow heroes for an answer just as much as stating her beliefs.

The three boys looked down slightly, ashamed, and then Robin sighed quietly.

"Because we don't know what to do to help her, Star." Cyborg nodded, gesturing to all of the medical equipment scattered about the room.

"I've done everything I know how to do for her, there's nothing left but to just go on and hope things turn out good."

"And we've already looked everywhere for her mirror." Beast Boy added, bringing Starfire's attention to him.

"Mirror?" She asked, having never been told the truth about what happened the day Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy had all disappeared. "What assistance could a reflective surface be of in this situation?" Before Beast Boy could answer, Robin gave his own two cents.

"It would help by showing you how horrible you look, so you'd stop being so stubborn and listen to your friends." Starfire ignored the boy wonder's words, instead focusing on Beast Boy and the information he had that she lacked.

After a few moments of having her intense, almost glowing, stare bore into his resolve, and despite the disapproving glare Robin was shooting him, Beast Boy cracked.

"Raven has a mirror that works like a . . . portal, into her mind, we used it that day after we fought Dr. Light and Raven started acting weird."

"Like BB already said, we looked everywhere and couldn't find it." Cyborg interjected, before Starfire could get her hopes too far up, and Robin followed suit easily.

"Since there's nothing more any of us can do, why don't you at least take a break, Starfire, you need it." Without saying a word, Star quietly returned to her seat at Raven's bedside, and then finally gave her answer.

"You are wrong." Robin's features twisted in agony at that response, even though it wasn't entirely unexpected.

"Starfire- . . ." With no patience left, the Tamaranian did not wait for him to finish speaking.

"You may not believe there is anything more you can do for Raven, but I know that there is something I can do for Raven, something I must do." The crimson-haired girl gently brought her hands up from her lap, placing them precisely over her heart. "I know it in the same manner that I know she will come back to us, I know these things because my heart tells me so." She smiled ever so faintly without looking back at the others, and after a glance between all three male Titans, followed by a mutually shared and understood head shake of negation. It was only a few moments later that the room was once again only occupied by it comatose owner and her nurse, at which point the haggard Tamaranian went through her normal routine of examination on her patient.

While doing so, Starfire found Beast Boy's mention of Raven's mirror nagging at her mind, and once her checks were complete and the ashen-skinned girl was found to be no worse than usual, Starfire began to search for the mirror. Perhaps, if she could find it, she could use it to enter Raven's mind and find out what was wrong, possibly even fix what it was . . .

* * *

Though it did so quite slowly, the mountain at the center of the island drew ever closer, and it was that very mountain that housed the exit out of her mind. It grew on the still faraway horizon, rising up high into the open sky as she closed the distance to it. The whole time Raven did so, she was fully on her guard, watching warily for any sign of an approaching monster while her ears remained pricked for even the slightest sound of her voice, of Anbu's voice. Neither thing ever came, before the glowing gateway was within sight, only a short dash away from her current position. What sound her sharp ears did catch, though took her completely by surprise.

"Raven!" Her name was spoken by a cheery, energetic voice, one that she had heard calling her name out in the sweetest of her dreams.

She turned to face in the direction the voice had originated from, caught sight of the crimson hair that she so adored flying about behind the head of its owner, and then felt herself being born to the ground by a strong form. When the dust thrown up by her rather violent descent to the ground cleared, Raven found herself held tightly in the arms of Starfire. At first, the dark magus was utterly dumbfounded by the appearance of her teammate, but as soon as her mind hurdled the initial shock, those emotions shifted into suspicion. Her darker side had already demonstrated its proficiency at creating exceedingly life-like illusions of her friends, and Starfire's sudden appearance in her mind seemed much too convenient, now that she was so close to her goal.

Her mind set that the . . .thing, on top of her was not really Starfire, Raven did not even respond as she pushed the other female off of her and quickly regained her feet. Without even giving a second glance back at the imposter, Raven walked on towards the portal, braced for the inevitable storm of attempts to slow her and keep her from escaping the trap. When no such attempts came, though, Raven found doubt eating at her resolve, causing her steps to slow, and then finally cease altogether. She looked back over her shoulder, and found the "imposter's" position unchanged, kneeling on the ground with the very same dismayed and slightly hurt look in her eyes that Starfire always displayed when her attempts at befriending Raven were denied. It made Raven's heart ache every time she saw that emotion in the emerald eyes of the Tamaranian girl, ever since she had realized her love for the alien, and even before that to a point, though she had refused to admit it at the time.

For the first time in Raven's life, for as far back as she could recall, when her mind and heart clashed over what she should do in the situation, whether or not it was the real Starfire, her heart won out.

"Starfire . . ." She said, turning about to face what she had decided was the real deal. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so callous, it's just that this place . . ." She gestured helplessly with her arms, unable to find the words to properly convey the trials she had faced within the domain, within her very own mind.

At the acknowledgment, Starfire smiled gleefully, and returned to a normal, standing posture.

"It is all right, Raven, I can only guess at what horrid forms of mental torture you must have faced up to this point." She moved closer to Raven, and looked to be about to snatch up the ashen-skinned girl in an embrace, before she restrained herself, instead simply clasping her hands before her and smiling even wider.

"It's alright, but how did you get here?" Raven queried, inclining her head back just slightly so she could look the taller girl in the face.

"I used your meditation mirror, Beast Boy informed me of its power and once I knew of it, I wanted to waste no time in coming to your aid." The crimson-haired alien blinked then, as if a forgotten thought had just suddenly occurred to her again, and began to look about the emptiness of Raven's mindscape curiously. "I am confused, though," she said, before bringing her gaze back to Raven, bewilderment coloring her expression strongly. "Where are the hordes of menacing, four-eyed beasts of pure darkness?" Raven chuckled slightly, finding a certain dark humor in Starfire expecting her mind to be filled with vicious monsters of shadow.

"I don't think there are things like that in here, Starfire, otherwise I would have met them by now, considering how close we are to the portal out of my mind . . ." It was Raven's turn to blink in revelation then, as the mention of the nearly forgotten portal made her realize that she and Starfire could just as easily continue conversing outside of her mind, in considerably greater safety, no less.

Suddenly, all the dangers presented by her other half, by Anbu, which had faded from notice in the face of the object of Raven's affections, came rushing back to the forefront of Raven's mind, and like a frightened gazelle on the plains of the Serengeti, she bolted. It only took a moment for the violet-haired mage to realize that Starfire was not following her, and against the better judgment of her instincts, Raven forced herself to stop running and look back at Starfire.

She found herself staring at the Tamaranian still standing in the very same spot, eyes so wide that they were almost round, and gazing outward sightlessly, not registering anything before them. It was then that Raven's horrified eyes noted the tiny trickle of blood running from the corner of the girl's mouth, as well as the frozen and on edge posture that ran throughout the alien's whole body, as if she had just been jolted unexpectedly. In that instant, the dark magus' sharp gaze fell upon Starfire's chest, where, amid a faint wash of blood, a black dagger tip protruded. It vanished as soon as it was spotted, and Raven looked back up at the girl's face, just in time to see the last spark of life fade from the emerald depths of Starfire's eyes.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" The scream, the vehement denial utterly suffused with the agony of loss and endless grief, ripped its way free of Raven's throat. Like a puppet with its strings cut, Starfire's lifeless body crumpled to the ground, its crimson hair flying in the air one last time, but without the flash of life in the movement, it seemed little more than a mockery of its former beauty. The assassin, now revealed due to her victim's collapse to the ground, was the black-cloaked Raven, the other half of Raven's dark self, the monster that called itself Anbu.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, Raven rushed to her fallen love, snatching the girl's body up in her arms as soon as it came into reach, desperately hoping to find some sign that the Tamaranian was not truly dead. Her fragile hope shattered, as she found the alien's flesh already devoid of all warmth that it had possessed in life, an irrefutable sign of Starfire's demise. With another anguished, and this time, incoherent cry, Raven pulled the corpse as close as possible and began to sob into the silky, dark-red hair of her friend, of her secret love.

Anbu remained silent for another few moments, simply smiling down upon the scene of despair and sorrow lain at her feet, and then ultimately made a sound, clearing her throat rather noisily. The sound did as intended, piercing through the waves of suffering clouding Raven's mind to remind her of the other's presence. Raven's head snapped up, her violet eyes blazing with fury beyond anything they had ever held before, but the black-cloaked Raven simply looked amused at what she glimpsed in her double's eyes, inflaming Raven's rage even further. Finally, the cruel woman spoke.

"Now, don't you wish you'd hidden that stupid mirror?" The words shot through Raven's being like an electric current, and suddenly another forgotten fact leapt to the forefront of Raven's mind.

"I did hide it." She whispered, eyes wide with comprehension, and in that moment, the illusion of Starfire vanished from existence. Still, Anbu's vicious smile remained.

"Don't worry, I plan to reenact that little drama with the real Starfire, just as soon as I'm in control of your body." With a growl of pure wrath, Raven threw herself at Anbu, hands clenched into talons that ripped through the air for the monster's face, seeking to tear into its flesh. The black-cloaked demon only smiled, though, and then struck out.

* * *

Despite meticulous searching of the entirety of Raven's room, looking in every last nook and cranny she could find, Starfire was left empty-handed. So, with a considerable amount of trepidation, Starfire left Raven's room to go searching for the mirror elsewhere in the tower. Despite the brave front she'd shown the boys, Starfire was not nearly so assured of Raven's safe return. It was true that she felt in her heart that Raven would come back to them, but equally true was Starfire's knowledge that there was something she had to do for Raven before the nightmare would end. Hence, her fervent search for the item which might well be the key to her friend's salvation.

Sadly, her investigation of most of the rest of the tower remained just as fruitless, leaving only one stone unturned, Starfire's own room.

"My living space would be the last place any one would think to search in for a possession of Raven's . . ." Star convinced herself, justifying the remainder of the thus far pointless search, as every second she spent away from Raven was another second that her friend could be bleeding to death. Starfire entered her domicile in a slow float, but her spirits fell immediately, as there was almost nowhere in her room that such an item could be hidden, with her closet and the underside of her bed being the only likely spots at all. The former was very small, and contained nothing more than the girl's clothing, leaving nowhere but in the clothes themselves to hide it, and that was much too simple of a hiding place to discover. And the latter, well, the latter was too ridiculous to even consider, the very thought of Raven sneaking into her room and then tossing the mirror under her bed would have made Starfire laugh, if the situation weren't so grave.

The Tamaranian's shoulders slumped once again in defeat, and with a slow turn in the air, she prepared to leave and return to Raven's bedside. That is, until her eye caught the flash of reflected golden light off of an object on her bed. The light had come from the gilded tracery on the spine of a book, in fact, the very book Raven had given Starfire on the night after their recent battle with Mammoth. The alien girl had left there after using one of its many fanciful tales to soothe her troubled mind the night before the current horror began, so that she could sleep. Gently, Star retrieved the ancient manuscript, treating it with great care both because of its obvious age, and because it was a gift from Raven.She read its title, embossed in flowing gold lettering on the cover, "Once Upon a Time . . . A Collection of Children's Stories, Folktales, and most of all, Fairytales." Tenderly, Starfire cradled the tome in her arms, staring off into nothing for a moment as a thought occurred to her. Perhaps . . . it was difficult for the crimson-haired alien to muster much hope or faith then, but perhaps the book, and the stories it contained within, was what she needed to save Raven.

With tentative hope fluttering in her heart, Starfire left her room and headed off for Raven's, clutching the fairytale collection close to her chest, and praying that she had found the answer.