Sorry this didn't get up sooner, for the longest time FF wasn't letting me upload my stories. :/ Okay, back in action finally kicked the writer's block and had enough time to write it. Sorry if it seems a bit rushed, but I am way past ready for it to be finished and I'm so sorry that all of you have had to wait so long for this to get put up. :/ I hope you enjoy it anyway. :)

Plain writing 3rd person omni.

Italic thoughts

Italic followed by dots or the like... Flashback sequence

Hopefully that'llkeep everything clear.


Explain This to Me

December 22nd 2007 12:05:53 am

Dark creatures tail us in the darkness. We still haven't caught sight of our comrades, and still no sign of Riona's lair.

Beast Boy tripped over a large root in his efforts to sprint away from the creatures. There just proved to be too many to fight, but in a case like this, he might make an exception. Raven turned harshly over her shoulder sending obsidian shock waves of aura at the beasts. Four of them were flung backward, while three more leapt upward. Beast Boy sprung up as a wolf growling and snapping.

His giant paws threw back throws of them. Another vicious snarl let loose from his lips dripping with salvia. Some of the creatures decided to make a hasty retreat, but still more seemed to take their place. Beast boy stomped his foot ready to pounce again, but another force cut him off. The scream of a birdarang cut through the night sky. The two teens turned to look behind them. Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg came crashing through the foliage. The creatures finally decided that a hasty retreat was wisest, "That'll show them." Beast Boy snorted proudly.

"Any word from Altair?" Robin cut off any smart retort Raven might have formed in reply to Beast Boy's smugness.

"Not a glistening." she answered dryly.

"No matter." he replied sharply, "The Titans East finally got our distress signal."

The team nodded, their understanding as the Titans East magically seemed to appear from the darkness. (Lol :p) A silent exchange seemed to pass between the gathering of Titans. Every Titan knew what was expected of them, and as their gazes shifted towards the looming mountain, a dark feeling of dread and purpose filled them up.

"Cyborg believes that the lair is actually hidden beneath the mountain." Robin continued.

"Oh, a mountain, that's ORIGINAL." Beast Boy smartly remarked.

He earned a dark look from the rest of the group. After formulating a well-structured plan, the teams began to trudge through the foliage once more. Cyborg held his arm out to calculate the distance from their position, to the lair. The others all fell in behind Robin and Cyborg keeping silent through the thick grass. Starfire had trailed behind a moment, and a familiar face sauntered next to her, "Miss me, hot stuff?"

"Go away, Speedy." she grumbled, folding her arms.

"But I-"

He tried to persist but Cyborg stepped between them allowing Starfire to hurry ahead. The half-metal titan glared at his fellow teammate a moment before continuing ahead with the others.

Finally after the endless traveling, the teens found the mountain's base. Raven created a dark void that allowed her teammates to pass through the mountain's side into a deep cavern. Wonder bemused their faces for a moment as they stared into the vast darkness of the cave, with crystals and stalactites all around.

"Just like our cave." Beast Boy whispered to Raven, nudging her gently.

Raven gave him a smirk-like smile and pressed ahead with the group.

Suddenly, a darkness deeper than the cave itself swallowed the teens up whisking them away into an unknown fate…

"Thought you could just storm the castle eh?" a gruff voice spoke, "You've fallen right where we needed you to."

Robin's eyes opened slowly to reveal the form of Dieter standing in the middle of the machine-like room. Dark and grey, both his captor and his prison cell. Robin glared at the haughty wolf, and took a calculating glance around the room. He was alone, and all of his weapons confiscated. His arms and legs chained to the wall. He felt a twinge of anxiousness as the wolf turned away from him.

"I bet you're wondering where your friends are." he seemed to growl, "Too bad, their fate is as sealed as the rest of you." he took another step towards the doorway, "As is your city."

"What's happened to Jump City! It's bubonic plague isn't it? That's what's killing them." Robin finally bit out.

"Very clever, but you're only half right. It's actually a mutated strain of the virus. Completely resistant to any antibiotic, antiviral, or antimicrobial your city or country might have."

A chord of fear and sadness struck the boy- what if there was nothing that could be done to save Jump City? And even worse, what would happen to them? Was Riona going to kill them too? Well that was a stupid thought- of course she was going to kill them…unless he could act fast.

"Is everything in position?" Riona asked into the darkness.

"Of course, master." he snarled excitedly.

"Let's go."

I awoke with a start- my head pounded- thick with worry and fatigue. Placing a hand on my forehead, I struggled to grip my bearings.

Beast Boy glanced over to his side, and there was Raven in a container next to him. He looked downward and around, realizing that he too was also trapped within a glass like tube. He attempted to break it by charging his shoulder into the glass. It didn't break, or even budge. But his shoulder certainly was pounding then.

Damn, I should've known better than that.

The green-eyed boy began glancing around the room with a calculating stare, searching for something that would free them from their prison. He heaved a deep sigh, the only thing he could be grateful for was that his senses seemed to have returned to normal. But what can I do? How can we get out of this mess?

A jolt of electricity crashed onto Beast Boy, his body convulsed and twisted in a sick manner. He body flopped limply into the bottom of the jar. If he'd had been conscious at the time, he would've seen the shocking horror of a green animal sitting in a tube a little way away from him.

An evil laugh flitted down the stairs, "One by one, I am going to rid you of your powers until there's nothing you can do to stop me." the glowing eyes of Riona shined in the darkness before disappearing again.

Not long after she had gone, Robin and the others came bolting into the room. Cyborg quickly analyzed the machine and switched the electric flow so that Beast Boy's animal forms poured back into him, and Raven regained her telekinetic powers. Once they were free, "How did you escape?" the dark-haired girl weakly questioned, while leaning on Robin.

"Altair came back." Starfire gleamed, "He is holding them off right now. We must hurry and finish this!"

The Titans were all in accord and made haste through the long corridors back through the castle until they reached the roof where Altair, Riona, and Dieter were caught in a heated argument, "I never meant to hurt you." Riona replied coolly to the gryphon.

"Sure, just everyone else around you, that's so much better." he snorted in reply closing in on her.

Dieter leapt immediately to her defense, batting at the gryphon with a giant paw. Altair dodged and then whipped his tail wayside to smack the wolf in his broad head. The wolf then yanked him by the tail and flipped him over jumping onto his back. A loud squawk escaped the great bird.

"Titans GO!" Robin and Bumblebee both exclaimed at once, the situation suddenly sinking in.

"Not so fast!" Riona smirked, as her shadowy creatures emerged from the floor.

At first it seemed as though Riona had raised them, but a chilling realization proved that the creatures actually had the teleporting power of Raven and the ability to change to a few limited forms compliments of Beast Boy's DNA.

Robin leapt at Dieter, and bowled the giant beast over. Raven pelted hundreds of the pesky creatures back with her glowing walls of dark energy. Cyborg charged at the creatures throwing two or three over his shoulders and then blasting a few with charged shots of blue energy. Starfire ran an aerial attack raining thousands of green starbolts onto the unsuspecting heads of the creatures below.

Frustrated with a lack of progress, Riona jumped into the battle too. She threw stray bolts of lightning and energy haphazardly. Singeing and scalding all those in her way, even some of her creatures turned to mush in the energy storm. Speedy fired arrows from afar, and even managed to hit Riona's hand with one of them that seemed to render it useless for a spell. Altair finally scrambled up from the hordes he was attracting, slashing his tail midair and breathing out a terrible ray of Biomorphicism.

More creatures were annihilated, and those that weren't, were grabbed up by Mas y Menos and thrown into the wailing energy storm that all the Titans were creating. Aqualad took a combative stance and felled some of them, while communicating control over the rest of them, "I hate to be a downer," he called, "But there's just too many!"

The others absorbed this information quickly, and had already thought this in their own hearts. Raven shook off a few more of the creatures as they seemed to overwhelm them; in the heat of the battle she locked eyes with Cyborg, and then Altair. And in that frail instant they all knew instinctively what to do. Raven glided over as quickly as she could, while Altair and Cyborg cleared the area near them. Altair glanced around, "Where's Beast Boy?"

Raven caught his eye and in an instant pulled him over to their gathering, "What?" he panted. Robin and Bumblebee could be seen trying to overpower Riona while she batted them away.

"Beast Boy we need you-"

"Of course you need me sweets." he winked and grinned.

She glared at him, "Be serious, we need you to be a distraction. If she sees a green gryphon, she's going to think it's Altair and strike as deadly as she can- we need you to get close to her, distract her while Altair and I prepare the actual blow. Cyborg with jump in at the last moment to use a special reflective heavy metal- but don't worry about Cyborg he's got rubber to ground the charge- to reflect her own power back at her. Altair and I will jump in to reign in the discharge and hold her down long enough to get the information we need. Got it?" his face was serious as he soaked in the information.

The gravity of the situation hit him hard, deep into his heart, "I love you Raven," he leaned forward and kissed her deeply- it felt like hours but it was only a split minute, before he charged off with his wings flapping and feathers falling like gunshots cutting the air as he flapped vigorously. Each flap of his magnificent wings tore the air and sounded like a deep pulse of a heartbeat to Raven as she watched him get into position.

It felt like she was moving in slow motion as she sprinted alongside Altair- each step felt heavy as she stared at Beast Boy's form; she felt as though she would never see him again…he looked back at her with his crystal eyes shinning as if telling her that they would get through this and that everything was going to be okay. Everything had to be okay. She would never speak those words, but deep down she had come to need that green-eyed boy.

Dang, it always looks like more one Word Works Processor. Well anyway, have 2-3 chapters left to finish. Will get it up soon.