FicWad

*0o

A shriek pierced the crisp winter air and reached the three titans after echoing off the nearby mountains.

"Friends, that scream. It is familiar." Starfire said, her voice filled with concern as she floated a few inches above the ground.

"How so?" Robin asked, peering into the small shrine that they had exited the portal next to. After seeing nothing pertaining to Raven, he looked down at the polished stones that were set in perfectly straight rows of nine. Did we really end up in a cemetery?

"Yes. I became acquainted with it when I was on the prisoner ship of the Gordanians. The scream of a man in vast amounts of pain."

Robin stopped gazing at the cemetery when he heard what Starfire had said. He listened to the still air until another scream filled it. Oh lord, yes, I can hear the pain in it too. I know I said we would get Raven and get out…but to leave a man suffering? That would be inhumane, wouldn't it?

"Let's go. We have to help." The trio set off without any argument. Working their way down the beaten path that lead down the small hill and toward the island's main village.

*0o

The Admiral stood on the deck on his ship, grasping a pair of binoculars in one of his gloves hands and holding his other above his head, signaling to the men on deck to hold their fire. Kill the witch. That is the purpose of this. To kill her, we must draw her out into the open. Now that that is done, we must end her and leave no doubts about her fate. He glanced back at the dozens of archers gathered on deck behind him. And if this fails, and if she doesn't die in the battle, then we must take the island and find her. The Admiral lowered his hand. "Load your weapons!" His assistant called out to the archers.

*0o

Robin ran into the center of the town, looking around wildly for where the scream came from. Beast Boy and Starfire caught up to him, stopping at his side.

"This village, it appears to be abandoned." Starfire noted as she flew to a house and looked inside.

"I don't think it's abandoned." Beast Boy sniffed for a few seconds. "Uh, Robin? I smell blood. Like, a lot of it, too."

"Can you locate it?"

Beast Boy turned around to face the large statue of Kyoshi, its faded paint and a few minor cracks in the wood showed how aged it was, as he sniffed around for the source.

"Um, friend Robin, there appears to be a wall…" Starfire was looking around the statue and at the entrance of the village, where the wall erected by the earth benders stood. She glanced back towards Robin to see him missing. "Where did friend Robin go?" Beast Boy pointed over to a row of buildings. In front of which, Robin was sprinting towards to wall that separated the village and the battle that none of the three titans knew was raging. Robin launched himself onto the roof of a small shop, and from there, jumped onto the wall, his fingers grasping the edge as his body thudded against the earthen mass. Pulling himself the rest of the way up, he saw with horror the situation that was unfolding a dozen feet below. He began to run along the top of the wall, time too precious to wait for his friends, and towards the four eyed demon that he knew was once his teammate.

Beast Boy and Starfire shared a glance. What did he see to make him take off like that? They both were thinking. Without more than a moment's hesitation, they took off after their leader.

*0o

Eight of the twelve soldier who tried to attack the demon were scattered on the ground, either bleeding out or already dead. Raven grasped a fire bender around his neck with a black tendril and began tightening her hold on him. The man, roughly thirty years old by Raven's own estimate, blasted a cone of fire at her four crimson eyes. The eyes disappeared for a moment, before opening up a foot below where he attacked her. "Foolish humans. You think you can harm me in this state. Your attack, it was amusing at best." She tightened her snake like appendage around his neck until she heard a soft crunching sound and saw his eyes roll back. She tossed him on the ground and prepared to shoot another tendril at the senior officer, who now stood slack-jawed as he watched the demon halfling demolish what remained of his squadron.

Robin leapt off the wall and landed on one of the few spots that was still bare earth, and not littered with bodies –or more accurately, parts of bodies. He ran towards Raven and threw himself between his once teammate and the stranger that she was about to kill.

"Raven, we're here now. You don't want to do this." He stared into the four slits that were her eyes. Am I still talking to Raven? Could she even change back if she wanted to? If not… His thoughts briefly went to the neurotoxins that he kept as a last resort weapon. Would those be even enough to stop her? For some reason, I doubt it…

Raven stood staring at him silence for a long few seconds. "Before I came to this dimension I thought that you knew me best. I see I was wrong, because I do want this, very much so." She contorted her head downward until she was at his eye level as she spoke.

"Raven, we don't kill. You help people, we help people, we don't hurt them." He stated, his voice steady and calm, but he knew that it was a façade, because inside, he was terrified.

"I do not have to answer to you for my actions, nor must I justify them to anybody. Now remove yourself from this battlefield." Her voice becoming threatening as she spoke slowly and clearly to him.

Battlefield? This isn't a…Oh, oh dear. He thought, glancing behind Raven to see the bronze shields and steel spears that the warriors held, their own faces spattered in the blood of the fallen. I had been so focused on Raven's form, I didn't register that it was a battle and not…and, well, and not just her killing.

"Be gone!" Raven screeched as she lashed out at the ground in front of her leader, throwing the teenager up into the air as the earth below him was uplifted. Starfire, just reaching the wall, saw their leader trying to right himself as he flew through the air. She flew towards him and grasped his arms just before he started to descend.

*0o

The Admiral watched in horror as he saw a person fly from the top of the wall and catch another, strangely dressed, person. Could it be? Another witch? If this one's just as powerful as the other, the invasion might as well be for naught. Perhaps we can still save the souls of those remaining on the third ship. I don't think they offloaded most of their soldiers yet…

"Take aim, release!" He heard his assistant shout to the archers, and in unison, fifty arrows cut through the air heading towards Raven. The archers immediately started to reload their weapons and prepare for another barrage.

The Admiral left the deck in a hurry and barreled down the ship's corridors until he reached his personal cabin. Swinging open the watertight hatch, he nearly tripped going inside but recovered himself and began shuffling through the letters scattered on the desk.

Where is it, that letter? No, not that. Nor this one. His thoughts racing as he pushed aside different papers that he didn't need. Ah! Thank goodness. He held up a short note from one of his friends-–a former captain in the Fire Nation Army who rose to the rank of commander after joining the Navy.

Dearest friend,

I have reviewed the incident reports from the minor landing on Kyoshi Island. And while the reports were concerning, I believe that the forces that you were assigned would be adequate for your task. However, in light of our lack of knowledge on this alleged "witch", and your reputation, I will divert one of my ships to the furthest reaching area of our patrol zone; approximately a fifteen minute sail from you if at flank speed. I trust you not to endanger my men unless it is absolutely necessary, and the fate of your mission is hinged upon it. The captain of the ship has been informed of the situation, and has no qualms leaving his current patrol boundaries in order to assist you.

With great respect,

Commander Chan.

The Admiral read over the letter in his mind again, noting that his friend had left it unsigned in case of prying eyes opening the letter without his knowledge.

He let out a sigh of relief, and started for the room that housed the ship's messenger hawks.

*0o

"Hey," Love said as she leaned over Rage's shoulder, "put a shield up around Robin and Star."

"The hell I will, he just tried to lecture me about killing and shit!" She spat at her counterpart.

Love gave Rage a hard slap on the back of her head. "And they just spent months trying to get us back to Earth. Shield. Now."

"Bitch." She mumbled back, defeated.

*0o

Robin heard a shout from below where he and Starfire floated above the two armies. "High port." He heard a woman shout again, and a moment later every shield in the Kyoshian formation was raised above their heads. Robin understood why a minute later, when three bodies were encased in obsidian energy and levitated in front of Starfire and him. Robin heard the sound of the arrows ripping through the air a moment later. The projectiles showered down onto both armies indiscriminately, sticking into the shields of the Kyoshians and the lightly armored soldiers of the Fire Nation.

The barrage halted for a brief second as the archers reloaded, and it resumed with even greater ferocity. The archers had adjusted their aim slightly, and more arrows were stabbing into the bronze shields, embedding into the human shields that Raven had put up, or bouncing off the obsidian semi-dome that protected both Raven and the Kyoshi Warriors in the upper ranks.

Spirits, Suki thought, her shield held above her head even though no arrows were likely to land that far back, It's impossible to be very accurate from their ship –they must be hitting their own men just as much.

*0o

"Bodies? You shield them with freaking bodies?" Love was shaking in frustration. "Those are our friends. And what will Mr. "I abhor killing because it makes me like Batman" going to say about that? What will he say when he knows that we killed those guys too?"

"Damn, you're annoying. You really think that the team would just accept us after I nearly killed a guy, and then told Robin that I wanted to? Calm down already, our best case scenario going back to the tower is being allowed to pack our things before we get booted out." Rage let out.

Love just looked at her, eyes wide and hands trembling. "You…you think that's…but…no, you can't think like that! You just can't! We might have to leave the team, sure, but they'll understand, won't they?"

"You mean that they'll understand why Raven willingly let me take control over her and essentially told me: "Do what you want, just listen to this manifestation of my feelings for a human pin cushion who happened to kidnap me off of a road, nearly get me killed a few times, screwed around with my emotions, and then involved us in a war. Not to mention, she made us wear a bloody dress at one point. Yeah, they'll totally understand why Raven did that."

Love sat down on the rock floor, her own legs unable to support her any longer. She sat wide eyed for a moment, trying to contemplate what her former teammates might do.

Rage rolled her eyes slightly and pulled Love back up. "Fine, that might have been a touch harsh. She is our pin cushion, after all." Rage thought for a moment. "Although, my point still stands. Not a chance that we're going to be on good terms with Robin when we get back."

"What about the others? Starfire and Cyborg? And Beast Boy? Well, I'm not sure about Beast Boy…"

"Hell if I know. But can we get back to having fun now? Our pin cushion might need us-"

"Don't call her that." Love said, getting back in the mood to make an argument.

"We aren't debating this now. So can I kill this bastard with an axe?"

"They use axes in their military? No wonder they're losing. Yeah, go ahead." Love plopped herself down on a rock a few feet from Rage and watched idly as the man's axe was, quite literally, shoved down his throat.

"Do you have to be so… creative, in killing them?"

Rage gave an insane grin as she turned around. "Of course, otherwise it wouldn't be fun."

She's more sadistic than I thought…

*0o

The bodies still shielded Robin and Starfire blocked out the sight of Raven impaling the man with his own axe, and tearing another limb from limb. Beast Boy, who was still gaping as the sight of two armies clashing before his eyes, finally took action and morphed into a Golden Eagle, heading for the ship that the archers were firing from. Reaching the ship in less than a minute, he transformed into a gorilla and began swatting away the bows from the soldiers before they could fire –be it at him or at his friends. He swept aside one man who had turned to fire at him, and snapped the bow of a few others, before he felt the prick of pain in his back. He knocked down a dozen men before having enough time to reach behind him and pluck the arrow from his thickened skin. That's going to leave a bit of a mark…No! He saw one of the men get knocked overboard when other archers were swept into him by Beast Boy. Oh, come-on. He morphed into dolphin as he jumped into the water to make sure that the man didn't drown from the weight of his own armor.

Back on shore, the volleys of arrows had finally come to an end. Raven dropped the bodies out of the air, each of them filled with thin arrow shafts protruding outward. Robin looked down and grimaced at the sight of what could have been him and Starfire. I'm thankful, but she could have done it in a much less…grotesque way… Robin motioned for Starfire to lower him back down.

"Raven, control yourself. We have to get you back to the tower before you do something you regret." Robin yelled, just loud enough for Raven to hear over the resumed fighting between the two armies in the center and right portions of the phalanx.

"Regret? I regret nothing. And I shall stay until this is over or until I cannot stand on my own feet." The demonic form of Raven hissed at her former leader before turning to participate in the slaughter of the Fire Nation.

I hate to do this. Robin thumbed the neurotoxins at his belt once more. But she must come back before Slade comes. After that, there's no telling how easily we can get back to the portal while keeping her safe. And with her mental state now –I have little choice…

"Please, Raven. We must go." He yelled, already knowing her answer.

"You…you impudent fool!" Raven lashed out with her powers at his feet, causing him to leap back a few feet. "I made my intentions clear to you. If you decide not to respect them, then it is your own downfall." She spat out in anger.

Robin flicked open the cap on the toxins' case to reveal a thin needle. Pressing a button on the side of the case, and twisting it in Raven's direction, he released the stoppers on the spring mechanism and launched a dart at Raven. Seeing no immediate effect, he pushed the button again and released the second dart, and then the third.

Finally feeling the effect of the darts' chemicals slowly work their way into her system, Raven felt numb at first, and then she felt heavier before collapsing onto the ground, her human half of her body betraying her.

Thank god that was enough to stop her, for a moment there, I didn't think three times the dosage would have done it. Soon she should revert back to her normal form. Robin thought before he heard a desperate scream, unlike the battle cries of those fighting.

Holly launched herself forward, practically running over Yumiko and pushing Ko to the side. She registered, but didn't pay heed to, the yelling of the Fire Nation army as they resumed their attack on the left flank with even more ferocity than before now that their main obstacle was laying on the ground. She drew her sword for the first time that day and ran at the newcomer, throwing all caution to the wind. Robin quickly drew his staff, but didn't need to put it to use. Three green star-bolts struck Holly's ankle in succession, causing her to pitch forward into the ground as her momentum drove her already wounded shoulder deep into the cold dirt. She faintly heard a woman proclaim: "You shall do no harm to my friends so long as I can till fight." She withheld her instinct to draw and throw her fans at the teenage boy while he still stood there, for fear of hitting Raven. Instead, she pulled herself up and tried to lash out at him with her katana. Before she could raise her own weapon, she was plowed down by a Fire Nation soldier who was at least twice her mass. She cried out in pain as the soldier stomped on her already damaged ankle as he charged past her and at the phalanx.

Robin waved for Starfire to pick up Raven's slack body and flee while he waited for Beast Boy to return from the ship. The changeling came only a moment later, just in time to see Raven's four blood red eyes revert back to her normal violet. He transformed midflight into another, larger, bird and grasped Robin's arms with his talons. The four flew away from the battle immediately, but not fast enough for Raven to miss the sight of Holly being trampled by the soldiers as they forced their way forward to face the phalanx. She knot grew in her stomach as she became witness to her lover being just another body that would be used as a footing for the soldiers to fight on top of.

*0o

There was no place in Nevermore that Love's screams couldn't be heard. Her agony could be felt by every emotion present, and her sorrow was reciprocated by all of them.

Rage stepped down from her position of power, be it because of the neurotoxins or because of what they all just witnessed, nobody will likely know. Happy was downcast and Timid was shaking, huddled in a fetal position. Rude was silent and Wisdom simply looked away. Soon, how long I can't say, but definitely soon, Rage will be back in full force over this. And rightfully so. She'll be unstoppable when that comes, not that any of us would even try to now. Wisdom shook her head and poorly attempted to comfort Love before giving up. Never once did her screaming cease, although it was intertwined by sobs several times.

*0o

That girl who was on the ground, who was she? Beast Boy thought as he flew through the air. I don't think she was…well…dead, not when we left her at least. But she was down, I doubt she could've moved in time to avoid those soldiers… Beast Boy looked from Robin, who was still clutched in his talons, back to the ship that he was just attacking the archers on. It would be hypocritical to save that one guy, and then leave her, wouldn't it? I mean, I don't think she would have rushed out at us if Robin didn't do that to Raven…Maybe she was Raven's friend?...I mean, it is a different dimension, so I guess she could've made a friend. Hmm, Raven would never forgive us if we didn't help her friend…

Beast Boy slowed down slightly and lowered himself until Robin was inches above the ground.

"Stop messing around, Beast Boy, just get us back to the portal." Robin yelled up, but the wind rushing past the changeling's ears drowned out the noise.

Beast Boy slowed down again for a brief moment, released Robin, and picked his speed back up before turning around and heading towards the battle. Below him, Robin shook his head and motioned for Starfire to continue on her way to the portal, as he began running there on foot.

"If possible, you can't leave the portal unattended. It would be…well, quite interesting, if an unsuspecting person gets stuck in this dimension." Robin remembered the Professor telling him, just days before he betrayed them. It's as if he knew he was going to turn, but didn't want us completely in the dark…

The trio, Robin, Starfire, and the now unconscious Raven, reached the portal a few minutes later. Starfire went through the vortex with Raven in hand, never once slowing down until she made it past Cyborg, waiting on the other side, and into the tower's med bay. While Robin, on the other hand, stood guard at the portal entrance, waiting for Beast Boy to return.

*0o