Teen Titans #25: "Not of This Earth" Pt. 3

Unreality?

Surreality?

The Soul-Self.

Wally West had no ability to describe being in the shadow that haunted and defined Raven’s reality.

((Welcome Wallace.....there are many things I would like to share with you,)) Raven intoned from everywhere around him. ((But there is no time....))

“I know,” Kid Flash sighed. “Time to get to work.”

The boiling blue-green essence of the alien consciousness was coming towards him.

Wally realized that after his brilliant idea to aid Raven by joining her Soul-Self, he had no idea what to do once he got here.

So as the blue green energy lashed out at him, he fell back on what he did best....

....he ran.

Nightwing, Wonder Girl, and Beast Boy were still with the crowd. Beast Boy had kept them under control with his antics.

Some of the scientists wanted to help, but Doctor Panarese was enough, Nightwing had judged.

“We shouldn’t be just hanging around here,” Wonder Girl pointed out.

“Actually yes we should,” Nightwing said. “That way we know these scientists are safe.”

“Leaving any fugly scientists to come after us!” Beast Boy protested, in the shape of a scared cat on Wonder Girl’s shoulder.

She stared at him. “Fugly?”

The cat gave a cheshire grin. “What else would you call it?”

“If the others let any possessed people past,” Nightwing put in, “we will face them here, as a team, and protect the others from them.”

“How reassuring,” Beast Boy muttered.

“Do you think we will face any?” Wonder Girl asked.

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised,” Nightwing said.

Beast Boy made an unenthusiastic noise.

Kid Flash ran. The darkness of Raven’s Soul Self seemed infinite. His speed kept him safe from the boiling aquamarine energy, but while he managed to maintain a safe distance, he couldn’t seem to gain any real ground, either.

((You cannot leave it behind, Wallace,)) Raven’s voice said. ((We must confront it.))

“How do I do that without it possessing me?”

((Help me to wake up.))

“And if you wake up, what happens to us?”

((You will not be harmed, I promise. Follow my voice....))

Wallace ran at a diagonal, towards what he presumed was the heart of the Soul Self...

“Too bad that Natasha chick ain’t here,” said Beast Boy. “We could use her help.”

“She was at that Metropolis warehouse,” Nightwing reminded him, “And is probably too busy cleaning up.”

“Yeah, I know.” Beast Boy hung his head where he sat. He wasn’t turning into any funny animal shapes--not a good sign, Nightwing knew. The situation must be getting to him.

Wonder Girl noticed it too. “C’mon Gar,” she chided softly. “We can’t give up hope now.”

“I know, I know. I’m just...wondering how long it will be before we get Night of the Living Dead at the doors here,” he indicated the doors on either side of the room. “And how long.....before our luck runs out.”

“Never, so long as we stand firm and put our effort into everything we do,” said Nightwing.

Beast Boy snickered. “Earlier I thought you sounded like Batman; now you sound like Superman.”

Nightwing smiled thinly. “You don’t have to be Superman to fight the good fight. You know that better than most, Gar.”

“Yeah....yeah I do.” Beast Boy straightened up. “It’s just......this is all so creepy, you know?”

“That it is,” Nightwing agreed.

Wonder Girl opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment Gar’s prediction came true; and the possessed came banging at the Plexiglas windows, clawing at the doors.

“Here we go,” Nightwing said. Beast Boy shifted into a bear, and the three Titans readied for battle.

“Wake up Raven,” Kid Flash intoned. “Wake up, Wake up, WAKE UP!!”

It was not only Kid Flash’s body that could move fast, but also his mind. He focused all his will on Raven.

“WAKE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!”

Raven’s eyes opened.

Instantly, both Kid Flash and the alien essence were ejected from her. Wally flipped and spun into wall, crashing painfully. The aquamarine essence that had tried to possess Raven stormed impotently in the air.

“No,” she intoned, rising from her bed and staring at it. ‘You shall have nothing. Begone!”

And her soul self rose with power and fury, and lashed out.

The essence of alien power dissipated into nothing.

“So....that’s it?” asked Kid Flash, rising painfully, his body already healing.

Raven shook her head. “I have only destroyed this facet of it. The others are still in danger. Go to Cyborg, he needs you now!”

Wally ran, a blur of yellow and scarlet lightning.

Raven shook herself, wincing. Her head pounded and she felt weak and sick at heart. Her power would be much less effective against a possessed body, but at least now she could stand and fight. She leaned against the door frame, and stumbled on.

The others would need her.

Wonder Girl smashed through the doors, and immediately found herself in the same situation the others had been in before; hitting hard enough to defeat the enemy, but not hard enough to permanently injure the host. Given her strength, this was perhaps a more dangerous consideration for her than any other Titan.

One of the host attempted to lock eyes with her and communicate the infection; she threw up her wrist bracelets and reflected the gaze back. The host scientist stumbled, disoriented.

Nightwing was perhaps the only Titan who didn’t need to hold back. He simply leaped and kicked and punched and lashed out with his escrima sticks. It was almost like fighting normal thugs.....except they got back up after he knocked them down. Everyone else needed to ease up on the power of their strikes; he might not be able to hit hard enough.

At any other time, Beast Boy would probably have made some sort of joke about how the scientists were all doing an “Agent Smith” impression. Not now. He took the form of an octopus, tentacles lashing out, knocking scientists down.

Starfire and Dagon were still struggling with the group that had come in behind them. Starfire blasted three, four, five times. She was beginning to panic. Dagon even considered feeding on the scientists to weaken them, but for all he knew they might be able to possess him that way.

The vampire shoulder charged a pair of scientists, knocking them down. Briefly he felt Nightwing’s bootheels on his shoulders, then the vigilante flipped over his head and slammed his boots down into the chest of a possessed man.

Nightwing looked up, and cracked a smile at the shadow of the Raven looming over him. Never had he been so glad to see such a sight.

“This must end,” Raven intoned. “This...must...END!”

Her shadow loomed over the scientists. Her Soul Self darkened them. The aquamarine glow of the possessed could still be seen, but dimly.

“Awesome, Raven! Can you free ‘em?” Beast Boy asked.

“There are too many, and it is not the same situation in which I found myself. Also, I had Wallace’s help then. But I can contain them....and give Victor and Wallace....time....” Raven strained with effort, her Soul Self flapping like wings.

With one voice, the possessed began to wail.

“Noooooo, noooooooo!” they screamed like a chorus of the damned. “It cannot be! This world should be ours!”

A possessed scientist clutched feebly at Dagon’s leg. “You feel the call!”

“And I refuse it,” the Vampire said.

“Tamaranean,” another gasped, “Come with us! Rule the stars with us!”

“I wish to be free, not enslave others,” Starfire answered. “And I refuse to be enslaved to your power, or any other, ever again.”

“The Cyborg....the cyborg will come to us....”

“Vic is the one that beat you losers!” Beast Boy answered, laughing, hope renewed.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The blue green energy was wrenched form it’s hosts, and they collapsed.

In the room where the probe was kept, it’s own blue-green light dimmed, faded, and winked out.

“All right!” Beast Boy shouted. “Way to go, Vic!”

His mood was somewhat dampened when over half the liberated scientists around him threw up.

The Titans helped with the cleanup. As the sky began to lighten, Dagon asked if he could leave, or else take cover in the basement.

“Can you make it back to Titans Tower in time?” Beast Boy asked.

“I’ll take you back,” Kid Flash offered.

“That would be most appreciated,” Dagon said.

They were gone instantly. No one said it, but everyone was thinking it; Dagon had earned his stripes.

“Cyborg saved the day,” Beast Boy said, “But Dagon did his part.”

“I never could have done it without Kid Flash,” Cyborg said. “And Doctor Panarese, come to that.”

“I must thank Wallace as well,” Raven said. “Yet we wall did our part.”

“I saw Dagon fight,” Starfire said simply. “As a warrior he has my respect.”

“We all did our part,” Wonder Girl said.

“that’s right, we won as a team,” Nightwing said. “Because we’re Titans.”

“Fully agreed, fearless leader,” Beast Boy said. “But I cotta say, I hope we don’t pull another all nighter any time soon.”

They all laughed. “Dagon might disagree with you there,” Nightwing pointed out, and they laughed again, and headed back for the Tower.

From a window, Doctor Panarese smiled and watched them go. She knew they were true heroes.

Starfire flew back to the Tower, Nightwing hanging down from her arms. She was vaguely troubled that she still didn’t know where or when her people had encountered this entity before, but she joyed in its defeat. Her adopted home world was safe from it’s evil. They had triumphed once again.

Starfire might, on the surface, appear to be a simple soul. This was untrue; she was as deep and as complicated as any of her team mates (though she herself doubted this and would disagree with that estimation if anyone had said so); but being who she was, she didn’t talk about such things. It was not that she was keeping it bottled up inside, per se; it was just that sharing her innermost thoughts simply did not occur to her.

So as she put the lingering questions about the strange entity out of her mind, at least for now, she looked down at Dick. She knew he was preoccupied with a number of things...possibly with thoughts of a certain someone else. She held his arms tightly; she was determined not to lose him.

But those thoughts were for another day. This day, they walked in the light.

Kid Flash and Raven found themselves in the same place where they had begun all this, together alone.

“Raven....I.....I don’t know what to say.”

Raven smiled and shushed him with one finger. “Wallace, you did very well. And I think you proved that you do not want to lose me.”

“Well I certainly wanna stay with you after all this....but...what makes you say I proved that?”

“You were the one that thought of liberating my soul self from the infection. I could not have done it without you. Thank you.”

“I did what I had to do to save you, Rachel,” Kid Flash, uncertain of where the conversation was going.

“Yes, of course. But think about it, Wallace; what you did was not only noble and wonderful, it was also in some ways more intimate than any physical act ever could be.” As she had done before, Raven embraced him, her cloak wrapping around him like wings, much as her soul-self would.

Kid Flash swallowed nervously, then hugged back. And he found that despite his nervousness, he was also very happy.