The green werebeast stood frozen in place. His mind had gone blank with absolutely no idea of what to do. Someone who made him feel loved, someone he felt he could love, was just told to end him and she had no choice but to obey.
"Destroy him, Raven," Slade repeat himself with a sinister tone.
Without hesitation Raven lifted her hand with dark energy surrounding it and lift a table across the room from Beastboy and sent it hurrling towards his side. Beastboy turned to engage it and the sheer force of Ravens power stuck him lifting him off his feet across the room.
In his werebeast form he was still strong and agile. He caught the table on impact and landed on his feet across the room sliding to a stop straining against the force of Raven's dark energy with a growl. He shifted his body weight and threw his weight to the side releasing the table out of his way watching it slam into the wall behind him shattering it to pieces. When he turned to face Raven he was taken by surprise...
Raven lifted both her hands towards Beastboy and a stream of powerful darkness shot from her hands slamming against him pinning him against the wall adjacent to the one the table had shattered on. He let out a loud howl of pain as the dark energy faded forcing him to fall to the floor with a thud.
He groaned as he struggled to get up. Through blurred vision he watched as Raven slowly walked towards him. She stood over him looking down with the glowing red lenses covering her eyes. It was like looking at Raven when her inner demon took control.
Stop!
Raven begged herself as she raised another hand towards her loved one. A dark orb surrounded her hand as she closed it to a fist. surrounding the green creature in dark energy.
No! Stop this!
Raven was fighting back as much as possible but her mind was recieving commands from the slim metallic helmet she wore bearing the symbol "S" on the forehead. These commands bypassed her control and went straight to her limbs.
Her hand shot into the air and Beastboy went flying through the ceiling and out the roof with a crash on each surface he smashed through. He went flying through the air and landed hard on his side bouncing and tumbling to a stop in the dirt outside.
"Good Raven," Slade said pleased, "now finish him."
This may have been the most evil thing he had ever done. He had gone beyond the evil of Trigon. Forcing two people that love each other to kill one another. The cruelty was beyond horrific, yet disturbingly familiar.
Beastboy morphed back into his normal body and moaned with pain as he rubbed his the back of his head. His gaze swiveled in a hurry when he heard what sounded like an explosion come from the building he had just been literally thrown out of.
Raven was surrounded by an orb of darkness and she exploded through the roof she had just tossed Beastboy through. Bits of debris and chucks of the building went shooting in all directions around her. With intense speed she flew straight to where he was straining to get to his feet.
The red eyes locked on Beastboy and he stood and started to back away slowly trying to come up with a plan. Before he knew it she was on top of him.
Some of the destroyed building was caught in her dark orb and Raven raised both her hands over her head. The dark orb surrounding her vanished only engulfing the debris now looming above her and as she touched down to the ground she sent her hands furiously downwards at Beastboy.
The bricks, metal, and chunks of the building came crashing down at him with the power of a missile behind them but only stuck the earth leaving a sizable crater as Beastboy dodged to his right with a terrified yelp.
He performed a barrel roll and popped right back up to his feet and began pleading with Raven to snap out of it.
"Raven! It's me!" He shouted, "I'm here to help you! Don't you remember?!"
Raven's gaze slowly turned to him and the red eyes of the helmet locked on him once again.
"That won't work this time, boy," Slade sneered as he walked up behind Raven, "I've learned my lesson. The only thing that kept all my other apprentices from obeying me, was their free will. I simply removed that from the equation."
"No! Raven's stronger than that! She's stronger than anything you could ever throw at her!" Beastboy argued, "I know she can still hear me!"
"Of course she can," Slade gloated, "she's still very much Raven. She can still hear, see and remember everything. However, she has no control over her actions... I do."
Raven stretched out her hands in front of her, slowly raising them in the air, and the ground began to shake. A loud crack thundered through the vast emptiness around them and a massive patch of earth rose from the ground 10 times the size of Beastboy.
Beastboy let out a small squeak of panic as he watched this new found boulder rise into the air. Raven let out a loud groan as she motioned her hands towards him as if throwing the 2 ton rock at him.
Beastboy began running for his life trying to get out of range of the immense projectile and just barely managed to scrape by as the rock hit the ground causing a small tremor under him. He leapt out of the way once again rolling to a stop. A huge cloud of dust had been kicked up from the impact, concealing his presence. Beastboy saw his chance. His anger raged on once more and he leapt out of the dust cloud high in the air, morphing back into the werebeast, headed straight for Slade.
Slade jumped back just in time to evade Beastboy's attack as the giant green fists smashed against the dirt leaving a small dent in the desert. He was just about to spring forward to send a second attack at Slade only to feel a blunt pain fill his rib cage as Raven came flying in with a swift heel kick knocking the wind out of him as he was sent sliding across the desert.
Raven walked towards him standing over him like a beast about to devour its prey.
STOP! PLEASE STOP!
She pleaded with herself. But her silent commands were just tiny cries in a empty vacuum of space. She raised a hand with dark energy and another rock rose from the ground but this was was much smaller and took shape. It looked like a perfectly carved spike pointed down at the green changeling.
"Now this looks familiar doesn't it?" Slade said watching from a small distance, "but I believe we will be getting a much different result this time around..."
Beastboy changed back to his human form and tried to talk to Raven one last time.
"Raven... Please... Don't do this. I know you're still in there," His eyes began to water as the words slipped across his lips.
From under the red lenses of Slades helmet tears could be seen rolling down Raven's cheeks. She really could see hear and feel everything that was happening around her.
Beastboy... I can't stop it... Raven Sounded as if she had lost all hope.
"Give me control child," Tirgon's voice echoed through her mind, "and I will spare his life. I will free you from this nightmare."
You only want to make another nightmare for me... Raven said with defeat in her voice.
"If you wish to end his life yourself then so be it. But my offer still stands..." He sounded convincing like he would honor his word. But Raven didn't believe him. But at this point she had no choice...
Fine... Father... Please... Just save him.
"End him Raven!" Slade shouted.
The air fell still with anticipation. The cold grip of fear, death, and destruction wrapped around everyone as they waited for Raven's next action. But to everyone's surprise... she lowered her hand. However the air grew colder around them.
"No." There was no doubt Raven had spoken... But it sounded nothing like her voice.
The helmet on her head detonated like a bomb and shattered off of her. Her velvet hair kicked up from the force and gently float down to its resting position with grace as she held her eyes shut. The pointed rock lost its essence of dark energy and crumbled as it hit the ground in front of Beastboy. The helmet may have been destroyed but when Raven opened her eyes.. the red glow remained constant.
When she turned to look at Slade, fear began pulsing through him as he saw a second pair of red eyes appear above her own staring straight into his soul.
"Impossible..." Slade said softly as he trembled.
Raven let out a terrifying war cry like her voice was possessed by an evil entity. In the blink of an eye she was face to face with Slade.
"What? You didn't think you saw the last of me did you?" Her freakish voice echoed with a low, dark tone.
She lifted a hand and dark energy surrounded Slade swallowing him like a tidal wave. Slade was then lifted into the air and slammed back down to the ground as if suplexed by an unseen force. He was slammed again and again each one leaving a slightly bigger crater than the last until she finally threw him through the wall of the abandoned building in a cloud dust and debris.
The building was barely standing at this point and it half collapsed on top of Slade as he went through the wall.
"R... Raven?" Beastboy said nearly petrified.
Without a word Raven spun around and waved a hand, sending a nearby rock the size of Beastboy's head across his jaw dropping him to his knees.
"The Raven you knew is gone. Rage has consumed her and you will now face my wrath!" The evil voice declared.
In the city the battle continued as Robin, Cyborg and Starfire did their best to hold off an army of unthinkable enemies. Omnidroids of all types of elements surrounded them closing in with each passing minute.
Robin found himself face to face with one creature made of burning embers from a building that collapsed earlier in the night. From his belt he pulled a circular disc and hurled it at the creature with loud yell. On impact the disc explode with liquid nitrogen freezing the creature completely like a solid statue. Robins eyes went wide and he lunged at his icy target swinging his staff like a baseball bat.
The statue shattered into a thousand pieces leaving nothing but the mechanical face intact connected to a head of ice. A wave of relief washed over him as he thought they finally might have a chance to fight back. But his feeling of relief vanished as the ice immediately melted and the water rejoined and slowly began to take form as the creature then stood back to its feet ready to continue fighting as a body of water.
As it lunged at Robin, who was completely unprepared to combat an enemy made of liquid, its body vaporized and the head went sailing across the street hitting a car nearby.
Robin turned his head to see Cyborg with his sonic cannon rasied where the creature was standing just a moment ago.
"It's no use!" Cyborg yelled coming to terms with reality, "no matter what we do these things just keep getting back up and comin' at us!"
They both looked over at the car where the last creature had just landed and sure enough, it had taken shape once again as the metal of the car it landed against.
"Friends!" Starfire yelled from across the street, "I need assistance!" She pleaded.
Starfire was faced with four omnidroids. One was made of steel. Another, brick. That other two were comprised of asphalt from the street. They had her surrounded and she was shooting starbolts in every direction at them. Swinging wildly with all her alien strength at any that got too close. Until a fifth creature made of iron surprised her from behind gripping her with a bear hug. Starfire let out a chilling scream.
"STARFIRE!" Robin yelled as he began running towards her. But his advance was halted as more omnidroids made of plexiglas, stone, and the original pale white form got in his way. They were prepared to fight to keep their prize.
Robin yelled with fury as he began swinging his staff at them. He continued using his martial arts skills and used his staff to post up and sent swift kicks to the faces of his targets. But his enemies were being to recognize his repetitive attacks. His kicks struck air, only to have his legs caught by one of the pale white creatures who then wrapped its arms around him pinning him to its chest. Robin grunted and groaned as he continued to struggle and fight against their grip.
"Robin!" Cyborg yelled raising his cannon but just before he could fire the omnidroid that he had blasted to the nearby car struck him from behind sending him face first to the ground. He raised himself to his knees and looked up at his helpless friends entrapped by the hoard of monsters they faced.
Looking around, he saw the endless army of these unbeatable things that kept closing in closer and closer. All hope had been lost. The fight was over. They had been beaten.
"I'm sorry y'all," Cyborg said under his breath.
He pressed the center of his chest revealing his power cell glowing bright with an ominous blue power. As he stood to his feet he raised his arm and rerouted all power from his sonic cannon and all other devices in his mechanical body to his power cell. His arm instantly started flashing with bold red letters that read CRITICAL as a high pitched tone started beeping steadily picking up pace and increasing in speed.
"There's no other way," he said softly.