Author’s Note: Well, first semester is over for me. And before I start second semester in school, I decided to type up another chapter of this fic now that I got the chance. Well…hm…after all these days I don’t know what to say now. Ah, who cares what I have to say? Hurry and read!

-

“Oh yeah!” cheered Cyborg, his mechanical fingers dancing across his controller. “You thought you could stay in first! But you’re not in first now are yeah?”

Beastboy, a controller in his hands as well, was not sharing Cyborg’s good mood. He had been first! But when they reached that sharp turn, it went downhill for Beastboy.

Like all racing game pros would know (Including yours truly), it would be a good idea to slow down while you’re turning so that you don’t go off the race track. Beastboy had used his brakes but Cyborg, strangely enough, had continued at full speed. He would’ve ended up having his car going off the track…if Beastboy’s car hadn’t been in the way.

Before a confused Beastboy could fully understand what was happening, Cyborg’s car smashed into his. Unfortunately for Beastboy, video games also understand physics. The impact of the cars had kept Cyborg’s car on the race track, but Beastboy’s had went flying off.

“Catch up if you want to try!” Cyborg continued; a large smile on his face. “But we’re already on the final lap!”

Despite the facts, Beastboy continued to stare intently on the TV screen, his green fingers pounding on his controller. There had to be a way to beat Cyborg, Beastboy just had to think of how he would. But Cyborg was already far ahead of him, and they were closing in on the finish line. The only way that Cyborg couldn’t win would be-

The TV screen suddenly winked out.

-would be if the game turned off.

Cyborg’s smile had disappeared from his face and he now stared in disbelief at the now black screen. Beastboy also stared, not believing his luck. There was a few seconds of silence until what Cyborg was seeing finally hit home.

“What?” Cyborg immediately whirled towards Beastboy, his human eye showing anger in them. “What did you do?”

Beastboy held up his hands in defense. “Dude! I didn’t do anything!”

“Oh sure! You couldn’t handle me winning could you? You turned off the game didn’t you?”

“I didn’t do it!”

“Well then what happened?”

“I don’t know! I’ll check!”

Mumbling to himself, Beastboy dropped his controller on the floor and too a glance at their gamestation. It was turned off, obviously, but as Beastboy looked at the TV, he blinked when he saw that that was off too. The culprit was the plug that was usually plugged into the wall that was lying on the floor. Curious, Beastboy knelt down and picked up the plug.

“Hey Cyborg, the plug fell out.”

Cyborg didn’t respond.

“Cyborg?” Blinking, Beastboy turned around.

And yelped when blackness suddenly enveloped him and lifted him roughly from the floor.

Beastboy quickly struggled, unsure if this was Cyborg’s doing for losing his chance at beating him in the racing game. However, that logic proved false when he saw Cyborg also encased in blackness. And it was then that Beastboy figured the darkness that had suddenly trapped them both.

And the one controlling the darkness was standing on the floor in front of them, her eyes blazing as she stared at them.

“Where is it?” Raven asked in a soft, yet cold, voice.

Though Beastboy couldn’t move, he was still able to speak. “Where’s what?”

That answer didn’t sit so well as the darkness shook both Beastboy and Cyborg around the room with ease, making both Titans suddenly dizzy by the end of it.

“The book,” Raven said. “Where is it?”

This time, Cyborg spoke. “What book?”

“You know which book!” Raven snapped, her voice no longer soft. “Where is it?”

Beastboy couldn’t help but wince when the darkness around him suddenly started to tighten around him. Despite that, however, Beastboy immediately started to think what Raven was talking about. Book, okay that was obviously what Raven wanted. But which one? She had plenty of books.

Sure, Beastboy and Cyborg had kind of taken her books once or twice in the past, but those books had already been given back to Raven, and they hadn’t stolen anymore recently.

“This isn’t funny!” Raven snapped again, her eyes continued to blaze with anger. “Where is it? You have no idea what would happen if you released Malchior again!”

Now that only made Beastboy more confused. Why would he and Cyborg want to steal the book that was a prison to Malchior? Sure, Beastboy had an urge to play around with the book and maybe have some “fun” with Malchior for what he had done to Raven, but the locked chest in Raven’s room that held the book made it obvious that the Titan never wanted that book to see daylight again.

And why would Raven think that they would steal the book? Sure, they liked to play jokes and all, but they knew how serious it would be to even play around with that book for two reasons. One was that they could release Malchior and bring out a whole world of trouble. And two was that the topic of Malchior wasn’t exactly something to be joked about around Raven. Beastboy had seen what had been going on in Raven’s room by simply transforming into a fly and hanging on the wall of her room. And the betrayal had hurt Raven dearly.

“I’ll only ask this one last time,” Raven spoke again. “Where…is…the…book?”

Beastboy looked down at Raven…and blinked in surprise.

Anger was in both Raven’s tone and eyes, but there was something else in there as well; fear. Raven’s eyes were slightly widened and her voice was a little shaky.

“We didn’t take the book,” Cyborg replied before Beastboy could think of what to say. “Why would we want to anyway? We were there when Malchior was set free.”

At first, Beastboy thought that Raven would decide to throw them around the room and ask again. Instead, the fury drained from her eyes so that fear and dread was all that was left.

“No…” she said quietly to herself. “No no no.”

Beastboy was only able to stare, not realizing that Raven had already set him and Cyborg back on the floor. All he was able to do was stare at the female Titan.

Raven had always been emotionless, maybe that had been why that he had always thought of Raven of being strong, not allowing to show any weakness within her. But seeing her as she suddenly was now…

She was suddenly fragile. The emotions playing across her face, of fear, disbelief, dread, and even sadness, gave her the impression that she was just a normal girl that had discovered news that she had hoped never to hear. And, to surprise Beastboy even more, Raven suddenly fell to her knees, staring at the floor as it looked as if tears were about to fall from her eyes.

“No no no,” was all that Raven was able to say over and over again.

-

Malchior approved of their living location, especially since he used to live in one of these many times before. The dark and dank cave almost felt exactly like the ones that he had used to dwell in as a dragon.

Even better; the cave was huge, huge enough for Malchior to move through easily if he really was a dragon. The cave was hidden within a mountain, the entrance having vines draped over it so that it wouldn’t exactly be easy to find. Still, Malchior did kind of wish that there were tunnels that would allow him to move along through the mountain so that he wouldn’t have to worry about staying in this one large and dark room.

He could fix that once he was freed. But until then, this cave would be enough.

“So what do you think?” questioned Krasz. The summoner had the book open, allowing Malchior to examine the cave.

“It will do,” replied Malchior.

“Alright.” Krasz looked down at Malchior. “So, when can we get started?”

If Malchior had a face within the pages of the book, it would’ve taken the form of a cold grin. The fool Krasz was. The summoner had no idea what he was dealing with. Despite only having met for about two hours, Malchior found himself liking the summoner. Maybe when he was freed, Malchior would allow Krasz to live…for a while.

“Patience,” Malchior said. “You shall have the power that you desire…but we need time. You are not yet powerful enough to free me so that I can teach you the full extent of what I know. I will have to teach you, and that will take time. And that is something we need to get.”

“Yes, that female spellcaster you’ve been talking about,” murmured Krasz.

“She is young, but she is powerful. And with her friends, she will be a force that we will be unable to stop in our current situation. We need to distract her, delay her from her search for us.”

“It shouldn’t be hard. I shall summon more leatherwings or other monsters-“

“No, that won’t be wise,” interrupted Malchior. “To summon creatures over and over again, it’ll make it easier for her to sense the spellwork.”

Krasz thought it over, and then looked back at Malchior. “What do you propose?”

“We need help. Someone or something that may help you in cloaking your spellwork so that your summoning powers and whatever else we may be doing will go unnoticed.”

“And who would that be?”

In reply, pages were suddenly turned, and Krasz couldn’t help but jerk back at the sudden action, but he didn’t drop the book. By the time he looked back, the last page of the book was what he stared at…a blank page.

But it wasn’t blank for long. Words suddenly appeared on the page, as if being written by someone invisible. As more words appeared, it didn’t take long for Krasz to realize that this was a spell.

“It is fortunate that you are a summoner,” Malchior spoke again, despite his face not being in the pages. “The spell will be much easier to accomplish with your skills.”

“And what spell is that?” questioned Krasz.

“A summoning spell. I wasn’t the only servant of Rorek.”

Truth be told, it wasn’t Rorek’s servant that Malchior was referring to. Instead, it was Malchior’s servant. Though having been feared by many, Malchior had created servants to help spread his terror.

Each servant had been created from one of the essences that made darkness. Pain, rage, sadness, Malchior had created several servants that used one of these essences to bring suffering to their victims. They were powerful…and all had been sealed away by Rorek.

“Are they all as powerful as you?” asked Krasz.

“No,” Malchior replied. “Each one is more powerful in the other. However, it’s how they go about defeating the enemies of Rorek that will help us with the spellcaster. Even if they don’t succeed, I have no doubts that they may bring something else to her if they can’t bring death.”

“And what would that be?”

“Suffering.”

-

Beastboy had never seen Raven like this. Even after Malchior’s betrayal, Raven hadn’t looked as terrible as she was now. Beastboy wasn’t really surprise. Being betrayed by someone you loved was one thing, Beastboy would know considering his relationship with Terra. But Terra wasn’t Malchior. To have the betrayer come back to cause more pain, that was another thing.

While Raven had…cooled off…Cyborg and Beastboy had guided her to the couch where she took a seat. After that, Cyborg had disappeared into the kitchen to make some herbal tea while Beastboy sat next to Raven and just…stared really.

The female Titan once again had a look that made her seem fragile. Sitting slumped on the couch, Raven just stared down at the floor of the room as if she was no longer on Earth anymore. Beastboy was tempted to wave a hand in front of her eyes, but decided against it.

So all he was really able to do was just…stare.

Beastboy suddenly caught the scent of herbal tea and looked up to see Cyborg step into the room, a pot of herbal tea in one hand and a cup in the other. Filling the cup with the liquid, Cyborg handed it to Raven while he placed the pot on the table.

Raven accepted the cup but Beastboy couldn’t help but suddenly feel disturbed as she drank from it. With that far off look in her eyes, it almost seemed like that it wasn’t Raven that was drinking the herbal tea. Beastboy looked towards Cyborg and saw that his metallic friend was staring at him. It seemed that they both had similar concerns.

The changeling looked at Raven, and for a few more seconds just continued to stare at her and wonder if this was the same person that had been his friend for years now. After draining the cup, Raven just placed it on the table, but didn’t fill it back up. Instead she just stared once again at the floor.

Beastboy hesitated, but soon his hand touched Raven’s shoulder. To his dismay, she didn’t even react to the touch. “Raven?”

She didn’t seem to react to his voice either. But, after five seconds, she blinked out of her trance and looked at Beastboy. At the look she gave him, Beastboy couldn’t help but jerk back slightly, releasing his hand from her shoulder.

True, Raven had always been a bit…creepy. But the way that she was looking at him…it was way beyond creepy. She was staring at him, yet she seemed to look through him, like he didn’t exist. She just seemed…lifeless. In her eyes, he would always at least see a spark of life within her emotionless gaze. But now, she was practically a zombie.

Beastboy tried to think of something, anything that would allow him to make Raven feel better. He even rummaged through his abnormally large bag of jokes.

“We’ll stop him,” was all that Beastboy was able to see. Immediately he started scolding himself. Oh that was brilliant!

However, a flicker of life appeared within Raven’s eyes. That caused a confident smile to appear on Beastboy’s face and, to his please, the corners of his fellow Titan’s lips twitched into a ghost of a smile.

“Yeah,” Cyborg put in. “I mean come on, we’ve been busy fighting and doing what we always do, and what has Malchior been doing? Just brooding around in that book of his. We’ll be ready for him this time!”

Raven turned towards Cyborg and this time a smile did grace her face, putting both Titans at ease. It may have been a small step in helping cheer up Raven, but it was enough of an accomplishment to give Cyborg and Beastboy a moment of relief.

“Thank you,” Raven murmured to the both of them.

“Hey no sweat,” replied Beastboy, grinning. “I couldn’t think of a good joke so I had to say that.”

“No, not just that,” said Raven, even though another hint of a smile appeared on her face. “I just want to thank you guys for…everything.” She looked at Cyborg and then Beastboy. “You two, Starfire, Robin…you’ve all been good friends.”

“And you’ve been our good friend,” Cyborg added.

“Yeah, and good friends help each other out,” put in Beastboy.

Raven allowed another smile to appear as she lowered her head, but that of slight embarrassment. “What would I do without you two?”

“Well…” started Beastboy

“Don’t answer that.”

“So,” said Cyborg, picking up his fallen controller, “feel like playing a video game with me and BB?”

“No thanks.” Removing herself from the couch, Raven turned and made her way to the door. “I need to do some reading.”

“Well we’ll be here if you want to chat!” called Beastboy.

The doors opened, and Raven paused before looking back over her shoulder at Cyborg and Beastboy. She gave one last smile. “That would be nice…maybe another time.”

Once the doors closed, Beastboy and Cyborg immediately turned to one another, each one with a look of victory on their face.

“We are so good,” said Beastboy, picking up his own controller and leaning back on the couch.

“No need to tell me,” replied Cyborg while he turned on the gamestation.

“Think we’ll do a lot with Malchior?”

“Duh. The guy is locked away in a book, what trouble could he cause?”

-

When Krasz uttered the one final word of the spell, he was suddenly thrown back by the sudden power that suddenly radiated from the book. He landed on the cold stone floor with a thud, gasping as sweat poured down his face.

That had probably been the hardest summoning spell that he had ever performed. And whoever it was that Krasz was summoning…it must be someone powerful. The spell had been complex, true, but the amount of concentration he had used to control that sudden magnitude of power was staggering.

Krasz slowly pulled himself back up on shaky legs as his gaze landed upon the book that he had dropped.

The book was open, but instead of on the ground, it was hovering in the air. Krasz could only stare, the pages of the book started to glow. And then it suddenly burst into a flash of white light, causing Krasz to immediately shield his eyes.

“It is complete…” Krasz heard Malchior speak. When the white light dimmed, Krasz removed his arms from his face and stared forward to see what exactly he had summoned.

Or more like…who he had summoned.

Krasz had been expecting a beast of immense proportions, one with sharp teeth and claws. He hadn’t been expecting the seventeen year old girl that stood before him.

“Hello Krasz,” the girl greeted, smiling brightly while she nodded her head at him. “How may I serve you?”

Krasz was only able to stare at the girl. She had beauty, her shoulder length violet hair framing her tan face perfectly, and her smile gave her a look of innocence. Even her clothes were simply a black tunic and some dark blue pants.

But her eyes…those red eyes…gave off a sense of danger, of power that was dwindling within her. Krasz could even feel an aura of suffering and death around the girl, revealing that the girl was the opposite of innocence.

“Who are you?” was all that Krasz was able to ask.

The girl giggled, but even the giggle caused Krasz to tense, feeling a cold shiver go down his spine.

“I have been known by many names,” informed the girl. “But you can simply call me Pain.”

-

Author’s Note: Hehe, first off, anyone who played Metal Gear Solid 3 may no where I got Pain from. Yes, I decided to have villains that were like the ones that you had to fight in Metal Gear Solid 3. But don’t worry, they’re not going to be exactly like the characters from Metal Gear Solid 3, as you can already see, I’m going to do some tweaking with them. Well, see ya folks in the next chapter!