Robin and the other Titans met at the T-Car still very confused as to how little trouble they had gotten. After coordinating with the fire department, they helped everybody caught in the fires to get out and were still for Slade's forces to make their next move. However, nothing was in sight.
"This is wicked creepy, dudes." Beastboy said as they all stood outside the T-Car.
"What was the purpose of these attacks?" Starfire asked with a worried look. "These were simply people's homes."
"I don't like this." Robin shook his head and pulled out his communicator. "I'm gonna check on Peter and Cyborg."
"I would put that away for now." Raven said staring off in the other direction.
The other Titans looked to see what she was staring at as two armored trucks pulled up just down the road from them and Slade's androids started exiting from the back. All of the civilians immediately started running away in a panic. Six of the drones came out of the back last with a single clone of Slade bound by chains. It's body was hideously covered in sores to the point where they couldn't even put armor on it and instead lead it into the streets bare chested. It's mouth foaming underneath it's black and orange mask as it babbled incoherently to itself.
"I think I'm gonna be sick." Beastboy gagged.
"Save it for later, Beastboy." Robin waved it off as he put his communicator away and extended his staff in front of him. "Titans go!"
Many of the drones charged ahead, sending a massive barrage of laser fire at the Titans. Raven, Starfire, and Beastboy we're able to fly upwards to dodge the fire, while Robin was forced to dive behind a nearby car for cover. Starfire and Raven charged ahead with the orange alien girl sending a barrage of green star bolts at the enemies, blasting many of them to pieces. Raven followed behind her and lifted the two armored trucks into the air and threw them at the crowd of enemies that was closest.
As soon as she did, another wave of drones leaped over the trucks and kicked the two girls from the air. Beastboy swooped in after with Robin charging in, throwing a fistful of smoke pellets into the middle of the action. Beastboy changed his form from that of a hawk into a bull and started charging through robot after robot, tearing each of them to pieces. Robin flipped over the green bull and started attacking the drones on all sides with his staff.
Raven and Starfire picked themselves back up and flew over head. Starfire let out a powerful continuous blast of green energy that tore through a wave of enemies. Raven followed after, picking the trucks up once more, sending them both crashing through the last of the drones, causing them to let go of the chains and free the hideous Slade clone.
It stood there for a few moments, looking at the freed chains around its neck in confusion, before lifting it's arms and breaking out of the chains around its wrists and ankles in one swift motion. It's incoherent babbling slowly shifted into a low, dog like growl as it eyes the Titans with intense fury.
"Look alive, guys!" Robin shouted, readying a handful of explosive shurikens. "This is gonna get messy."
Beastboy changed his form into a Tiger and joined the Titans as they squared off against the final enemy. The clone slowly began lumbering toward them and quickly shifted into a galloping like run as it growled more and more intensely at them.
Starfire immediately attacked with a powerful concentrated blast of green energy, which staggered the clone for a moment, before it continued it's rage fueled gallop. Robin followed, throwing his explosives directly at the creature, which did little to slow it's pace before it could swat Robin to the side.
"Robin!" Starfire shouted, before blasting the creature with another powerful beam with fury.
Beastboy swatted and clawed st the clone, knocking it back, before it quickly grabbed him and lifted him over it's head, bending the green tiger backwards. Raven quickly swooped in and ripped a chunk of the pavement from the ground, before knocking the creature back with great force.
Robin stood up with a painful groan and regained his footing, before his attention was caught by the sound of his communicator ringing at his side. He looked at it with confusion and worry, before answering it.
"Peter?" He said, staring at the image of the rusted ceiling of the foundary. "Peter! You there?!"
Nobody answered and instead all Robin heard was the faint sounds of a battle just outside the building. He could hear the sounds of energy blasts, the crashing of rock and rubble, and the sounds of webs shooting quickly and steadily. Suddenly the sounds stopped and Robin couldn't hear anything at all. Meanwhile, the other Titans were oblivious to Robin on the sidelines as they traded blows with the monster and took just as many in return.
"Peter!" Robin shouted into the communicator. "Can you hear me?!"
Suddenly he could hear the faint sounds of screaming from outside the building on the other end of the line.
It was Peter's voice.
Robin immediately shot to his feet and rushed over to his friends side in a panic.
"Peter's in trouble!" Robin shouted as they squared off against the clone.
Raven's eyes widened with panic and she snapped her head to their leader.
"What?!" She shouted, immediately floating over to him. "What do you mean?!"
"I got a call from him, but he wasn't there." Robin explained. "All I could hear was Peter fighting what sounded like a lot of people." He looked over to Beastboy. "He was fighting Terra."
Beastboy gasped with shock and looked down with sorrow and worry. "What?! No! Why would she-"
"Because I was right about her!" Raven shouted, floating over to get in his face.
Beastboy reeled back in slight fear. "Raven, I-"
"Shut up!" She interrupted, before turning away from the Titans.
"Raven, we need to deal with this first!" Robin argued.
She glanced back at them as they squared off against the creature, before turning back around and opening a black portal against the side of a building and disappearing behind it.
When she came out the other side, she was standing in front of the foundary. She saw the destruction lying around the place immediately. The front walls of the foundary were blown out, exposing even more destruction inside. The ground was caved in in many spots from Terra ripping chunks of earth from the ground. Scorch marks and webs littered the area.
Then she turned around and saw him lying there in his stomach, a puddle of blood pouring out across the dirt.
Raven's heart sank and she immediately flew over to him as fast as she could. "Peter!" She cried.
She rolled him over and saw the gaping wound across his stomach gushing blood. His eyes rolled back as he barely remained conscious, before his eyes met hers.
"Ra... ven." He said weakly.
"Peter, I'm here." She said, trying her best to hold back her sobbing.
She wrapped her arms around him and could feel the ground beneath them begin to crack from her powers. She looked back down at him with tears in her eyes.
"This... Can't... Be over." He said weakly.
"Peter, I'm so sorry." She sobbed.
"This... Is what we... Do." He said, weakly clutching her hand with this. "Don't stop... Being you." He said as tears rolled down her face into his and the walls of the foundary began to give way behind them. The sky above them began to darken with clouds and thunder rolled in. "Don't... Destroy... H-..."
"Peter?!" She cried in a panic as she felt his hand go limp in hers. "No-no-no. Peter!" She shook him to get his attention, but his eyes were unfocused. Her heart sank again as the realization hit her that she was about to lose the first and only man she ever loved. She held him close, trying in vain to think of a solution, but the stress of the situation made it especially hard. "This was supposed to be our miracle." She sobbed as she thought of his words again.
Don't destroy...
Heal?
She immediately shot upright on her knees and laid him flat on his back, tears dripping from her face as the ground continued to crack and rumble beneath them. She slowly felt herself slipping out of control and hurried while she still had time. The other Titans finally emerged from the still open portal and looked around for a moment in confusion.
Robin felt the ground beneath his feet rumbling. "What's happen-..." He stopped himself, frozen in shock with the rest of them when they saw Raven and Peter before them.
"Oh no." Beastboy said under his breath, his voice breaking a bit.
Raven sat over him with her hands over his wound and closed her eyes as she sobbed. "AZERATH...METRION... ZINTHOS."
Nothing happened in that moment and she shut her eyes, her anger and frustration rising. Images of moments they shared together flashed through her mind as hope slowly faded.
She clutched his uniform tightly and hung her head in defeat. "By the powers of Azerath." She whispered. "I beseech you." Suddenly her hands began to glow white and illuminate Peter's wound, slowly closing it up until it was completely gone.
Meanwhile, Peter woke in confusion to an unfamiliar setting. He opened his eyes almost like a blink to see that he was now standing in the front entrance of an arcade. The glass windows and doors took up a whole wall letting in the afternoon light with a parking lot visible from the outside. Arcade machines lied ahead in a tight formation with black lights illuminating the neon patterned carpet underneath.
Peter looked down with confusion to see that his damaged black and purple recluse armor had now been replaced with his red and gold integrated suit, which had all been disassembled and recycled for other suits for months now. Him wearing this suit wasn't at all possible. He reached for his wrist and pushed the button to activate the AI.
"Stark Network Offline." The robotic female voice said into his ear.
"That figures." He shook his head and went over to the doors to try and leave, but they were locked. He pushed with all his might to try and break the glass, but even with all his strength was no use. "Aaand so does that." He sighed, looking behind himself into the arcade. "I guess, fire escape it is." He said to himself as he started into the arcade, before stopping in his tracks at the eerie sight before him.
Before him he saw the tight rows of arcade games spanning off into the distance so far he couldn't even see the other side. He didn't know where he was, but he could tell wherever he was was absolutely massive in scale. He slowly walked into the arcade, a cold chill running up his spine at the eerie lack of human presence in this desolate place. His eyes scanned each machine as he passed by each row and he started to recognize many of the games he passed, however many of them had a sign on them that said they were out of order.
He continued to walk deeper into the arcade, before he had reached a decent distance and stopped in his tracks with confusion. He looked ahead of him and saw the rows continue to span off into the distance, far beyond what his eyes could see, and still no signs of human life for a single inch of it.
"What the hell is this?" He mumbled under his breath as he continued walking further, peeking over the games at the side walls, looking for any signs of a fire exit. "Geez this place is NOT OSHA safe."
He stopped as he suddenly came to an intersection and the walls began spanning off horizontally, each side spanning off far beyond what he could see. Peter looked back to the faint light shimmering in the distance from the entrance. He jumped up on top of the machine and looked in each direction across the vast arcade. The structure of the place confused Peter even more. Since he should have been able to see it spanning off in different directions from the front entrance windows, however he saw nothing of the sort before.
Suddenly he spotted the dark shadowy outline of a doorway on a distant wall. He looked up and shot a web against the ceiling, before reaching down and connecting it to the floor to mark the area. Then he jumped over the machines and went to the door as fast as he could and went inside. He expected to see a fire exit, but instead stood a small office with many filing cabinets stacked along the walls and a single desk sitting in the middle of the room. Peter went over to it in confusion. Stacks of paper sat atop the desk with scribbles of nonsensical writing in a language he did not recognize. He reached down and opened one of the desk drawers.
Nothing
He opened another one.
Nothing
Finally, he opened the top drawer on the other side and saw a single small key resting stop a stack of papers inside. He immediately snatched it from the drawer and studied it closely. He wondered if the key would be able open the front entrance.
Suddenly the power in the facility shut off with a loud mechanical whirr, leaving Peter in a terrifying darkness. He looked back into the arcade with caution, but could barely see two inches in front of his face. Then suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard from outside the room getting closer and closer. Peter's heart raced with fright and he instinctively jumped straight upward and clung to the ceiling, keeping the key tightly in his grip.
A tall shadowy figure slowly lumbered into the room and went over to the desk and sat down. Peter held his breath with anxiety and caution so as to not get caught by the mysterious figure. It sat there for a few moments, before reaching down and opening one of the drawers to see that the key was missing.
The figure quickly shot up with an inhuman roar and flung the desk against the wall with a crash, before storming out of the room, throwing the heavy arcade machines aside as it stormed through the facility in a fury. Peter jumped down from the ceiling and left the room, going toward the market he left. As soon as he entered the walkway, the figure turned around from further down the hallway and gave another horrible scream, before bounding after him, tossing machine after machine aside with ease.
Peter leaped atop the machines and headed back toward the exit. The shadow continued it's furious pursuit with impossible speed and Peter flicked his wrist to swing across the machines to go faster. He sling shotted himself over the rows of machines with great speed and landed in the front lobby with the creature quickly closing in on him. Peter fumbled the key, before sliding it in and opening the door. He drove through just as the monster was nearing him, before being blinded by a white light.
The Titans watched as Raven clutched Peter's lifeless body close to her sobbing away as her fists slowly clenched. "No!" She sobbed.
"Raven..." Beastboy said with sorrow.
She suddenly looked back to him, her face changed into her demonic form as the ground continued to crack beneath them. The others took a step back cautiously.
"Raven I know hurts." Robin pleaded. "But-"
"Not... another... word!" She growled in a low demonic voice, peering at them through her four glowing red demonic eyes.
Suddenly she stopped as she felt something squeeze around her hand. She looked back with fury, then gasped to see Peter's gloved hand holding hers with him staring back at her.
"Peter?" She gasped as her extra set of eyes slowly faded away.
Beastboy gasped at that. "No way!"
"Peter!" Starfire chimed.
Peter squeezed Raven's hand tighter as she stared down at him through her single pair of red eyes, too stunned to speak.
"Come back." He said with a smile.
Raven's eyes faded back to purple and tears started streaming down her face again.
"Peter?" She said again, her hand reaching out to caress his face. She threw her arms around him with relief and he squeezed her right back. "I thought you were gone." She said.
"Thank God I have you." He chuckled as they held onto each other for a few more moments.
"Wait wait wait!" Beastboy shook his head in confusion. "I'm confused." He pointed at them as they looked back at him. "You were... Ya know."
Raven paused and thought about it for a moment. Then she shook her head. "I didn't think it would work."
"So... YOU brought him back?!" Beastboy replied. "That's crazy!"
"Are you okay?" Robin asked as Peter sat up, groaning in pain.
"I have maybe twenty broken bones still?" He said with a shrug. "Which means I still have a hundred and eighty six non-broken ones."
"You're still gonna go after him after all that?" Robin replied. "You sure that's WISE?"
Raven helped Peter as he slowly rose to his feet.
"I'm not quitting till I'm REALLY dead." He replied, wincing in pain. "If we're gonna beat him." He looked to Raven. "We need to take YOUR advice and beat him as a team..." He looked to the others. "All of us."
"And you can forget about me leaving your side." Raven said with a slight smirk, lacing her fingers with his.
"Even when I go to the bathroom?" Peter chuckled teasingly.
"Okay no. Gross." She shook her head, causing Peter to chuckle with amusement.
"Cyborg's inside. So I should go get him." Peter said, backing toward the building. He stopped and looked to Robin, before tossing him a tiny computer chip. "I put a tracker on Terra. After I get Cyborg up and running... We finish this once and for all."
The others nodded in return and Peter went back inside the foundry, with Raven close behind him. After grabbing Cyborgs body, they all went back to the tower to have him fixed. As Peter stood over the robotic body, Raven stood close by him, her eyes locked with his.
"I still can't believe that worked." She shook her head. "That was almost SO bad."
"I know." Peter said apologetically. "I'm sorry if I scared you."
"Peter." She huffed with a shake of the head. "Having you in my life was the best thing that's ever happened to me. You taught me how to love and with that love I've been able to overcome... The darkness inside of me."
Peter looked back to her. "Can it do that?"
"If not, then I would have destroyed the world a thousand times over with you." She replied with a roll of the eyes. "You do make me... A little irresponsible."
Peter chuckled at that. "That's why you love me, right?"
Raven closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him, staring longingly into his eyes. "I love you so much." She said, before resting her head on his chest.
"I love you too." He whispered as he embraced her, running his fingers through her soft purple locks.
She looked back to him suddenly. "Are you sure you don't want to let yourself recover first? I can't see you get hurt again. Okay? I can't."
"I know." Peter said, walking over to a table nearby and grabbing his backpack. First he pulled out an extra set of web shooters and set them down on the table. "But we can't take any more half measures with this guy. We need to fight him NOW while he's not prepared. Not just some of us... ALL of us."
"You almost died." She shook her head.
"Believe me. I am TERRIFIED." He replied, before pulling out his red and blue spandex suit and walking over to Raven with it in his hands. "But I chose to wear the suit... So I ALWAYS have to try."
Raven sighed at that. "I'm just... Scared."
"I know." He replied. "But as a team... We can do anything." He took her gently by the hand and looked affectionately into her eyes. "We don't need to be scared... We need to take the leap of faith."
Raven didn't say anything, but she knew he was right. Suddenly he winced with pain and clutched his rib on his left side.
"Okay," she said with an amused chuckle, pushing him down into a stool by Cyborgs body on the table. "Well at least let me heal you a bit more while you work."
"Fair enough." He replied as he returned to his work.
A/N: I know I just posted another chapter just yesterday, but I'm feeling a flow right now. Lol.
Not much to say here. We ARE nearing the end of this book which will be the first part in a series. I decided to break it up like that so people can read it in one setting if they wanted to. I will be revealing a bit about the next part in the series after the final chapter. So you guys will get a little sneak peak of that as well as what the working title is going to be.
To those reading the Spider-Man X Raven shorts, that will continue as normal and gradually include ones that take place in the next book as well since that one is a lot more episodic in nature. It's kinda like Teen Titans Go in that way. Or Spider-Man Go, if you will.
Really wondering what y'all think of this ship. I personally love it and can't get enough of them, which is why the obvious choice was to bring him back. But I'm eager to know what you all think. Have I handled their relationship well? Is this a W ship?
As always thank you for reading and supporting the story, don't forget to leave your thoughts on the comments below, and I will see you all next time!