Light brings Shadow (Raven)

[Raven]

He was in shock, or so she assumed. It looked like she had no choice at this point. She was sure whatever was going on in his head was bad. Rage to Trigon showdown bad. She hated having to do something like this without his consent but he could be pissed about her when he wasn't playing vegetable. "Ok, I'm going to ask your permission one more time and if I don't get your answer I'm assuming that the answer is yes."

[/color] She tells him seriously, kneeling next to him, but looking over him.

"I want to go into your mind and see what's wrong." She said slowly. She didn't know what to do. She was feeling conflicted. On one hand she desperately wanted to help him, but on the other hand she didn't want to do something that was so morally irresponsible. She almost never used her telepathic abilities because she knew how intrusive that was, but this was different. It was actually going through memories and thought processes. It was so much worse than just skimming someone's mind.[/blockquote][/size]

[vii]

For Seth's part he lay there completely still but inside his mind it was like someone had just pulled a plug in a bath, though it was working in reverse. Memory after memory was slowly trickling away and gathering speed.
That day at the beach when he was five, one of his happiest memories, how the sun was so warm and bright. The really tasty ice cream that had dripped onto his hands. Sitting on his fathers shoulders as the family dog ran about kicking up sand. What was the name of the dog?
Soon the dog was gone, it had never been there and soon so was the ice cream. His father remained though.

His father, moving about but Seth couldn't focus right. His vision was blurred, no not blurred he was floating in something that made him see in a weird shade of green and blue. Reaching out he could feel glass, he was in something made of glass and couldn't move. Then like a light switching on that was gone too, like someone had just moved it to the side and the beach was back.

Yet outwardly he still hadn't moved though one thing was happening without his control. A ink like substance was starting to flood across the teens eyes, slowly drowning out the blue and replacing the whites with a shiny blackness.

[Raven]

He was unresponsive once again and that made her nervous. She watched for any sign that he comprehended what she was saying but she got nothing. If what she planned did not work she might just need to take him to a hospital or something, or back to those labs. Both were things she was wary about. She didn't like hospitols much, and the fact that those labs had that many armed guards made her suspicious with good reason. Whatever they were doing definitely couldn't be legal but she was sure teen superheroes like them would not be able to touch them.

The blackening of his eyes set her off. She quickly placed her hands on either side of the boy's head. She closed her own and focused her energy. This was sure to take it out of her, between the teleportation, the sheilds and now moving into someone's mind. She wasn't Jericho, it wasn't easy for her. She didn't have a portal like she did with her own mind which made it even harder.

She managed to worm her way into his head but it was akward, and much more difficult than it should be. At first everything was dark, flases of memories and thoughts blew through her mind before disappearing, but it was strange. Things were jumbled and disjointed. She had never seen anything like it.

[vii]

As Raven pushed further in Seth's mental plane began to assert itself into a form that made a bit more sense to her. It was like an asylum combine with the worst sort of laboratory. Machines and medical devices lay scattered about the place while the building itself looked straight out of Arkham.
Corridors filled with doors each holding scenes that made up specific memories some doors were flapping open and the memories held were scattering out into the darkness that made up the end of the corridor. Standing in the middle watching the doors open and shut was Seth with a terrified look on his face. As a door near by opened he rushed to try and keep it shut but something rushed past and pushed him to the ground, something big and powerful that moved faster than the eye could keep up.

Pulling himself back up Seth sighed and watched as the memory just floated away. Looking at Raven Seth rubbed his eyes and at first ignored her half expecting her to float away too but when she didn't he just looked confused "Whats going on......I can't get the doors to shut....why are you here?"

[Raven]

"Considering you are slowly becoming a vegetable on my bedroom floor I'm here to do whatever I can to help."

[/color] She told him, watching the quick succession of memories leave his mind. She studied the area carfully, making sure nothing else was there with them. She had baby chicks and her emotions, both things she did not expect him to have. She could feel...something else there as well.

"I used my abilities to enter your mind. There wasn't anything else I could do. Physically there is nothing wrong with you, so this must be purely mental."[/color] She told him carefully. She didn't really know how much to give away. He already knew who she was and would most likely figure out who her friends were too. She hoped that whatever happened at the end of all of this he would still be on friendly enough terms with her that he wouldn't tell anyone who they were. Then she wouldn't just be in hot water with Robin, but with Batman, the Doom Patrol and possibly the whole Justice League. She didn't need that because of some stupid labs that shouldn't even be in their town to begin with.[/blockquote][/size]

[vii]

"Oh" Seth said slowly as he tried to figure out the whats and whys "So that stuff about magic was just a cover huh?" Shifting his attention to a near by door that swung open and the memories of his seventh birthday party scattered into the distance. "Ok, well before my whole life vanishes how do I stop it?"

More focused now that he had someone to help him and hopefully tell him what he had to do to help himself stop this but then it dawned on him "Rachel, Not to be rude and I really appreciate you being here but why are you dressed like that?"

From far behind them a deeper voice, one tinged with rage called out "Tell her how pretty she looks. Ha, your so weak. Once all the doors are open you can vanish finally and I can live again. You make me sick."

Seth for his part appeared to not have heard the voice, in fact he didn't seem to be reacting to it in the slightest and instead waited for Raven's reply.

[Raven]

"I have never seen memories do this. Not even in people suffering from Amnesia. Then their memories are there just....hiding. Yours seem to be leaving completely. I'm assuming they are artificial and I don't know how to reign in artificial memories. I think there is a bigger problem here." She explained. Again looking around the area slightly paranoid. She had the feeling someone was watching them, it was something she couldn't shake and it made her uncomfortable.

"Yeah, when we get out of here I promise to explain but right now...it's not the time to get into a conversation about my magic. The costume is...well it's my hero costume. I'm a Teen Titan. Surely by now you've heard of us at least." She said, looking to the boy. She gave it a try though, attempting to use her abilities to close the doors. It only lasted a second before they fizzled out and the doors swung open again.

She looked oddly to Seth when he didn't hear the other voice. "Seth I don't think we are alone here." She said, searching around to find the owner of the voice. Split personality disorder perhaps. She didn't know what the hell this was.

"Come on out, we might be able to figure this out." She said. She needed to figure out how his mind worked. Not everyone had the personified emotions she did in her head, and some people did. Everything was always different and she needed to be able to react to that. She needed to know exactly what this was.

[/size]

[vii]

"Hero, Teen Titan?" Seth said the words slowly as they held no meaning to him "I've not. Sorry?"
When she said about the other person here Seth nodded quickly "There was someone else here, I think they started the doors opening but I never got a good look at them but I haven't seen them since. Maybe they vanished too."

A couple of doors opened at the same time now, the process speeding up as the memories of other minor events vanished followed by the dark chuckling from behind them "Theres nothing to figure out, he dies I live and then everything is fine. I know what a Hero is Rachel, Heroes are prey."

Still not hearing the voice Seth tried to shut yet another door "not Karen, I don't want to forget her." Again the shape moved past pushing him from the door and the memories of the cute cheerleader from Metropolis High disappeared with the rest. Then an odd thing happened, well odder thing, the next door along was skipped and the door after opened and let the memory of a maths test drift away. The door that stayed shut was something recent, the meeting at the coffee shop. A proper real memory, seemed they were safe. Also it was clear some doors were sealed shut with padlocks and chains, something about those doors were cold and angry at the same time.

[Raven]

"The one time where it would be OK to hear the voices in your head, you can't?!"

[/color] She says to Seth. She was annoyed about it. It would make her life so much harder in the long run. She hoped that at some point he would be able to hear the other parts of him.

"Prey huh?" She says contemplating it. "Either you've never met one in practice or you've met some pretty lame heroes."[/color] She said with a dark smirk. She knew people who could take the kid's body down within seconds. He didn't seem terribly strong or agile. He seemed pretty normal but she learned long ago that things weren't always as they seemed.

"Seth. Let them go. There was never any Karen. You never met her, and none of the memories that are dissapating are real." She said shortly. She needed him to stop freaking out at the very least.

"So those ones." She started moving to touch one of the metal doors. "They are yours." She said to the other voice. "I find flaw to your theory. He can't die because he has made actual memories. They aren't yours....so...." She said referring to the door that did not open. She trailed off, not really sure what else to say. [/size][/blockquote]

[vii]

The voice chuckled again"That theory would work just fine if it was his body. Hes the intruder and I want him out. Real memories or not I want my body back. I have a purpose and this fake is stopping me from completing it."

Seth for his part was sitting on the floor watching things float off "How can you say this isn't real, I remember all of it. Its like bits of me are just vanishing piece by piece. I have to stop the doors opening. Can't you magic them shut?" Looking up at Raven hopefully but it didn't last, he remembered what happened the last time she had tried. "Guess not, so what do you need me to do. Tell me what you need me to do and I'll do it!" Jumping to his feet Seth nodded eagerly.

"Hope is a horrible thing when its due to fail" The voice said near Raven "Hes so weak, lost and about to die. Just leave and let this happen. Its unavoidable and you really don't want to see the mess I make of that thing when the last memory is gone."

[Raven]

"You pose an interesting philosophical question." She said thinking about it. "Personalities cannot be destroyed once they have been created." She said. If they could she would have gotten rid of Rage a long time ago if things like that were possible. Even artificial personalities would still stick around with something to tether them.

"Umm.... I need you to hide. Your other half apparently wants you dead and gone." She told Seth. Looking through the space again. "Ok I'm going to pull a maze and put you in the center." She explained carefully. She didn't want to take the chance of him getting destroyed or harmed mentally in any way. She wouldn't want to have to take down and put to jail a shell of the boy she had quickly come to care about.

"Your mind has made balance. Without this piece of your personality that balance would be compromised and you would likely become mentally unstable and likely insane or catatonic." She told him. She wouldn't argue with the thing that the last memory would not be gone, because Seth made new memories. She had already made that point and she really hated having to repeat herself. She prepared herself for the moment Seth aknowledged her request. That's when she would throw up the maze. She couldn't afford to hesitate, but she needed his mental permission to alter the plane of his mind in such a drastic way. Her emotions could create mazes in her own mind easily, but they were an integral part of her. She was an outsider in Seth's mind.

[vii]

"Hide in my own mind?" Seth slightly confused but as he thought about it Rachel's idea did make sense. His memories would be hidden and she could deal with whatever was going wrong "Sure, whatever you need me to do."

The other voice was quiet until Seth was gone but it made itself known physically. Stepping out from one of the empty doors near Raven it looked more or less like Seth but it was far more confident and had a raw power to it that the other boy was lacking. White hair and pitch black eyes also gave it away as being something other than the other personality.
"Interesting, hiding him away from whats going on here." Tilting his head a little to look over Rachel in her hero gear the white haired youth smirked "Also very interesting but I suppose that should wait. What are you going to do about those?" Motioning to a door that was opening currently it seemed that there was some sort of malformed Seth popping it open with some sort of key. Looking at the pair further down it looked fearful and ran away.

[Raven]

Once he agreed she pulled the maze up relatively easily in his mind and placed him inside. It was very similar to the one timid lead Beast Boy and Cyborg through, guard at the end and all. She didn't want Seth getting out, or anything she didn't know about getting in without her knowledge. As she did so she felt something was....off. The corner of a light pink cape caught her eye. At least the majority of them would keep Seth safe if the need came. She just hoped rage didn't end up ruining everything.

"You are the original personality. Seth is the artificial. What are they your henchmen?" She asked, watching very carefully for any more of them. Maybe something similar to the raven chicks in her own mind. Devious and lethal when Rage was in control of her mind, but relatively harmless otherwise.

"You mentioned something of a purpose earlier. What would be your purpose?" She asked. If the scientists went so far out of their way to create an artificial life for the kid it had to be something important to them. She wondered briefly why they didn't just lock him in a lab and leave him there. It seemed like a far more effective way to take care of their experiment.

[vii]

VII raised an eyebrow before looking back down to were the mis-shaped one had gone too "I don't control anything here. I was the thing they wanted locked away. That thing is what they put in here to keep me hidden away. Seth, that thing you sent away is also fake. Hmm that probably doesn't make sense. Lets give them names, Seth you sent away. That thing can be called Section, since thats what its trying to do and I'm Seven. As for my purpose, I already stated it. I'm to hunt down and deal with Superheroes though I've not been activated yet and if Section continues what its doing I doubt that will ever happen."

Clenching his fist in annoyance at the thought of never being able to do what he was created for VII gave out a slow sigh to calm down slightly "I suppose I should work out if I want to help or hinder you first. I really don't like being locked up but on the other hand I don't want to end up as a vegetable. Choices choices."

[Raven]

"Superheroes huh? You've really got your work cut out for you then. They really chose one of the worst possible places to start you out y'know. The only worse place I can think of is smack dab in the middle of Justice League territory. Instead your smack dab in the middle of the Teen Titans network." She said shrugging. With them in such close contact with eachother every day now at school, it would be all too easy to activate the whole network at once if neccessary.

"You might want to make your choices quickly. Though I have to say choosing to hinder me is a bad idea. I could just compartmentalize you like I did Seth to keep you out of my way. Call Rage out of his maze to babysit you and you'll have yourself a handful." She warned him quickly, watching for the little devil that was going around screwing things up. If the thing would show itself she could easily pull it away from whatever it was doing. In theory at least

"So why was this Section supposed to keep you hidden? If you were to be some sort of weapon what was the point?" She asked to the personality that had deemed himself Seven. She wondered idly why he chose that particular number for himself. It probably had something to do with the scientists that obviously created the boy, but that was just an assumption.