The Dread Dragon let out a fiery yawn as he dozed on a particularly large mass of floating rock. He could hear his belly rumble and moan with emptiness, but he couldn't bring himself to eat more of those white tentacled creatures. They didn't even taste good extra crispy!

 It wasn't the first time Malchior wished that he had eaten those two humans before they parted ways. At least he could have savored the taste of human flesh one last time before he died.

Malchior wanted to hold on to hope-- a concept he wasn't very used to-- and he was finding it a strange feeling to cope with. Ever since the human deemed See-More left through the portal, he felt that same strange hope dwindle more and more. The child must have been too far into his slumber to have heard him ask for the book. Malchior felt his anger flare up.

Stupid, weak, feeble humans. He must be a fool to have put his trust into one of their kind. When have they ever aided him before? The only reason See-More and the golden fool helped was to use him for their own needs, and now that the child was free he was going to leave the Dread Dragon to rot!

Malchior let out a large breath of enraged flame at that thought, but it didn't last long. The hunger ate away at his own fire and the dragon once again felt himself lying back down against the rock...Weak...Defeated...Never before feeling more like a... human.

...

"They're ship is at the very bottom level of the tower. The elevator straight down this hallway will take us right to it!" See-More called as the team of evil doers raced through the Tower.

"And what of their security system? Where is the main hub located?" Blackfire replied as her android floated speedily beside them, the red alarm lights and sounds blaring all around them.

With expert skill, See-More used his x-ray vision to follow the path of the intricate security wires beneath the walls around them. He quickly pinpointed the ones they needed and followed them all the way to their origin...

"It's in one of the Titan's bedrooms...Cyborg's, by the looks of it."

"Red-X."

"I'm on it," Red-X replied with an overly dramatic sigh before vanishing into thin air. See-More looked to where the teen had vanished and couldn't help but be reminded of Kyd Wykkyd. Despite the hilarious position they had left him in, he couldn't help but feel a tad bit worried for his fellow teammate.

By the time they had reached the elevator, the alarms had already been cut. As Blackfire's robot and Fixit stepped into it, See-More began to do one final scan of their surroundings, more out of habit than anything else. 

But when his gaze fell on the insides of a particular room, he stopped moving. Not only did his eye freeze, but his entire body. He subconsciously felt his hand gently twist the dial as his vision zoomed in on the room. But not just the room, the chest...The chest sitting before the bed...But not just the chest, either...but the book that lay inside it.

All at once, the memories flooded See-More's mind. His imprisonment by the Herald, his alliance with Warp, all of those tentacled creatures, the trumpet, the portal, and the Dread Dragon--

"Malchior!" See-More cried out and, without a moment's pause ,he began running towards the room, only to run face first into the wall he was looking through.

"And just what are you trying to do exactly?" Blackfire asked  as she and Fixit looked down at See-More as he rubbed his throbbing head.

"I'll be right back," See-More said as he stood back up. Switching his gaze to normal, he began to run back down the hall. He called back, "There's something I need to take care of!"

"We are leaving when Red-X and Kyd Wykkyd are ready...with or without you!" Blackfire retorted, but See-More was hardly listening. His ears rang with the beating of his heart. His breathing came up short, and not just because of the running.

He ran through the hallways and up and down stairs, switching between his x-ray and normal vision periodically to keep the room in sight. It did not take long before the panicky thief reached his target. He stood before the door, his small chest heaving from the running, his single eye fixed on the single word carved into the door. 

Raven. 

See-More chuckled. "I hope Kyd doesn't mind me sneaking into his girlfriend's room," he said to himself before walked closer towards the door, watching cautiously as it slid open before him.

Peering into it, See-More was immediately reminded of Kyd Wykkyd's room. All darkness, no style.

"Those two are more made for each other than I thought," See-More admitted as he switched to his night vision. He peered around at all of the furniture and decorations, shivering slightly at the demonic figures that seemed to stare back at him through the darkness.

Doing his best to ignore them, See-More quickly found the chest-- large and ominous looking--as he stepped further into the room. With a better view, See-More once again switched to x-ray and looked inside the workings of the chest only to find that it didn't have a lock.

"Too easy."

With careful hands, the optical thief slowly opened the chest and peered down at the book. With his x-ray vision, he could see all the pages beneath the cover. All of the words were written in a strange language, but the pictures he could make out very easily. Most of them consisted of some white haired boy and the Dread Dragon himself fighting it out.

"I've almost got you out of there, buddy," See-More whispered as he reached his hands in and wrapped his fingers around the edges.

"What are you doing...in my room?"

With a surprised jump, See-More spun around, only to come face to face with a very naked Raven. Instantly See-More's face grew red as he threw the book into his face, only to find that his vision managed to penetrate its pages as well.

"Sorry, sorry! I just wanted to get this book..." See-More sputtered as his shaky hand turned his vision back to normal, though he didn't remove his hand from the dial. He watched as the Titan's eyes looked down at the book in his hand than back up to him, her face deadly serious.

"That book is not your property," Raven spoke in a dead monotone. "Either return it to me by your own free will, or I shall make you return it."

The thief felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He fully believed that this Titan was capable of doing just that, but neither of his hands moved. Not from the dial and not from the book.

"What did you do with Kyd Wykkyd? He was supposed to have you...trapped."

"I escaped," Raven said simply before raising her arm towards the thief, her eyes growing black. "Now, this is the last time I will ask you. Return the book."

"My friend is trapped in this book. I gotta free him!" See-More argued, holding the book behind his back now. Raven lowered her arm slightly at this but her eyes never lost the black intensity to them.

"And by friend...do you mean Malchior?"

"Yes--"

See-More didn't get any further before black energy encased his body and threw him against the wall. The thief let out a cry with a mixture of pain and surprise as his hand lost his grip on his dial and the book fell from his other one. Before the thief even had time to regroup, the same black energy formed around his hands and he felt an outside power pull them above his head.

"Do you have any idea what you are trying to release into this world?" Raven shot as she walked over to the now trapped thief, one hand still using the power to keep his hands encased she used her free one to reach down and pick up the book.

"I told you, I'm trying to free my friend!" See-More shot back, fighting fruitlessly against his restraints. "Your Titan friend, Herald, had Malchior, Warp, and I trapped in his weird dimension thing. We worked together to try and bust out, but in the end it was Malchior who got me outta there. It is my duty as a fellow criminal to bust him out too!"

"Malchior is not some mere criminal. He is deceptive, manipulative, and incredibly powerful. Whatever he's said, whatever he's done to try and help you, was only so he could use you to free himself. He's evil, worse than you or any other villain you've been in contact with. Even a petty thief like you should see that if someone like him was released into our world it would not only spell destruction, but almost complete annihilation."

See-More stared back into the cold black eyes of his captor as he hung in the air before her. Raven stared back into his single eye and, for a moment, she almost felt like he was suddenly peering into the depths of her soul.

"I don't believe he's all that bad," See-More replied in a serious voice,.Raven's eyes widened slightly at his assurance, but quickly returned to its cold demeanor.

"Then you are a fool."

"What did he do to you?"

"What?"

"What did Malchior do to you that makes you think so badly of him?"

"He didn't have to do anything for me to know how evil he is!" Raven shot and See-more could immediately feel the pressure on his hands increase uncomfortably, but he didn't let go of the subject. He could see through Raven's walls and darkness, he could see the deep routed betrayal that lay deep in her eyes.

"But he did do something...Raven, he hurt you...He got close and hurt you."

Raven's face blanked and, all at once, the blackness disappeared from her eyes and from around See-More's hands. The thief dropped lightly to the floor, rubbing his sore wrists, though his eye didn't leave Raven's, who looked at him with a mixture of anger and utter surprise.

"How...How do you know that?"

"I...ah...saw it. Your emotions anyways..." See-More replied with a sheepish smirk as he pointed at his eye,."This thing does more than shoot cool lasers."

Raven's eyes immediately dropped to the floor, her free hand clenching into a fist. "It doesn't matter." Her fist then rose and immediately the thief was once again thrown against the wall, the black energy pinning him there.

"Malchior is evil. You are evil," Raven continued as the black energy began to consume him. "You fought against us, hurt us, broke into our tower, tried to steal our ship, and tried to release an all powerful dragon. I do not care what your eyes let you see, I am stopping you right here and right now."

"Not today, princess," Red-X whispered.

Raven let out a surprised gasp but, even as she turned around, Red-X pulled her hood down over her eyes and sent a hard knee into her gut. The Titan immediately fell to her knees gasping for air, Red-X standing over her.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't bruise your ribs, did I?" the master thief asked, a sneer in his voice. Raven looked back up in him, black once again in her eyes and surrounding her hands, but before she could launch an attack, a large green bubble rammed into her. The surprised Titan fell inside of it and landed roughly at the bottom of the orb.

"Let me out of here!" Raven demanded as she stood up. Calling out her mantra, the Titan sent black energy against the prison ball, only to have it bounce off and strike her instead.

"Nifty tool you got there, See-More," Red-X commented as he poked at the ball.

"Thanks..." See-More replied, switching his gaze back to normal. He looked at his prisoner and she looked back at him. There was now only anger in her eyes now.

"Oh, and we've run into a bit of trouble down where the ship is," Red-X announced, throwing a thumb at the trapped Titan in the floating ball. "Apparently not only did our little demoness free herself but she also managed to break the spell that Fixit had on the others. They are trying to break through the doors as we speak. We have security on our side now, but it won't hold them off for long. Oh, and Kyd Wykkyd is still missing to."

"Then let's take Raven with us. She can tell us what happened with Kyd Wykkyd and we can use her as a hostage so the rest of the Titan's don't try anything," See-More suggested, his single eye trailing to the book that lay trapped beside Raven.

"Couldn't of said it better myself," Red-X replied with a chuckle.