Chapter Twenty-Four | Questions, Part One

The cave made not a sound as the odd group of heroes and villains sat, stood, and slept within the natural rock formation. See-More tried his best to stay awake and focused as they remained silent, but he continually had to fight with the strange exhaustion that had plagued them since the crash. Thankfully, he did manage to get one of his prototype shields to secrete from his eye in time to protect him, but it still wasn't enough to keep him from hitting his head and blacking out. Now that he was awake, the optical thief found it increasingly harder to remain so.

"Beastboy, I have a simple proposition for you," Fixit finally announced after he and the green colored Titan had finished their minute long staring contest.

"Forget it! I will never work for the likes of you!" Beastboy shouted back, fighting against his restraints as he knelt on the ground. See-More and Red-X had an amusing time several minutes go watching the Titan morph into nearly every creature of the animal kingdom as he tried to free himself, only to have Fixit's mechanical straps simply alter their size in order to keep the hero restrained.

"You may have managed to remove Blackfire's collar, but I assure you your new restraints will not be removed unless I wish it."

"Yeah, c'mon, kid, just tell us what we need to know and we'll let you and your freaky dark demon princess go," Red-X spoke up, looking incredibly bored as he propped up his head with one of his arms.

"Never!" Beastboy shouted out in defiance. "Neverrrrrrr!"

"Beastboy, I can make you tell me what I need to know," Fixit informed as he casually walked towards the Titan. "I only asked out of common courtesy."

"Well then, you're going to have to do your worst," Beastboy said with a growl as he stared into Fixit's blank, red eyes. The mechanic slowly raised one of his arms. "Because I--"

The Titan was cut off whenFixit's clawed index finger made contact with his forehead. Immediately, Beastboy's green eyes shone with a bright red to match the intensity of Fixit's luminous eyes.

"What is your alias?" Fixit asked as he stared into Beastboy's red eyes.

"Beastboy," the green teen responded immediately.

"What is your name?"

"Garfield Logan."

"Garfield?" Red-X saidwith a snicker. See-More couldn't help but chuckle as well. It was a pretty dumb name; he could understand why the Titan would want to be called something like Beastboy.

"How did you find us?" Fixit continued, pointedly ignoring the two thieves.

"I snuck onto the T-Ship as a fly before you took off. When the ship crashed, I tried to rescue Raven and found the cave."

"Who cares how the twerp found us? Just get him to tell us what she did with Kyd Wykkyd," Red-X said, throwing a thumb to the still dozing Raven.

"Yeah, man! Wykkyd's been trapped like...forever!" See-More joined in, mostly to try and add something to the conversation.

"What has Raven done with Kyd Wykkyd?" Fixit asked.

"I do not know," Beastboy responded on a dime.

"He doesn't know? Are you serious?" Red-X sighed, rubbing a hand over his masked face. "We would be stuck with the dumb one to interrogate."

"I was afraid of this," the mechanic muttered, closing his eyes briefly before fixing them back on the green Titan. "Sleep."

Beastboy then promptly closed his eyes and fell over, a dreamy look on his face as he fell into a deep sleep.

"Well, what do we do now?" See-More asked hesitantly as his single eye watched Fixit move from one Titan to the other.

"There is only one thing left to do." Fixit  knelt down beside Raven. "I will have to enter deeper into her mind and extract the information."

"Slow down there, Quick Fix," Red-X said as he attempted to back away from the pair. "Last time you tried this demon girl almost killed me."

"I underestimated her willpower last time. I will not do so again."

"Right. Well, I'll be busy getting as far away from you as possible. You know, just in case."

"Hey, man, are you sure this is the best way to find Wykkyd?" See-More pressed, the last time Fixit went in too deep still fresh in his mind.

"I am sure, See-More," Fixit replied without looking up at him, his hands gently resting on the sides of Raven's head. "But I do suggest that you and Red-X give us a wide berth of space."

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Red-X stated, already trying to stand up. "See-More, you mind giving me a hand here?"

"Yeah, sure thing," the thief responded as he walked over to his fellow teen and, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, lifted the masked criminal up. Red-X only let out a few groans of pain as they made their way over to where Beastboy slept on the opposite side of the cave.

"So, we should make a back-up plan in-case this doesn't go exactly as planned..." Red-X suggested as the two of them looked on as the mechanic silently delved into the Titan's mind.

"What kind of plan?" See-More asked.

Yet, before the other thief could respond, a terrible, demonic scream suddenly rumbled through the entirety of the small cave. The two thieves looked back towards where Fixit and Raven were only to be forced to jump in surprise when a blur of motion suddenly went sailing past them and crashing into the cave wall beside them. See-More's eye was then glued to wall where a very battered and beaten looking teen in a black and blue costume now lay.

"Kyd Wykkyd!" The thief exclaimed, making a move towards him, only to be stopped by Red-X.

"I think you might want to hold off on a reunion," his fellow thief informed as See-More followed his gaze to see that Fixit was now the one lying on the cave floor while a very awake, and very pissed looking Raven now stood before them, four red eyes glowing in the midst of the blackness of her shroud.

"H-Hey Rae, long time no see!" See-More greeted with a sheepish smile. 

To their surprise, Raven smiled back. But it was a very large, very creepy smile.

"At last, at long last, I am free again!" Raven declared, her voice shaking loose stones free from the cave walls. The sorceress then reached down and lifted up Fixit from the ground with a tendril of dark energy. "So, my savior likes to play mind games? Allow me to offer my gratitude in kind..."

"You know that plan I told you we should plan?" Red-X whispered into See-More's ear.

"Yeah..."

Raven then dropped Fixit to the ground, yet the mechanic remained standing, head bowed.

"Well, here it is..."

Fixit then looked up, though the red eyes they were expecting were now totally encompassed by blackness.

"RUN!" Red-X shouted, shoving See-More away from him and towards the cave. The optical teen took several staggering steps towards the cave entrance, expecting Red-X to be right behind him, but when he looked back all he could see was black tentacles of darkness plow into the masked thief, sending him into the cave wall and out of sight.

"Oh man oh shit oh man oh crap!" See-More cursed as he ran out of the cave. Using his x-ray vision, See-More peered through the back of his head only to see a very demented looking Fixit hot on his trail.

"Succumb to the darkness!" Fixit cried in his eerie melancholy voice.

"No thanks!" See-More shouted back, doing his best to keep a good distance of space between him and his pursuer.

"There is no use in fighting." The mechanic then shot out his hand and, through the back of his head, the thief could see several black tentacles suddenly shoot out from his arm. 

I didn't know he could do that!

See-More dodge rolled to the side as the black tentacles made a strike at his back. As soon as he was back on his feet, he was back to running, Fixit hot on his tail. The optical teen desperately wanted to switch to one of his gazes that would help fend off his former comrade, but he never really devoted his time to memorizing how many turns were needed for each gaze, and his free time was currently occupied by switching between his regular vision and x-ray.

"Ohmonohshitohmanohshitohman," See-More said, using his normal vision to sprint around a large, jagged piece of rock. He switched back to his x-ray vision just in time to see a black tendril slam into the back of his head.

With a gasp of surprise, the teen's world turned upside down as his feet left the ground for several seconds, his reality quickly righted itself, however, when See-More's body returned to the ground, his body suddenly pelted by the numerous jagged rocks that littered the planet's surface.

The teen tried to stand back up, despite the new pains and aches that wracked his body, but he wasn't more than halfway off the ground the black tentacles suddenly slammed into him, wrapping around his mid-section and lifting him back into the air.

See-More looked over to Fixit's face with the intention in trying to talk some sense into the mechanic. But, as soon as the thief's eye locked with Fixit's, his entire body froze over. The villain's usual blank stare was all but gone, replaced completely with a hatred and rage so deep and so filling it took See-More's breath away. But it was looking into Fixit's eyes, into those two black coals of burning anger, that convinced him that his comrade was long gone.

"Let's play a game," Fixit hissed, his stoic voice suddenly dripping with malice. "I'm going to smash you into the ground and count how many times it takes for your body to turn into a bloody mess of nothingness."

"Hey, man, th-that doesn't sound like a very fun game for me!" See-More exclaimed, desperately trying to buy time as the tendrils of blackness rose him even higher into the air. "How do we decide if I win?!"

Fixit looked up at him, giving him the most wicked of smiles. "If I get to 100, you win." 

The black tentacles then rose for the final time and See-More realized he was moments away from being slammed into the painfully rocky ground below. Gripping the dial on the side of his head, See-More aimed his eye at Fixit and twisted.

"I'm really sorry for this man...I hope!"

The teen then let out whatever gaze he had landed on. To his surprise, an intense sonic blast erupted from his socket, the sound echoing throughout the air around them. Fixit only had time to raise a brow before the blast connected with his head. The mechanic let out a horrible human scream mixed with the echoes of a machine and See-More watched as both sides of his head, where his ears would be, suddenly exploded outwards.

All at once, the blackness left his eyes and the black tentacles fell from around See-More, giving the teen enough time to land on his feet, albeit with enough force to send a jolt of pain up to his brain.

"Fixt! Hey, you okay, man?!" See-More called as he ran over to the fallen mechanic. Fixit's eyes were closed and his face was strangely peaceful despite the wires that now hung out from the sides of his head, static pulsing around them.

"Oh man oh man. I didn't kill you, did I?" The thief asked as he knelt beside his comrade. Not much to his surprise, Fixit didn't respond. "Oh man oh god oh man."

See-More then attempted to lift the mechanic up, only to realize that he was much heavier than he looked. It was like trying to pick up an iron anvil. Even trying to drag him by his feet proved to be an impossible task.

Okay okay...What would Jinx do? See-More thought to himself, something he thought a lot when he was in a jam. Only this time thinking about her brought a dark pang to his heart. She'd probably just make out with Kid Flash.

Brushing those thoughts aside, See-More sat on the ground, quickly regretting it as the jagged rocks dug into his backside. Still, he remained where he sat and quickly went through the numerous gazes he had, looking for something that would help him with moving Fixit. 

As he sat there and searched, he began to realize just how many different visions he had, many he had never even used before despite the fact that it was him who designed it. Well, except for the one that filled his vision with a sea of naked ladies. With a deep red blush covering his face, See-More quickly moved on to the next one, remembering vaguely that he meant to get Gizmo back for messing with his eyewear. Thinking that just filled his heart with more weight.

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