Facing Your Demons (Titans/Plot Thread)

Just as the monster was about to sink its teeth into the girl, a strange laugh flowed through the air. The creature grunted and spun around, staring at the hallway wall; a mirror with itself staring back.

"Always? Will you really be here always?"

"What? What is this trickery!?" The beast growled as he slashed at the mirror, breaking the glass as the laughter continue, a face laughing, amused, in each fragment as it rained down to the ground.

"You are but a shadow; a weak, temporary existence. You have no soul, no future; you are nothing."

The voice continued to echo through the halls, its walls bending and swaying as the voice spoke. The dream was weakening, Carrie could tell. The monster roared and bounded back up the stairs. Carrie, curiously followed.

"WHERE ARE YOU!?" The beast flung curtains to the side and flipped the couch angrily as it looked for the source of the voice.

"You only exist for one reason, and when the day comes that you cannot fulfill that reason, you will cease to exist all together." The voice continued to ring through the house, antagonizing the beast, Carrie staring in awe as it started to freak out. She'd never seen the beast show any emotion other than...hate...or was it anger? Now it was starting to taste something different: fear.

The beast clawed at the walls madly. "WHERE IS IT!? WHERE IS THE VOICE!?"

"You act as though the child should fear you, but in truth, it is you that fears her."

The beast's eyes grew wide as the voice spoke. Carrie looked at it and softly spoke. "It...It fears...Me?"

---

In the real world, the beast smashed a car in anger as Toji yelled at it. The beast turned and glared at the boy with hate in its eyes. It then jumped up, grabbing onto the ledge of a building and roared as a silhouette in the frame of the moon. Two of the Titans charged it, grabbing hold and sending a strong surge of electricity through it.

---

Carrie followed the creature as it rampaged into the kitchen, flipping the table madly, breathing heavily, nearly convulsing.

"For if she ever stops being afraid, you will cease to exist. You are dependent upon her, you NEED her to exist; but we both know she doesn't need you."

The beast would hurdled on the ground, grasping at its head, roaring in anger and madness. Carrie walked slowly up to it as it yelled, placing its hand on its head. It always seemed much bigger than this, but it could know fear too. Moments passed when Carrie realized that the speaking stopped, the beast stared at her, smiling widely, planning on going on the offensive again. Carrie removed her hand as the beast reared back and let out a deafening roar right in the girl's face.

Holding her stance, Carrie stood her ground in defiance of the beast. With a dismayed look on its face, the beast curled back and slowly walked backwards until it bumped into the oven.

"You won't hurt me...You need me. I'm...I'm NOT SCARED ANYMORE!"

With a swift motion, Carrie threw the monster into the oven. Monster roared in mad protest as she slowly tried to close it. With all her strength, she leaned her shoulder into the glass and kept pushing, forcing the monster further and further in. With a low thud, the oven finally clamped shut and the roaring stopped.

Carrie stood in the room for a moment. It was so quiet. It was just her and her house. She had conquered the beast...but what was that voice?

BZZZT!

A huge burn flowed through her body, making her fall to her knees in excruciating pain. She screamed as the pain didn't stop and blacked out.

---

The beast, holding on with all its energy loosened its grip as the combo was used on it, sending it flying to the ground, making a crater as it landed. Dust flew, clouding vision. As the dust would settle, instead of a beast lying in the small crater, a girl with cuts, bruises, blood and dust covering her laid unconscious in a night gown.

With all the strength she could muster, Carrie pried open her eyes. Her muscles were extremely sore as she tried to sit up and take account of her surroundings. Expecting to find herself in her own room, her heart started to pick up in pace as she looked upon an unfamiliar room. Everything she could see was a spotless white. She had been knocked out on a circular bed in the middle of a larger room with basically nothing else inside apart from a dresser. A small black cat lay sleeping beside her, oddly enough. There was a single door to her right and a wall made up entirely of glass, revealing the city's nightlife.

Where was she? How long was she out? Had she just blocked out the past weeks and now she was stuck in a psychiatric home? She thought that facing her night terror would help but...maybe it was a stupid idea. Still...that familiar feeling of something sinister watching her was gone and...wait, she had been asleep! Maybe for days! No dreams...No monsters...She felt awake, like, actually awake.

Still, she had to find out where she was, and what had happened. Carrie carefully made her way towards the door. It was a sort of modern door that slid into the wall when opened. She'd never seen one like it before, well, she'd never seen one in person before exactly like this one. She carefully raised her hand to pull the handle when, right before her hand hit the handle, the door slid quickly open, causing Carrie to freeze in the doorway.

"Hello? Where am I?" She immediately spoke, expecting whoever was entering to have any answers she needed.

Her face turning pale and white, along with her pupils dilating to a ridiculous level, Carrie began to feel sick. Was she still dreaming? She didn't think so, but why on earth would she be at the Titans Tower? She'd seen the Titans on tv and on the news, but she never thought she'd see a Titan up close. And the leader, no less.

"Why am I here...?" She spoke quickly, trying her best to steady her voice.

Carrie knew she was nothing special...actually it was worse than that. She was a problem, that was it. A stress for her mother and now this...what had she done to be here? This was worse than calling her mom from prison, easily.

Feeling herself become light headed, Carrie stumbled back and sat down on the white bed. "Oh god...What...did I do?"

Hotwire moved over to the bed and showed Carrie his wrist computer. She covered her mouth in horror as she saw her nightmare wreaking havoc on downtown Jump, starting fires and throwing cars, before being subdued by the actual Teen Titans.

"That...that's me? But..." As she hummed through her words, everything started to make sense. Her night terrors weren't normal. She'd known that for a long time. But, now she poked the beast, and it was mad that she was finally fighting back.

"You're wrong Hotwire...I mean...you're right, I guess," she spoke with a quiver in her throat, rubbing her upper arm, shyly. "That was me, but...I don't know if I can control it. It's subdued now, but...I...I don't know if I want to mess with him again."

It was strange. The social strain of what was happening and what she had done should be devastating, but, she had a peace in her heart now, because she knew that her monster had been conquered.