The Madness Within

[Serenity Nashimura]

This is a continuation thread of previous adventures between Raven and Serenity. The two girls projected themselves into Serenity's mind in order to fight the shadows in her mind, named Kerry. Currently, they are in Serenity's sub-conscious mind, in the castle of memories, facing Kerry.

---

Serenity felt herself shaking, breath catching. She stared at Kerry and it was as if she were looking in a horrible mirror. Black hair, shadow covered eyes, pale skin and a maniac skin, Kerry was everything Serenity never wanted to be.

"You're not real!" Serenity shouted, still trembling. She needed Kerry gone, needed her mind back. She couldn't live with this thing, this disease living inside her.

Kerry cocked her head to the side. Her shoulders started rocking then shook as she tipped her head back and laughed. "Not real?" Kerry cried. "Not real?! I AM you, Serenity! How many times have I told you that! I am you! I am your mind! Your powers!"

"No! You're my weakness! You're evil!"

At this, Kerry stopped. Her shadowed eyes narrowed and the smile finally dropped. "Your weakness? Evil?" The shadows around the room started shaking and the constant noise of the memories grew louder, as if the frames were agitated. Serenity felt shivers run down her back. Kerry continued in a quiet voice, "No, Serenity. I am your strength. I am the deepest instincts in your mind and the darkest parts of your shadows. I am all you want and what you can be. I. Am. YOU!"

And then Kerry turned suddenly and sent a shadow spear right for Raven.

[Rachel Roth]

This, Raven reflected, was why she had left the heroing business. Because for every grand victory, she had always known that there would be a battle she would not -- could not -- win. And perhaps this was it. There was not clear way to defeat Kerry. Not without destroying Serenity as well. Her friend was arguing with Kerry, but, as much as Raven hated to admit it, the shadow was right. Kerry was Serenity's power. Out of control, mad from its own lust and greed and life, but her. But if she was left as she was, she would take over, and Serenity as Raven knew her would effectively die.

For a single dark moment, Raven wondered to herself. Would it be better to end it all now with a mercy stroke? Kill Serenity before Kerry takes over, let her die as herself rather than a monster?

The thought was fleeting, though, and Raven quickly locked it away. She would not go there, not now, not ever. They would fight until they win, or until they died trying. That was how they had always lived before, and it would not stop now. But that still left the question, what to do? Her first instinct was to protect her friend, shield her. As soon as she had made the decision, Raven started funneling energy into Serenity. She filled her friend with peace and calm, helping her to think before acting, making a bubble of safety around her friend.

She was focusing so much on her friend, she didn't see the spear until it was almost too late. It loomed in her peripheral vision and when she tried to dodge is seemed she moved at slow motion. The weapon was made of shadows, but the blade was razor sharp and sliced through her left arm, ripping flesh and fabric alike. When she cried out, it sounded distant, like someone else's voice. She knew that, back in the real world, a likewise wound had appeared on her real body. If it was too bad, the shock might kill her, or she could bleed out before her spirit returned to her body. They needed to finish this fast, or Raven would be forced to abandon her friend. There would be no choice.

Raven lay on the floor of the castle in her friend's mind, breathing heavily. The pain was excruciating, but she forced herself to sperate herself from it, thinking. "Serenity!" She yelled, suddenly terrified. She could see nothing but the ceiling, what if her friend had been gotten too? "Serenity!"

[Serenity Nashimura]

"Raven!" Serenity screamed. She felt her stomach drop as her friend called out for her, terrified that she would lose her friend or that she would be stuck here, by herself, surely doomed against her darker side. She turned blue eyes onto Kerry, glaring. "Leave her alone!" When it came to her friends, Serenity was extremely protective and of course Kerry would go after her best friend.

Rushing forward, the shadows came together in her hands to form a sword. Though not very skilled at swordsmanship, she swung the blade at Kerry. The shadow girl looked surprised but jumped out of the way, grinning wildly.

"Now for some fun, eh?" she asked, head tilted ever so slightly, giving her an insane look. In what would have been impressive in another situation, a Gatling gun formed in her hands. Despite the immense size and supposed weight, Kerry held it easily and began to shoot. Serenity instinctively brought up shadows, forming a barrier. The shadow bullets ricocheted off of it while Kerry laughed. Serenity made the shield grow and move as she ran to where Raven lay. While they were both protected, she looked at her wounded arm.

"I'm sorry," Serenity apologized, somehow feeling responsible, like she should have known Kerry's plan. "Are you okay?"

Kerry, tired of just shooting at a wall, yelled out, "Come on, coward! Are you just going to hide from me?"

[Rachel Roth]

Raven's irrational fear kept growing inside her as she heard the sounds of battle around her, but she had fallen awkwardly and couldn't move to see what was going on. Her breathing only returned to a semblance of normalcy when Serenity appeared, very much alive, at her side. Swinging her good arm up and latching onto Serenity's shoulder, Raven slowly dragged herself into a sitting position and craned her neck, looking around cautiously. The black shield surrounded them, but the sound of bullets echoed eerily off the barrier. That and Kerry's maniacal laughter.

"Good shield." Raven said huskily, complimenting her friend. "Did I teach you how to do that?" There had been a lot of trading tricks over the years between the two of them, so that now it was hard to remember sometimes. Raven's head felt muffled and cottony. Shaking it, as if that would clear it, she said thickly, "The longer this draws out, the worse off we are. This is her home turf, now. Raven swallowed and glanced ruefully at the gash on her arm. "We can't kill her, can we? Then what do we do. Can she be knocked out, do we put her to sleep, lock her up? Raven was breathing heavily with the exertion of sitting up. Vaguely, she was aware of the blood running in rivulets down her arm. "What can I do?"

[Serenity Nashimura]

Serenity watched the way the blood ran down Raven's arm and clenched her jaw. The sound of bullets and Kerry echoed behind her but she tried to ignore it. "You probably showed it to me at some point..." She looked at the shield. "I just kind of imagined it..." She hadn't really thought about it, but her shadows were a lot more powerful here.

At the question, Serenity shook her head. "No, we can't kill her... I can't..." Serenity sighed. "I can't give up my shadows." She looked again at Raven's bleeding arm.

"Sleep? Locked out... Wait!" Serenity looked over to the throne where sat. She turned back to Raven, a familiar clever glint in her eye. "We can lock her up! Chain her to the throne! It'll keep her from messing with my mind but keeps my shadows! We just need to- Ahh!"

Apparently fed up with shooting at a wall, she switched to small knifes. Rushing to an opening, Kerry threw a blade that flew and lodged itself into Serenity's shoulder. She fell back from the force of it, a hand around the wound. With a grunt of pain, she ripped the knife out and threw it back to where Kerry was. But the shadow girl dodged and laughed.

"Think I can't hear you over there, planning? It won't work! You cannot chain me!"

[Rachel Roth]

"No!" Raven shouted involuntarily as the knife lodged in her friend's shoulder. There wasn't much time now, before they were both forced to retreat or dead. Pulling off her cloak, Raven began ripping it into strips. The first she wrapped tightly around Serenity's serenity's shoulder, checking the wound. It was deep, but clean. It should be fine for a little bit at least with Raven's bandage.

The next strip she tied awkwardly around her own arm as a tourniquet, cutting off blood to the wound. Not perfect, but it would do. While she did so, she was already formulating a plan, saying "She'll have to be chained by you and you'll have to hold that key alone, however, that may not be enough. Let me put some locks in her mind, so that she's not able to fight as strongly, if at all."

Raven wiped a bloody hand over her face, smearing some red onto the pale skin. The effect was a bizarre and terrifying war paint. Looking to Serenity, Raven could have grinned at her next words. "I lead her, you chain."

"Think I can't hear you over there, planning? It won't work! You cannot chain me!"

At Kerry's words, Raven rose up and floated towards the shadow girl, phasing through the shield to hover directly before what her friend might have been. Grinning in a terrible way that she had once used to frighten Dr. Light into submission, she started charging up power. "You misunderstand, Kerry." Raven let loose a blast of power at the ground next to Kerry, causing her to loose her footing for a moment. "The point isn't to keep it a secret. Another blast shuddered into the floor, and Raven hoped Serenity was using the time to get ready. "The point is," Raven flew suddenly very close to Kerry, right into her face, and whispered one word, "fear" And Raven blasted Kerry again, this time sending painful probes right into her mind, searching for what the girl was most afraid of. Kerry shrieked angrily and blasted Raven right back. Raven was forced to lay off and dodge, but Kerry looked worse for the wear after her run in with the telepath.

"You think you can scare me? You are nothing, you're just along for the ride. You think you have power here?" Kerry pulled on the shadows around her and drew them to her from all around the room. As she did so, her throne was finally revealed for where it had been sheltered. Raven grinned evilly, phase one complete. "You think you're getting out of here alive. You make her soft! You make her weak, you - with your heroing and your costumes and your hospital. I think part of the reason she's as bad as she is now, is because of you."

Several huge wolves separated themselves from the shadows that were now all around and approached Raven, licking their chops hungrily. Raven, however, didn't even glance at them. She was making hand symbols, with her eyes closed. However, when the rant was over, she intoned with an edge in her voice "You're getting the memories mixed up, silly girl. Your mistake is that you're the girl that never met me. That means, you're the girl that never learned any tricks from me. Thus" Raven's eyes flashed open. "I can still kick your ass!"

Raven's soul self slipped out of her body like a giant bird with huge wings, and the form hurtled at Kerry. There was nothing she could have done as the bird slammed into her full force and continued flying, carrying her back to the throne and depositing her ungracefully in its seat. Around Raven, one of the wolves whimpered, and she looked down at it fiercely.

"That's right, you run away."

OOC -- OMG super long post. Sorry! Hope this makes up for me being busy the rest of the day

[Serenity Nashimura]

Serenity was surprised when Raven, in quick movements from years of practice, ripped her cloak and in what seemed to be a matter of seconds, had her shoulder bandaged and her own arm covered. Serenity knew that Raven was a healer, it was a huge part of who she was, but Serenity hadn't seen her in action for a while. A smirk rose to her lips and it only grew larger as Raven made her war paint. It was indeed terrifying, though it did make Serenity want to laugh. It felt very much like old times.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Serenity asked, though she already knew the answer. As Raven passed through the shield, Serenity let it drop. She started looking around for the throne they had spotted when they first came in. The shadows were thick but they were Serenity's element. She cast eyes around and managed to find it quickly.

With a look at Raven terrifying Kerry, Serenity couldn't help but grin, feeling confidence growing. The shadows formed around her, bending to her will. Chain links began appearing, black and heavy, forming long lines. When the wolves showed up, one turned its eyes to Serenity. It growled at her, baring teeth and claws. Serenity brought shadows up around her face, taking Raven's war paint idea to the shadows. They formed a mask around her face, making her eyes shadowed, cheekbones high and teeth sharp. She let loose a growl, louder and deeper than the wolves. Then, right behind her, Kerry crashed into the throne. The wolf's ears dropped and it backed off.

Serenity let the mask fall and quickly sent the shadow chains to Kerry. It shackled her wrists, ankles, throat and torso to the throne. The chains wrapped around and around, lacing over each other and nearly hiding her body, save for her hands, feet and head.

Kerry glared at her with black eyes. "You can't chain me with shadows! I am your shadows!" To prove her point, she stranded against the links. But Serenity could see that she was weak and the chains didn't break. Even so, she sent out a few more.

"That's right," Serenity said. "You are my shadows. But that means I control you! And I know your weaknesses." Then, a large shadow lock appeared and clipped itself to the chains. She was about to make a key of shadows but paused.

The castle around them started to shake and rumble but Serenity kept calm. Suddenly, the door to the room burst open and the memory frames came flooding in. They surrounded Kerry and a great mass of them combined making a massive key. The key slid into the lock and the sound echoed around the room as Kerry was locked.

"Break out now," Serenity taunted. Kerry couldn't control the memories, thus couldn't break out. Once the memories had locked, they dispersed themselves around the room, increasing the strength of the barrier around Kerry.

[Rachel Roth]

"Enjoying this?" Raven asked, somewhat incredulously, before giving a mad and slightly animalistic grin. [/color=white]"Do you really need to ask?"[/color] The truth was that Raven was having the time of her life. She was terrified of Kerry, was possibly bleeding to death back in her body in the real world, her best friend might be on the brink of insanity or worse, and she was fighting with her powers at full force. She had sworn to leave that kind of life behind, to pursue a life of peace and healing. And yet, here in the heat of battle, running on autopilot and old reflexes, she was happier than she had been in three years. Part of it was unquestionably because of her reunification with her friend, no matter how the circumstances, but a part of Raven whispered -- "You missed the fighting

There was little time for introspection, though. As soon as Kerry crashed into the throne, heavy chains rose up from the nothingness, weighing her down and locking her in place. This part was all Serenity, and Raven took a grateful rest. Slipping down to kneel on the floor, she watching in stoic admiration as Serenity deftly wound the shadows into tangible chains, layering them again and again over Kerry while the shadow girl writhed and shrieked. Her threats and pleas fell on deaf ears, however, and there was a rush of satisfaction when Kerry was unable to break free of the chains that bound her.

What happened next, though, was beyond Raven. She recognized a few of the memories that flooded into the room, but they came in a rush and their purpose was a mystery to her. She wasn't sure what they were for, but it seemed to have the right effect because Kerry seemed to practically shrink as the key sounded through the suddenly calm room.

With an effort not to show the weakness in her legs, Raven stood again, perhaps relying more on her powers than she usually would. Walking to her friend who stood in the middle of the room, Raven placed a hand on her shoulder. "Well done." She said gently, her touch like a feather and her voice little more than a whisper. "You've done it." Raven's face showed no emotion, it was as emotionless and stony as ever. However, her voice was warm, if tired, and she stood ready to catch Serenity if she toppled. The weariness in them both, though, was radiating powerfully and Raven was concerned.

"We should return to our bodies now. Come, let me take you back, you're done here. Raven started making the correct incantations to return them to their bodies, hand symbols awkward and jerky because of her arm. She had almost finished when a voice crowed from behind them.

"You're a fool, Serenity, trusting her. She's a coward, and she doesn't know you -- not like I do. Just because you've chained me, doesn't mean I'm wrong. Someday you'll come to regret doing this... I know. I know you will, I know I will..." Her words faltered suddenly and she began to laugh maniacally, the sound clinging to the walls of the castle and lingering too long. "You think she can help you? No one can, no one but me. You'll see, they'll all see..."

Raven had placed a restraining hand on Serenity's arm during the speech, but at the last, the darker girl turned suddenly. Using a simple trick from her childhood, she made herself larger, looming over the mad girl chained in her throne. "You think she needed me to defeat you?" Raven asked incredulously, fiercely. "Think again, girl. Serenity" Raven put special emphasis on the name, "defeated you by her own damn self, I'm just here for comic relief."

Cracking a truly demonic smile at the shadow girl, Raven shrank back to her normal size and looked to Serenity as though nothing had ever happened. Waving one hand to create a doorway of sorts before them, Raven offered the other to her friend. "Shall we?"

[Serenity Nashimura]

Serenity watched the memories slowly move around, a barrier to stop Kerry. The shadow girl was glaring at her with weak but piercing eyes. Eyes that Serenity could easily imagine peering from a dark corner waiting to strike, eyes that guaranteed that it wasn't over. And instead of glaring back, Serenity simply looked at her. If she ignored the hateful words, the black eyes, the sneer on her lip, Serenity could almost see the child Kerry had once been - the child she had once been. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Something told her that even with Kerry chained up, if she continued down the razor sharp path she'd been walking between right and wrong, hero and villain, she was destined to tempt fate. There were only so many chances a person got.

Raven placed her hand on Serenity's shoulder and suddenly, her knees felt weak, her eyes drooped and her mouth cracked open in a yawn. "Man, battling your own mind sure is tiring," she said. She accepted Raven's words with a smile and a nod of thank you. "Couldn't have done it without you," she responded truthfully. Not only would she have not been able to project herself into her mind, she wouldn't have had the courage to stand up to her darker side without her friend standing with her.

Serenity was looking forward to getting back to her body, as a nap sounded heavenly right about then, but then Kerry decided to throw one last taunt out. Serenity turned to her, ready to retort but Raven beat her to it. In an impressively terrifying show, Raven made Serenity pause. She stared at her friend with a slightly slack jaw, and when Raven turned back to her, expressionless as always, she blinked a few times before tipping her head back and laughing. "Comic relief, indeed!"

The door formed before them and Serenity grinned at it. "Yeah, let's blow this Popsicle stand. I can't think with all this noise," she joked, motioning to the memory frames and the white noise they were creating. Without glancing back at Kerry, Serenity grabbed Raven's outstretched hand and stepped through the door.

[Rachel Roth]

Raven was surprised that Serenity still had enough energy to laugh like she did. Raven felt ready to drop dead for a month. However, she held the door, and her friend, steady. She started to walked forward, pausing only a minute when Serenity mentioned she couldn't think with all the noise. At that, Raven stopped momentarily and cocked her head. To her, the room was silent aside from slight shiftings and mutterings coming from Kerry's direction. To Raven, the memories were silent, but Serenity's face was serious.

Reflecting that she would probably never understand entirely how Serenity's powers worked, Raven took a deep breath and, leading her friend, stepped through the door.

----- BACK IN THE REAL WORLD -----

Raven's soul self returning to her body felt like being doused in cold water, shocking her senses. For a moment everything was on overdrive as she acclimated herself to her body again, sounds too loud, sight to clear and sharp, colors too bright, the feel of her clothing against her skin like sandpaper. Then it died down again, the cold feeling passed, and with it did any energy Raven might have possessed. She had been sitting in her customary position, cross-legged in mid-air, but now she tumbled down from that point and landed less than gracefully on the floor.

The landing jarred her arm and she shouted. Looking down, blood flowed freely from the wound and stained her clothing and floor. It had never gotten bandaged in the real world. She tried to stand to get to her extensive collection of medical equipment, but toppled before she even made it standing completely. Eyes reading the clock on the bed stand and trying to calculate how long they had been gone and how long since she had been wounded, she croaked,

"Serenity?" Not loud enough. She tried again. "Serenity? You back yet?" Pause. "I might need some help."

[Serenity Nashimura]

Serenity watched Raven cock her head to side, as if not understanding her joke. To her, the memories were all talking in low, humming voices, lives playing on as if on a video recorder. Serenity wondered if Raven could hear it. Then they stepped through the door.

--REAL WORLD TIME--

Serenity returned to her body in a large whoosh. Her eyes open, chest moved to take a deep breath and for what felt like a few minutes, but what was probably only a few moments, she could feel everything. Every shadow in the room was darker against the light, her breath sounded like a tornado in her chest, the air in the room felt too closed in and yet too far away and her skin was covered in goosebumps.

Then the feeling passed and she was blinking, trying to coordinate herself. As she tried to sit up, her shoulder flared in pain and she looked and found blood oozing out. Not terribly bad but in need of healing. But something else stopped her.

"The voices," she murmured. "They're all... quiet..." Indeed, the usual voices in her head, the sound of the memories playing wasn't there. She closed her eyes and concentrated and breathed a small sigh of relief when the sounds returned. But when she opened her eyes, the noise faded to where she could only hear it on the edge of her hearing. It was strange, not having that constant back noise.

Serenity sat there, thinking about it so intensely that she missed Raven's first call of her name. She blinked a few times and looked over to her friend. "Raven!" she cried, rushing to her feet. Her head swum for a moment and she gripped the bed before slowly going to her knees and crawling over to where Raven lay. "Your arm! You're still hurt!"

She looked around, saw bandages and few other things and jumped up to get them, ignoring the blood rushing to her head as she so. "What do you need? What do I get?" she asked, panicking just a little. Serenity wasn't a healer, despite how much she managed to get injured. "Better not die on me now."

[Rachel Roth]

"Well, the first thing you can do," Raven grunted, "Is to stop leaping around like that. You'll do something lasting if you keep up like that." Looking pointedly at her friend's blood soaked shoulder, she said "You're not exactly doing so well yourself." However, Raven was in worse condition by far and she knew it. Gesturing weakly at a bandage roll on the floor, she instructed Serenity to bandage her own shoulder first, saying "Start at your shoulder join then move down, make it tight."

She watched with a critical eye, correcting her friend when she did it wrong, and making sure it was just right before letting it go. Finally, when she was sure Serenity was not going to bleed out, Raven beckoned her back over. "This is the fun part." She started to stand slowly, holding out an arm for Serenity to steady her, leaning heavily on the furniture. "There's a good hospital on the corner of First and Amistad, across from Mr. Katchikori's bar. Think you can get me there?"

It was not something she liked, putting herself somewhere so public as a hospital when she was this weak, but there was no other choice. She couldn't heal herself, her powers would not let her. And though she loved her friend very dearly, she wasn't about to let Serenity near her wound, especially in the state she was in now. Raven did have some self preservation.

[Serenity Nashimura]

Serenity stopped panicking for a couple of seconds and looked at her shoulder. It actually didn't hurt that bad. Maybe it was adrenaline or the fact that she'd had a lot worse or she was just mentally blocking out the pain but, whatever it was, she far more concerned with Raven's condition than her own. But she couldn't exactly argue with the girl, seeing as how she couldn't just stroll over there and heal her so she sat down, pouting as she did and started the process of wrapping her shoulder. Being right-handed, wrapping her right shoulder with her left hand was extremely irritating and from her expression, it was easy to see that she wasn't having an fun time at it.

"And you do this all the time. For fun. And we're questioning my sanity," Serenity said, completely joking of course. There was no question about her sanity. She was crazy as a bat. But, thankfully, Raven verbally walked her through it so she finally had her shoulder wrapped tightly.

"Wait, this is the fun part?" she continued to joke, helping her friend stand. Though, when Raven mentioned an actual hospital, Serenity stared at her for a second. They both knew how risky it was for a super to go into a hospital, especially in this day and age where everyone and their mother was shouting for supers to register. But Serenity didn't mention it, as she knew that Raven already knew the risks. Instead, she just gave her friend her signature smirk.

"Well then, fine. Don't let me heal you." she said, sticking out her tongue. She wondered for a moment where she was getting all of her energy. But she continued with her sarcasm, pretending to eye Raven up. "I don't know. You weigh, what, 80 pounds max? I think I can get you there. Maybe. If you stop eating brick pies for breakfast." Already, there was a shadow portal forming near them. Serenity looked at the portal and at the shadows that formed them. Using her shadows didn't feel any different. She hoped that didn't mean that Kerry had already broken out. Though, she figured that if Kerry did somehow magically break out, she'd know. Kerry's last glare had practically screamed revenge.

Once the portal was formed, the other end a block from the hospital as it wouldn't do to just shadow portal into the hospital itself, Serenity crouched a bit and beckoned to Raven. "Think you can get on my back?' she asked.

[Rachel Roth]

Raven tried to laugh at her friend's mock complaining, but it turned into a grimace. Pausing to cough, she answered "They're part of my new weight-loss program for out of work heroes and impoverished children. One brick pie a day as part of a nutritious breakfast. Want to try one?" She was speaking now, however, just to fill the empty space. She could feel Serenity's worry and wished to diffuse it as much as possible. Worrying would do neither of them any good, and Raven hoped that - once at the hospital - Serenity would be able to get her should looked at.

She watched carefully as her friend used her powers, trying to discern any difference. It looked the same as usual, but that didn't mean much, and Raven wasn't sure if that meant Kerry was still captive, or had broken free. However, Serenity didn't say anything, so Raven hoped for the best and let it go. She would ask later, when things were less crazy.

"Think you can get on my back?" Serenity asked, and Raven groaned aloud. Lurching forward from the bed to her friend, she said darkly, "This is, without question, the most uniquely shameful thing I have done. I am not sack of potatoes." Then, after a pause to get her breath back, "If you ever breath a word about this, I will break you."

However, as she was carried through the Porthole, she breathed a tiny sigh of relief. She had forgotten how nice it was, not to have to be in charge. For once, she could trust someone else to do what had do. Doing just that, she took a deep breath, telling her friend, "I'm just going to pass out now." And then did just that.

((OOC - move to a new thread?))