The team dispersed, Hikaru headed to his room, changing into his hero costume—white and gold armor over black tactical gear, the hood pulled low. His father's sword at his hip.
When he emerged, Raven was waiting in the hallway, her dark cloak fastened and hood raised.
"You didn't have to shield me," she said quietly. "From the bullets."
"Yes, I kinda did." Hikaru met her violet eyes. "You didn't want to use your powers with so many people watching. You're my friend, Roth. That's what friends do."
A few emotions flickered across her barely changing face. Emotions that he had learned to read dispite their subtlety—gratitude, warmth, and something more complicated he couldn't quite identify. "Thank you."
"Always." He smiled. "Besides, what good is being bulletproof if I don't use it to help people I care about?"
Her lips twitched, almost forming a smile. "Fair point."
They rejoined the others in the main operations room. The Titans stood assembled in full gear—a team of young heroes ready to face down a cult that had operated in the shadows for centuries.
Robin pulled up the warehouse location one final time. "Remember—pull your punches against mind-controlled members. But Brother Blood himself is a valid target. We don't know what powers he has, so stay alert and communicate."
"Titans," he said, and Hikaru felt the familiar surge of anticipation. "Move out."
The warehouse district was dark and largely abandoned, with only scattered security lights breaking the shadows. The Titans approached in formation, using cover and darkness to mask their advance.
Hikaru and Raven moved through an alley parallel to the target building, her empathic senses scanning for emotional signatures while his enhanced vision picked out details in the darkness.
"How many?" he whispered.
Raven's eyes glowed beneath her hood. "Twenty-three on the ground floor. Fifteen in the basement. And one..." She frowned. "One that feels wrong."
"Brother Blood?"
"Has to be." Her hands clenched. "His presence is... invasive. Like oil spreading across water."
Hikaru's hand found the hilt of his sword. "We've got this."
Robin's voice came through their communicators. "All teams in position. Breach in three... two... one... go!"
The coordinated assault began.
Donna and Starfire crashed through the northern wall in an explosion of concrete and rebar. Cyborg's sonic cannon blasted open the main entrance while Robin fired smoke bombs inside. Beast Boy became a rhinoceros, charging through a side door.
Hikaru and Raven entered through a loading bay, finding themselves in a large open space filled with rows of sleeping cultists. No—not sleeping. Their eyes were open, vacant, glowing with a faint red light.
"Mind controlled," Raven said grimly. "All of them."
The cultists rose as one, their movements synchronized and unnatural. They didn't speak, didn't threaten—just advanced with mechanical precision.
"Non-lethal," Hikaru reminded himself, created a staff out of light. "Let's clear a path."
Raven's dark energy formed barriers, corralling groups of cultists while Hikaru moved through them with precise strikes—targeting pressure points, inducing unconsciousness without causing lasting damage. They fell like puppets with cut strings, collapsing into sleep.
"Robin, the entire ground floor is mind-controlled," Raven reported through her comm. "Someone's pulling their strings."
"Same here," Donna's voice crackled back. "They're not fighting tactically—just swarming."
"Basement," Robin ordered. "Brother Blood has to be below ground."
Hikaru and Raven found a stairwell, descending into a network of converted storage rooms. The red glow was stronger here, emanating from symbols painted on walls and floors. He recognized them as Marks of Scath.
"This is a summoning chamber," Raven said, her voice tight. "They were really planning to bring him through."
A door ahead burst open. More cultists poured out, but these moved differently—faster, more coordinated. Brother Blood was directing them personally.
Hikaru moved to engage when suddenly the cultists' eyes flared brighter. They attacked with renewed ferocity, no longer shambling forward but executing actual combat techniques.
"He's watching," Raven realized. "Using them like extensions of himself."
A cultist woman executed a perfect spinning kick aimed at Hikaru's head. He blocked, redirected, and put her down with a pressure point strike, but three more immediately took her place.
Raven's soul-self swept through the room, absorbing the energy sustaining the mind control. The cultists in her path collapsed, freed from Brother Blood's influence. But more kept coming, an endless tide of puppets.
"We need to reach the source!" Hikaru called, blocking a knife strike and disarming his attacker. "Cut off the puppet master!"
They pushed forward through the corridors, leaving unconscious cultists in their wake. Hikaru's enhanced hearing picked up sounds of combat throughout the building—the other Titans encountering similar resistance.
The hallway opened into a large chamber, clearly the main ritual space. More Marks of Scath covered every surface, painted in what Hikaru really hoped was red paint and not blood. Candles formed concentric circles around a raised platform.
And standing at the center, hands raised as red energy flowed from his fingers to the cultists surrounding him, was Brother Blood.
He was older than Hikaru expected—maybe seventy, with white hair slicked back into horn-like points. His face was sharp, aristocratic, with prominent cheekbones and dark circles under intense eyes. He wore crimson robes with a high red collar, red gloves, and an animal skull, most likely a goats perched on his head like a crown.
"Ah," Brother Blood said, his voice cultured and cold. "The daughter of Trigon arrives. How thoughtful of you to deliver yourself."
Raven's hands surround themselves with dark energy. "I'm not being delivered anywhere."
"And you brought a guardian angel." Brother Blood's eyes shifted to Hikaru, calculating and dismissive. "How delightfully ironic. Light and dark, working together against their true natures."
"Yeah, we get it," Hikaru said, grabbing his sword still in its sheath. "Here's how this works—you release everyone you're controlling, surrender peacefully, and we don't have to hurt you, too badly."
Brother Blood laughed, the sound echoing through the chamber. "Children. You understand nothing of true power." His eyes began to glow a brighter red. "Let me educate you."
Then the cultists surged forward as one.