The Titan Trials

Chapter 15: The Chaos Within

**Kristin's POV**

I wake up again to another scene before me. This time it is a forest, and it is on fire. I AM ON FIRE.

I panic immediately. I throw myself back down to the ground in an attempt to burn out the flames, just to discover that the ground itself is made of fire. What the hell?!?! I must be dreaming. I gotta wake up, get outta here, somehow.

There has to be a way.

I no longer pay attention to the burning surrounding me, I start sprinting through the immolated forest, looking for some sign of exit.

"....you can't run forever..." A ghastly hissing voice whispers in my ear. A tree comes down in front of me. I'm nearly crushed under its fiery weight. I should be dead. This should've killed me. Why aren't I dead?

"....what you avoid...what you flee from...what you conceal...you shall become..."

The hell? I don't know what that means. What I avoid. What do I avoid? What am I running from? I'm not hiding anything? Am I?

Irrelevant. Quit worrying about it. It's playing you. Don't give into it's sick game.

"....you avoid facing the truth...you flee from your past...you conceal your fate..."

Avoid facing the truth? Flee from my past?! Conceal my fate? I swear, I think whoever this is, they're accusing the wrong person.

"....YOU DENY WHO YOU ARE!..."

Suddenly, a massive creature of fire and darkness appears in front of me, and I swear, I think it's about to kill me. But the massive beast just roars in my face... a horrible, horrible roar... And disappears. I go unconscious once again.

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**Raven's POV**

"Jing Ti, you must guard Kristin's body and my own. I am going inside her mind to save her. Her night terrors are getting worse, and she isn't going to wake up without intervention." I inform the young bender.

Jing Ti and I had just rushed back to the barracks to find Kristin in a fitful sleep. Often she has screamed; her night terrors must be terrible indeed. It has only been now that I have reconciled with myself that I am the only one who can go into Kristin's mind and save her from her madness. This madness, probably caused by that demonic presence outside.

Why did it take so long for me to decide whether or not to go into Kristin's mind? Well, let me tell you. It's because Kristin is a Christian... Catholic, to be specific, and I'm... well... a half demon. And that being said if I tried to go into her mind, I'd have to be very careful, because I could hurt her or myself. But then I realized two things...

1. I may be half of a demon, but I'm also half of a human.

2. If she's being attacked by something already, she's probably vulnerable enough for ANYTHING else to get to her. Including me.

So that's why I prepare to go, and hope that Jing Ti is competent enough to protect both our bodies.

"Don't worry, Raven, you can count on me!" Jing Ti smiles. I sigh. Silly girl doesn't know what she's getting herself into.

"Okay, here I go. I don't know how long I'll be, but whatever you do: do NOT leave this room until I return, understand?" I tell her. She nods with utter seriousness. She really doesn't know what she's getting into.

I sit at a reasonable distance beside Kristin's bed and start reciting my familiar mantra. Soon I can feel my soul-self leaving me and my consciousness entering Kristin's mind.

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**Kristin's POV**

Now I find myself waking up in my own bed, at home. In my own universe. It's night (no surprise there) and its dark. But I feel alone in the house. What's going on? Am I falling deeper and deeper into my nightmares? It's getting increasingly difficult to awaken myself from this never ending dream. I try to get out of bed but am pinned down by an invisible force. I'm paralyzed. The air grows colder.

"What's wrong girl...? Lost in your own dreams?" A voice echoes all around me.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" I yell at the air. Big mistake on my part. "As you wish..." I am answered, and a grotesque face appears nigh 6 inches in front of my face.

I gasp suddenly at the inhuman, unfamiliar sight. The creature before me has a jaw filled with teeth too big for its mouth, and those teeth appear to be made out of pure obsidian. It's eyes are a sickly yellow, with hardly a pupil showing in the middle. It's snout is like that of a dog's, long and protruding.

"Now that the introductories are out of the way, it's time for me to have my fun." The demonoid grins a foul smile at me. But before he can do anything, him and the scene around me freezes, and another voice pops into my head.

"Didn't think I'd have to pull you out of something like this, Opportune. Just know that this is just as risky for me as it is for you." The voice, familiar, says to me.

"Wha-at? What the--?" I exclaim as a purple-blue hooded figure appears across the room. She has a scowl on her face, but more of concern than annoyance.

Raven.

"I'm here to get you out of this mad place." She tells me. "I don't know what you've been seeing, and frankly I don't wanna know. But it's been enough to make you scream out in the outside world. People have heard you."

"Well great!" I exclaim, clearly shaken. "You know, you could just kill off this guy here and get me out of here and then we'd be good?"

"It's not that simple." She explains. "You of all people should know. Circe's attack on your through Donna was a distraction so Donna could slip you a mental suggestion, a line of some kind, that would put you in a state of deep thought that would open up your psyche to some massive mental and spiritual vulnerability."

"No. I don't know." I stated bluntly. "I thought this was the work of Legion. The name popped in my head too!"

"That was probably the mental suggestion, tricking you into thinking it is a familiar opponent. The madness outside is being caused by the madness being cause within you. We shut down the source of the madness, it all stops."

"Oh..."

Raven gives me a sympathetic look. "I don't blame you for thinking what it was. It's the first thing someone like you would think."

I'm not sure whether or not that is actually an insult.

Raven stops making small talk and approaches the apparition looming above me. It unfreezes and turns to the new being beside it.

"Wha-t?" It stammers. "Who are you?? Where did you just come from?"

"Return to your mistress." Raven tells it. "And tell her her tactics have hit an all-time low." With that she slams a fist of psychic energy at the apparition, sending it across the room and making it disintegrate in the corner. I am freed from my invisible bond.

"We should go." Raven says. "We need to work through the levels of slumber Circe has trapped you in to bring you to the surface. Once you have reached the final level, you must shock yourself out of your sleep to finish it. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I guess." I say.

"Good. Hold on." Raven says. The background around us disappears as we are brought up to the next level.