Owner Pose
Terry O'Neil 'Once upon a time, in a far off kingdom, there was a very sad princess who was haunted by the friends she had lost. This princess was so sad that, one day, she ensorcelled herself into a magical sleep as punishment, and there she wandered through empty halls for the rest of her days.'

That's a fine beginning for a fairy tale, but the thing about fairy tales is that no beginning state is permanent- the third youngest son must leave the family home and make his own fortune, the young girl living in misery finds a welcoming family. Sleeping princesses have to wake up.

At least, that's the logic behind it. The party that advances towards Troia's little nook of altered reality isn't your standard storybook band of adventurers. Maybe. But they're more than willing to brave more than a magical wall of brambles to see that the spell breaks.

"Remember... we need to make sure we reality check her. Gently persuade her that she's dreaming. And we have the pile of evidence we found in New Kronos- we can use that, at intervals... but the most important thing is to reach through to the part of Donna that is sleeping and help her realize that this is a dream, and that we are the reality. And that we miss her..."

A breath, and Terry- human Terry, as Gar is currently in custody of the Cat- walks in after texting something to his mother. Just in case.

"Hi Troia," Terry calls out softly, "It's us, we've come to see you!"
Donna Troy     The room has become a familiar sight over the last few weeks to most of the Titans. The place that is the main room of Titans tower, but at the same time not. Distinctly similar in layout, with a great milky oval screen-like thing where the video screen should be; with a curve of stone-carved thrones where the great curved sofa should be; with a great window looking out on the landscape of a shattered moon where a great window looking over the landscape of Metropolis should be. Marble pillars and gilt replaces steel and glass, the architecture having a distinct hint of ancient Greece about it, but nevertheless, you can't help but see the similarities to the Titans' common room. This is the throne room of New Kronos.

    Or is it? Those Titans who had briefly visited New Kronos, the /real/ New Kronos, had not seen anything like it, though they had clearly only seen a very small corner of a vast construction. What they had seen was built on a different scale though, a less human scale. There had been the landscape of a shattered moon, the satellite's interior covered with buildings, but they had been on a larger scale, and honestly less /Themysciran/ looking, than the landscape beyond the window here. As strange as the sights here are, in comparison to what they had seen, it starts to become obvious that this is not truly the throne room of New Kronos, but an idea of what that throne room might be, filtered through the mind of a Themysciran who has spent a lot of time in Titan's Tower.

    The room seems empty when the visitors gather there, but that's common -- Troia will put in an appearance when called. At first it was generally her voice appearing first, disembodied and echoing with a strange resonance, but just lately she seems to have taken to making a less dramatic entrance. Perhaps not entirely human -- she still appears out of thing air -- but it doesn't quite have that impression of visiting an deity that she'd given the first few times people had come to visit.

    "I'm here," Troia says, fading into view seated on her accustomed place on the curve of thrones. "How are you all today?"
Irie West     Iris makes her way into the Throne Room with the rest of the Titans to wake up Donna. She knows that they succeed, but she never did get the details of what it is that works. When she sees Troia, it takes every ounce of willpower to not just rush up to her and give her a big ole hug. Delicately, Terry said, and smothering her with affection isn't exactly delicate.

    "Hey, Troia," she says, instead. "They finally figured it out. It's gonna be alright."
Victor Stone     Vic has come prepared for this endeavor. He has all his logs and scans of New Kronos, along with the softball-sized orb that fixed the Tereshkova. He isn't remotely sure what the thing /is/ but he figures it might be useful. Maybe. Hopefully. He's ever-so-slightly nervous, admittedly. The last time he talked to Troia, she suggested that maybe, /just maybe/, everything they've ever known is part of her dream, and whenever everything gets untangled, they'll all disappear and she'll be left alone again.

    Does he believe that? Not entirely. But it's there in the back of his mind. Then again, it always is, that nagging doubt: is anything I'm experiencing /real/ at all?

    "Hey Troia," he offers with a cheery grin that he's /almost/ actually feeling. They're gonna do this. They're gonna get Donna back! "Time to get this knot untangled I think."
Garfield Logan Gar Logan walks in, in his new form. That is to say, the dapper look of the Cheshire Gar, in black and purple, green fur visible where it's allowed to be. Everything is still very new to him this way, and after some time spent filling up social media with all manner of pictures in different parts of Metropolis, he's been more or less herded back to the Tower for this: trying to awaken the real Donna and bring her back.

Naturally, the first thing he does upon getting back to the altered version of the main room of the Tower, to this changed state that is akin to what a similar room might be in New Kronos or wherever?

He hops up to the top of one of the stone thrones, balancing perfectly with his tail lazing about behind. "Huh. I guess it's not filled with cheese after all," he remarks, gesturing toward the broken moon they can see outside. "Hellllooooooo, Troia! We've got some grand news for you!" Grin on, young cat. Grin on.
Wally West Wally is fast behind his daughter on his way in to the throne room. He stops a moment to take the sight in he was not expecting this. "this is new..." he says to himself. "Hey Irie don't just rush in like that. "

Wally pauses and looks Troia in the eye. This both is and isn't his friend. Her eyes are Donna's one of his oldest friendships, someone he'd gone to battle with. but Donna wasn't fully behind those eyes this was someone new. "Troia." Wally says respectfully but standoffish. "I can't wait to have my friend back"
Caitlin Fairchild "Hope everyone said their prayers," Caitlin mutters. It'd be a dire sarcasm from anyone else, but there's an air of fervent belief around the redhead still. That with enough grace and faith, a person can push on through anything.

She measures her steps to keep up the pace with Terry, without anyone being obliged to jog along behind her to stay apace. She's dressed in the traditional armor of the Amazons, hair pulled back in a tight fighting braid at the base of her neck. On her shoulder is balanced her heavy two-handed battle-maul, a gift from Troi-- Donna, herself.

She eases into the room with a wary alertness. Sniffs the air and looks at any particularly suspicious shadows. Not that shadows aren't *always* a little suspicious, because sometimes they hide a Surprise Rachel in them, but-- there are no assassins or duplicate Ravens, it seems, and Caitlin's heavy shoulders relax with a release of tension she didn't know she was carrying.

"Hey," Caitlin bids the Titan. She flashes a tight, slightly worried smile. This is probably not going to be fun for any members of the party. "We, uh..." she exchangs a look with Vic and Rachel. "We took a little trip earlier, and thought some of the stuff we learned might be of, erm... some interest, I guess." She sets the warhammer aside, but so the Themysciran scrollwork and engraving is in clear view-- to help jog her memory, hopefully.
Kate Bishop     "I..." she stops and looks at Iris. She can't really be mad at her, though that is definitely leaping right close to the finish line instead of laying down layers and case work like Terry had suggested. She puffs her cheeks out a bit then lets it out slowly.

    She is cautious though. She is not ready to potentially come to blows with Troia over this whole situation, still there are plenty of people who probably can take a punch from her to stand between her and Troia if she has a temper tantrum when confronted with this reality check.

    "I'm surprised you didn't make a cashing checks joke... like Don't let your mouth write a reality check your ass can't cash Terry..."
Diana Prince From the skies outside, the 'Invisible Jet' suddenly shimmers in to being quite visible. The dagger-like craft glides out of the sky and comes to a stop at the roof of the Titan's tower. Ine one fluid motion, its landing ramp extends out from beneath it, and the form of Diana Prince comes walking down from within the cloud-hued vessel.

Her long blue cloak flows around her body as she strides on to the roof of the tower, toward the entrance that lies there-in. Her dark hair is loose about her shoulders, and flows gently in the winds as the Princess turns within the tower's upper lift, and begins the ride down to this mysterious 'Throne Room' that she has visited a few times now.

When the doors split back open to the hallway before the throne area, the Princess begins to move again, her armored boots peaking out from beneath the hem of the cloak that is open down her front just enough to give hints of her armored form beneath the navy blue garment she wears over top of it.

When she arrives, she sees many others gathered, and her eyes just sweep from one of their forms to the next, as she quietly observes what is happening here tonight...
Rachel Roth     Raven had done her best to regain the only thing that she could add to this situation. At least something that wasn't intrinsic to her existence. Or, was, but kinda wasn't at the time- it was a complex situation.

    The journey to the Nameless Woods was fruitful- the meeting she had with an eternal, ethereal being afterwards similarly so in its own sort of way.

    She appears now in the air above the other Titans, a swirling vortex of black energy accompanying the arrival of the Azarathian Sorceress. This time, unlike most that the room has seen before, Raven does arrive in that full garb. The high cut ballroom gown, the sleeved gloves, the thigh-high boots. The Raven insignia clasped cape and cowl. The stern, impassive and altogether /regal/ gaze.

    Raven floats there for a time, but in every way, it looks like Raven is in top form. Back to her old self. Perhaps, even, just a touch threatening. Her silence only lasts for ever so long, before she finally speaks from her position on high.

    "Everyone. We all know what we are here to do. Let us begin."
Terry O'Neil "Untangling the not indeed we are. Or trying to," He gives a smile at his team-mates, and secretly kicks himself for not asking Gar to give the Cheshire back before coming in.? But, then again, the unrestrained chaos could potentially help. Who knew? As Raven speaks and Diana enters, the redhead nod. He glances at Victor briefly, as the archivist repository of some of the evidence, and then at the rest of them before looking back to Troia.

"We have been well, Troia," after all, last night they had watched The Lat Unicorn, a very in-theme movie. "But we have all been thinking, and we have all seen some things about this knot, and we have come to have a little chat." This is an intervention, not Dormammu, I have come to negotiate. The human feels a little cold shiver at the back of his neck, realizing that he sort of thrust himself first into this whole thing, and now he is nervous about fucking it up.

Kate's comment about his ass cashing checks did not elicit a response. That's because he is to nervous and, admittedly, right now he has less chaos juice running through him. It's all inside Gar right now.

Step one, he thought. Establish the lie. Or the delusion. Or the irreality. Allow the other person to build it up. That's what Jon said, right?

Oh god, he should have brought Harley with him, she's a shrink too.

And the fact that that thought does not give him pause does show that some chaos /is/ inherently Terry's and not just the Cheshire's.

"But before any of that, the kids and I wanted to see something. See, we can never go anywhere else in New Kronos but this room because of the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey thing. I thought it would be kind of cool if you could show us some of the sights and sounds of New Kronos- the other rooms and the buildings and the, you know, surroundings. Since you can create images and things of that sort, I think we would all love to see the place where you have spent so much time."

And, of course, the hope is that the things Troia conjures up look nothing like what they actually saw in New Kronos. Because that would be the first crack they could chisel into this tableau.

And if not? Well, they'd have to try something else.
Donna Troy     Troia raises an eyebrow at Iris' enthusiastic declaration, and the eyebrow stays raised at Vic's more controlled one too. By the time Gar, Wally, and Caitlin have put their own contributions in, it's clear this group is coming with some kind of news. Apparently they believe they have some answer to the situation.

    She has become used to the idea, over the weeks, that these mortals have a tendency to be /enthusiastic/. They also seem rather talented at persuading themselves to believe exactly what they want to believe, or sometimes exactly what they don't want to believe. This is clearly a mortal thing. Perhaps they don't believe they have time to think things through properly, the tick-tock sound of mortality ringing in their ears and urging them to jump to conclusions. Or perhaps it's what /makes/ them mortal, that disengagement with reality, that insistance that their own internal truths somehow stack up to the external ones, distancing from a true involvement in the universe-that-is, distancing themselves from the Source of life.

    They also have a terrible tendency to underestimate the sheer /complexity/ of what is going on here. She can see the intertwining of potentialities, the stretching and warping of the fabric of reality that is involved here, and she knows how knotty the problem is. These mortals, rushing headlong through their short lives, try to persuade themselves that everything is simple and easy.

    On the other hand, Diana is here. And Raven, the demon-witch. Those two at least should have a more realistic perspective. Who knows, perhaps they have discovered something.

    Caitlin's hammer does get a curious glance from Troia, though no hoped-for indication of familiarity. It may be that the construction intrigues her. Hopefully she won't treat it the way she had treated Donna's bow, when Caitlin had shown her that.

    It's just a passing glance though. There's no indication Troia is about to disassemble Caitlin's hammer, and instead she settles back to listen to the explanations.

    Though first, requests. Troia gives a slight shrug. "I could take you on a tour I suppose," she says. Nevertheless she indulges Terry's request. At a gesture, the milky surface of the screen-like thing begins to swirl, and images form. A quickly changing panorama -- chambers not dissimilar to this one, wilderness landscapes under great glass domes, rooms filled with statues, rooms filled with machinery of unguessable design, and even rooms of a more intimate nature, furnished living spaces, flicker and scurry across the screen.
Victor Stone     Vic nods to Raven, squaring his shoulders a bit like they're on a mission. Okay. They can do this.

    He watches the images on the video, frowning slightly. Nothing on it seems familiar from the trip to New Kronos, not from his own scans or from the Tereshkova. But, then, he didn't really see New Kronos /proper/. He looks around at the group, raising his eyebrows, particularly at Gar and Kate, who were pulled in the other way instead of crash-landing on the planet.
Kate Bishop     Kate stares at the images of supposed New Kronos and then shakes her head. "That isn't it." and well it might be. But Kate is pretty darn certain it isn't.

    "New Kronos doesn't have that much vegetation.. hell.. nothing alive in it that I saw." she tilts her head slowly and then crosses her arms. "I say not it."

    She looks to Gar for support really then back at the screen as well as Troia. "That isn't new Kronos."
Garfield Logan When Raven turns up, the Cheshire compulsively spreads his arms out wide, at which point colorful streams of glitter arc out away from them. "Look! We've even brought OG Raven to help!" Gar exclaims with enthusiastic exuberance and energy. Yes, it is as Troia has assessed with this lot.

Tapping his chin at Terry's idea coming forth, he remarks, "Yes, I know exactly what I am here to do." A rabbit hole later and he is away from the throne perch, now standing next to Terry with both hands clasping his shoulders, one arm around his back to do it as he stage-whispers, "What am I here to do again?"

Then, with or without an answer, he ambles away from the normal host of the Cheshire Cat, moving to crouch before Caitlin's large..weapon. "Stop! Hammer Time!" He does a dance move, spinning in place before getting down like M.C. Hammer himself. "Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, here comes the Hammer!"

It's when Troia begins to show them a few things that he grows quiet and attentive, stroking at his chin as the tip of his tail ticks side to side and Kate chimes in before seeking his follow-up. "Oh, that looks different from what we saw. There's more life to it. We were in a place that was just..forgotten. Broken, messy." The feline ears atop his head? Attentive, at least.
Wally West Wally stands back and listens he's not entirely sure what is going on or what the plan is but he's here to show support and do what he can to get his friend back. Wally watches the tour with the rest of them. Gar's garish display draws some confusion from Wally. "You really gotta give that back to terry, Gar"
Caitlin Fairchild "We went to New Kronos," Caitlin informs Troia. Her tone is blunt, yet sorrowful-- as if she regrets popping Troia's proverbial balloon. "Physically. In a spaceship. We recorded tons of footage." She keys up a portable image projector and sets it on a low table, letting it suspend high-definition images in the air. "We didn't pull the coordinates out of our-- ... nowhere, either. It's a real place. We confirmed it was the authentic New Kronus and went the old-fashioned way just to prove a point scientifically."

"Think about it," she urges. "When we leave this room, we go out into a huge world full of people, and things, and stories. When you leave this room, where do you go?" she queries. "How far can you actually walk? We went there to find answers for you, Troi-- /Donna/," she says, earnestly as she's able. "And we've met actual, *living* Titans. Hekate has been up to her elbows in this from day one. With all the-- I *know* Donna's real story. Queen Hippolyta told me the truth. Donna, if you can hear me, I'm not mad," she begs the Titan. "I just want you to wake up from this nightmare."
Donna Troy     The doubts voiced by those who saw a distinctly less loved New Kronos are joined by Diana, who observes "Some of these scenes seem very familiar to me. I believe she is reconstructing these images from her memories of home, as she reconstructs this room from her memories of the tower."

    These doubts don't seem to make much of an impression on Troia, but Caitlin's out-and-out declaration requires a more direct answer. Troia leans back in her seat, getting herself comfortable as she regards the red-headed Amazon thoughtfully.

    "You wouldn't need to pull co-ordinates out of nowhere. I told you where New Kronos is -- the star system you call Alpha Draconis. However you didn't come here 'the old fashioned way' as you put it. I'd have known." Her voice is level, patient. "Caitlin... this isn't as simple as you think. "

    "Yes, you go out into a world full of people. Why wouldn't you? This would be true whether you had false memories or not, whether indeed you had a prior reality or not. This is an infolding of realities, of potentials -- in a case like this, realities are... relative. In answer to your question, when I leave this room, I go into the rest of the New Kronos. The places I have shown you. If I chose, I could go further. I could visit you, though not the route you take to visit me normally. I cannot traverse the labyrinth, because it is centered on me."

    "As for Hekate..." Troia falls silent a few moments. "If she is involved... Yes, technically she is a Titan. But she is not one of the Twelve. In the first Titanomachy, the Titanides, half of the twelve, did not join battle. Yet despite that, all of Olympus would have fallen to the six, had not they been added by Hekate and the hundred-handers. It is... it is not impossible that if she is behind this, she has sided once more with Olympus, and plans against me. Or that she seeks to take New Kronos for herself."

    "However, if Hekate /is/ involved... then you can trust nothing you believe you saw."

    Troia sighs softly. "Donna can't hear you Caitlin, but I do not believe you to be mad. It's confusing enough for me, and I can /see/ the labyrinth. There is no Donna. I'm sorry -- I know this hurts you, but it's a fact. I do not know for certain why there are aspects of reality that suggest her existence, aspects such as your memories. But the most likely reason, given the labyrinth is centered on me, and given that the magic of Dream seems to be tied in to this entanglement is... is that she is a manifestation of my wish fulfilment. A dream of a Troia who still has Titans around her. Who still has a family."
Rachel Roth     Raven has been silent and impassive this entire time. An imperious presence presiding over the presentation of evidence that may not seem like anything other than divine meddling or odd circumstance.

    It is only after a time that Raven descends. She drifts slowly to the front of the group, a clacking of heels that decidedly doesn't fit Raven's modern style accompanying her only few steps, until she is standing naught but a few feet from Troia.

    "These inconsistencies hint that the reality that we are in is real. When we leave here, there is reality beyond these walls. You admit that. There are aspects here which don't fit any potentiality. They fit an idea of what could be, not what could be." she offers, her voice now having returned to that otherworldly monotone that had been gone from it for quite a long time.

    "There are other things that we must present to you. When it comes time for us to undo this, I will help you. But first, there is evidence that I must present. Something that I feel cannot be ignored. Your power in this form is great."

    Raven's hands come to her hood, and she pulls it down from her head, exposing from its shadow the rest of her face.

    "You have the power to destroy anyone and anything in this room. Except for me. I want you to try. With all your will and might, I want you to use every bit of your power to kill me where I stand."
Donna Troy     Troia is not unflappable by any means. Though she is generally calm, the Titans have seen her at least show signs of losing her cool a couple of times, and now they do so again. She stares at Raven in surprise, blinks a few times, then shakes her head, rising up in her seat and gripping the arm rest.

    "N... no. I'm not going to do that. You... you don't entirely understand things, Raven. Look where you are. /Feel/ where you are. This is real. I am this place, and this place is me. There is virtually nothing I cannot do here. The power inside of you is bound, you know that. Yes, I could destroy you. Raven, I could destroy your /father/ if he came here without properly preparing his way first. That's... that's what you /are/. "

    A flurry of conflicting emotions crosses Troia's face, changing too rapidly. "But that's not the POINT!" Her voice rises almost to a yell, and the final word echoes through the room. She takes a few deep breaths, but she still seems shaken "I will not kill anyone. The killing... all it has brought me is misery. I have rejected the war, it ends because I will not fight it. I will not kill those who slew my parents. I /certainly/ will not hurt someone who I... who I... who..." Suddenly she deflates, sinking back into her seat. She falls silent for a few moments before concluding in a quiet voice, "...who I have no reason to hurt."
Terry O'Neil Terry held his breath as all of this went down. When Troia would not kill Rae, he exhales. And then he cringes when she shouts. He's glad he doesn't have the Cheshire ears right now. Finally finding his voice afterwards, he speaks. "If... I could say something?"

He clears his throat. "You know... not to belabor a point... okay,I lied, to belabor the fuck out of it: It is not Donna who is a manifestation of your desires, Troia. It's the other way around." Terry sighs. "Before all of this happened, Donna told me of a recurring dream she had about being the last of the Titans. A dream she had because of Doomsday- that she would wander the halls of the Tower, and everybody else was dead. This dream haunted her." He rubs the back of his neck, "Before all of this happened, Donna touched the Regalia. I saw her do it, and I heard how her voice changed, momentarily, when she did it. You did it. Both of you-" he pauses, "Talking about you as if you were two separate entities is confusing, because you aren't, so I'm just going to say 'you' from now on. You know the Regalia- it has the power of dreams and reality. Somehow that contact... brought something out. It brought out my friend's guilt. Guilt because you weren't here to fight Doomsday. Guilt because Kole and Dove died. Weren't here to protect them, and I don't think you ever really processed that..."

"And you know- what's going on in Wonderland? What's infesting it? Seems to be something like that. And I wouldn't be surprised if you 'caught' some of that when you handled the Regalia, Donna. Although instead of a dream built to escape your guilt, you inhabit it. I don't know why... maybe because you think you deserve it."

He doesn't add that manifesting your own torment to expiate your sins is way too Catholic a thing and that maybe Caitlin has been rubbing off on her a bit and that, maybe, they all need a properly pagan Themysciran vacation once all of this is over. But damnit, does he think it.

"As Cait pointed out... they did meet Hekate. I did not- but yes, it seems like Hekate has been behind some things."

Who's been messing with everything?
It's been Hekate all along!

"Gar and Kate can testify- Hekate hinted that you are, indeed, the one who is snagged. In her own, you know, special way of hers."

Who's been pulling every cosmic string?
It's been Hekate all along

"And that's not all. See, she apparently went to these inhabitants of the planet we lande--- crash--- landed on," a quick glance to Caitlin. Her landing was excellent. It was also an emergency landing. He's fuzzy on the terminology, but since they walked away from it, it wasn't a crashe, maybe, "And we were told a woman who was described as wearing saffron-colored robes and... you know, /that hair/-" shut up, okay? he thinks her hair is magnificent, "Imparted onto them a message that the 'Titans of the Tower' would come to aid them. And who do you think those illustrations looked like?" The redhead points, "You, Donna Troy, born Troia, and Vic. And Raven." He pauses, "Also Dick. The original Titans. But this was in 2014- you know, eight years ago, when I was twelve!"

Do you feel old yet, Original Titans?
Terry O'Neil "Like, in the before times, back when they had primitive stuff like walkmen and you rented movies from, like, /brick stores./" Clearly the Middle Ages. "But anyways. That far back, Hekate was already doing her thing. And it wasn't Troia of New Kronos that she pictures, but Troia the Titan of the Tower. And the thing that makes me go 'whaaat?' is that she clearly counted on the Titans to come over- but she didn't know which ones so she just went for broke and listed all of them. So she knew that at some point..." he gestures to Donna, "You were going to get a case of the Sleeping Beauties or something and some of us would end up in that general area trying to find evidence on whether we were had false memories, or whether it was you who dreamt yourself new ones." A pause. "I'm actually not entirely sure if she knew the specifics of what would happen, or whether she knew that your nature would eventually try to manifest itself and make itself known and planned a million different potential outcomes- for all I know there are six thousand planets that she visited with the same story, just to be safe... but the point is Hekate, outside of these walls and your direct area of influence, did all that, with you as one of the protagonists of her narrative- Earth-bound Themysciran-raised Titaness Troia who went by Donna Troy, not Troia of New Kronos."

He gestures again, "I mean, you know Hecky. Does she /seem/ to be the type to hallucinate to you?"

"I know that Occam's razor kind of flies out the window when we deal with gods, magic, goddesses and... everything we are, but I don't think you are powerful enough to reprogram Hekate herself. But you are powerful enough to reprogram yourself." Which is probably the worst potential sales pitch of a self-help book anyone could come up with.
Victor Stone     Cyborg frowns at Troia, thoughtfully. He's feeding Caitlin information to put on the viewers, but it makes sense that Troia would claim that it's not real. He comes up with and discards a few different arguments while Raven and Terry speak, then steps forward and fixes her with a firm gaze.

    "Look," he says, "I'm willing to admit that maybe you're right. Maybe, /just maybe/, we're the ones that are wrong. None of this is real. /We're/ not real. We're figments of your dream and everything we saw on New Kronos was magicked up for us by Hekate. And I'll admit... that possibility terrifies the /heck/ outta me." He shakes his head. "I think about that all the time. What if I'm not real? What if... what if whatever my father brought back isn't /really/ Victor Stone? What if I'm some kind of... cybernetic consciousness just /pretending/ to be him?"

    It's a terribly painful admission for him to make, there in front of his friends. That he still worries. Still doubts. But he swallows and goes on, "So that's why I'm afraid you might be right. Because I want my friends to be real. I want /me/ to be real. I want everything we've built over the last ten years to have /meant/ something. For all the pain of losing Don and Kole to have /meant/ something. If we untangle this and it all just goes poof? That /sucks/."

    A pause. "So... why aren't you willing to admit that maybe /we're/ right? That maybe this," he gestures around, "is the dream, and /we're/ what's real?" He raises his eyebrows. "Why can't you hurt Raven? Why's your sister say your vision of New Kronos looks like Themiscyra? Why, when we're offering you all this evidence, do you just /insist/ that Donna doesn't exist and that's a /fact/? Just consider what it means for a moment. Really, /really/ consider it. Why would that be a /bad/ thing? Is Terry right? Are you just trying to escape your guilt over Don and Kole dying? 'Cause that... that'd be..." He trails off, and shakes his head, like he can't really figure out how to explain how it makes him feel.

    He holds out the softball-sized orb he's carrying, to show it to Troia. "We brought this back from New Kronos. I think we're right. I think we're real. And I know maybe it hurts like hell to think you're /not/ real, because I consider that every day. But... really, whoever you are, whatever the truth is? I know one thing for sure: you're Troia, /our/ Troia, and you're our friend. And we just want you to remember that."
Wally West "I know you Donna, you're my friend. I look up to you. I had a crush on you. We've been through a lot. We're getting you back, Today. Donna is more than a dream you had Troia, Donna is a person with people who love and miss her. We're the titans and you didn't dream us up" Wally says following the example from others.
Kate Bishop     "I'm pretty sure the walkman is from long before 2014... I mean... didn't the iPhone exist at that point and the LexPhone.. and a Waynetech phone. I've only seen a walkman in a technology museum...."

    Well if the OG Titans didn't feel old before, any who might have owned a walkman sure as hell should now.

    "More seriously though, Terry is right. Hectate verified the real Titan story, why they are on new Kronos, what happened, who you are. I think this the truth in this case probably causes more long term stuff she wants then having you locked in this dream."

    Yeah Kate might be very respectful to the goddess when she is around, but she doesn't trust her at all.
Garfield Logan "Oh, Wally. My dear, dear Wally. You are fast, but you are also slow. There is more going on here than you yet know. You may wonder, how is that? It might be a riddle for a Bat." The Cheshire Gar shrugs at this, flashing such the smile before Raven begins to do her thing.

Helpfully, he interjects, "You won't hurt her because you can't. Why do we know this? Because you love her." He lobs a few balls of glitter into the area above them, and they *paf* into each letter: L-O-V-E.

He strolls over toward her and says, "This is all connected, but listen to what everyone is saying. Take my word for it: Wonderland can do some wild stuff. /I/ got the Cheshire because I was trying to save Terry from the Jabberwock, and I thought I could distract it, but I forgot that there's always only one Cheshire. So, you're looking at him. The real deal, in the fur, and /fabulous!/ Terry will get the Cheshire back, but we agreed I need to hold on to this for a little longer. But this isn't about me. This is about you."

Another glitter glob is lobbed above, and another *paf* turns into an arrow pointing at Troia/Donna with 'U'..instead of 'You.' Oh well.

Terry goes..on. And on. And on. He feigns curling up for a nap, but lifts his head from the new position. "Hekate helped Raven get out of Tartarus, don't forget. She helped all of us in a way. And we learned a few things about you that were hard to believe, but after we thought about it a little bit, it made sense. There were /the/ Titans, but then we all became the Titans. I wonder how you guys came to use that name? Hmmmmmmmmmm? And the gods agreeing to keep away after running around making little godling babies when they shouldn't have." Is he making any sense at all here?

Then he goes into a lengthy stretch and yawns. Still very much cat. "It strikes me that it's pretty mad to hold on to a nightmare and make it seem real, especially when we're all right here. You can see us. You can touch us - right behind the ears if you please - and if you really think about it, you already know the truth if you're listening to any of this."
Rachel Roth     "That isn't how you want to end that sentence." Raven states, impassively. "You know what word you want to use, but you cannot say it as you are now. You have only had trouble saying it to me... Before."

    She stands there, her body hidden entirely under the cloak she hasn't worn in years, all that is visible is that midnight-purple hued hair, framing a face that stares with no emotion at the Troia sitting before them. Implacable, she does not relent.

    "There would have to be two of me." In simplest terms, this is something Donna has known for a long time. Trigon exists outside of any potential, and there is only One Raven. For the rest of them to exist, for this Raven to exist, there could not have been a Raven for this Troia to know of, or have known.

    "You have plenty of reason to hurt me, but you cannot. Not because of my magic, not because of my power, not because I or anyone else would stop you in any way. You cannot hurt me because there will always be a reason in your head, no matter what I do here, as long as it does not bring my father into this reality... You will always find a reason to stop yourself from taking that action. You know why. You just have to say it."

    There is a moment, it is brief, where Raven is suddenly aware of Gar vomiting what Raven is trying to pull out of Troia into the air. There is a very brief moment where she could absolutely kill that man.

    A familiar twitch enters her left eye.

    They cannot hear it from this room because it's not really In The Tower, but several windows shattered as Raven violently flung the beds of three very specific Titans through them. That is as close as she comes to losing her cool, and she takes a calming breath.

    "He is right. You just have to say the words, and we can begin to unravel what has been done to you. We can use the you that you are not, to return the you that you have always been."
Terry O'Neil Realizing that he's been very focused on the task and not keeping watch of Gar, the redhead walks over to Garshire and gently scratches him behind the ear, "Deep breaths now, hon. Remember to slow down." He shoots an apologetic look to everyone, Troia and all. "He's still getting used to... it."

Some may remember. When Terry first transformed, he was very close to this. It was the thing that made his first encounter with Robin turn into such a stellar success when the Boy Wonder dismissed him as insane and other things. Since then, Terry has gotten better and better at standing firm in the river of chaos instead of being swept by it. Some of the very incredibly stupid things he's done - like making out with his doppelganger - came from moments when he wasn't strong enough and the current simply swept him. He isn't sure if his friends know just how strong the temptation can be to simply bodysurf that chaos and make things /interesting/ all over the place.

Well. At least one other Titan knows, now. Even Kian didn't really understand, because it's one thing to dip your toes in the river, and being the river.

He hopes the scratches and attention he gives Gar is enough to make him focus on Terry for a bit, as Raven pushes for that crucial word.

He doesn't want to say anything that might ruin it.
Donna Troy     It becomes a barrage, and Troia sinks further and further back into her seen beneath it. A few weeks ago, the word ENOUGH! would have echoed through the room, and the Titans would have found themselves hurled back through the labyrinth and out of New Kronos. Troia has had more experience dealing with mortals now.

    Not that it makes it any easier.

    "It's... possible," she says quietly to Terry. "It /has/ occurred to me you know. That I might be the false reality. I told you all before, I see the infolding, the tangle. I know that's a possibility." She nods her head at Vic. "I never denied that you /may/ be right. I just... I look at likelihoods. I try to interpret. What Terry said... this dream..." she shakes her head. "Maybe. It.. it does cover a... hole... in my analysis of that particular potentiality. But the rest... your arguments that you saw this, that you saw that..." she shakes her head. "It's... you don't understand. All that stuff is compatible with many possibilities. An infolding creates pockets of unreality to protect..."

    Her explanations die on her lips, and she shakes her head, looking to Wally, to Kate, to Gar. "I know this isn't... I know this isn't easy on you, that there's an outcome you /want/ to be real. But you're all... you're rationalizing things, seeing them in ways that you wish them to be. That doesn't make it true. Garfield, I do not love Raven. I have only met her a couple of times." She lets out a long sigh. "Even... even if you are right. Even if Donna is the real... the reality, then... I am not Donna. I keep explaining that to you all, but you don't seem able to understand."

    She reaches her hand out towards the orb that Victor offers, her eyes downcast, not really paying attention to what he's showing her as she causes it to fly through the air towards her hand. "I want you to be real too, Vic," she says quietly.

    And then she looks at what's in her hand, and her face goes pale. She stares at it for several long moments, and reaches out her other hand. A second, identical orb drops down from far above, and she holds the pair of orbs up, examining them together.

    Troia shakes her head slowly, as if in disbelief. She stands up, and the two orbs rise up from her hands and float in the air in front of her, and she gestures.

    Suddenly the room is filled with light. Streamers of light, in rainbow hues, some so faint they can barely be seen, some brilliant. The threads glide and swoop and twist through the room, intertwining in a pattern of incredible complexity that seems infinitely chaotic, yet at the same time holding within it an incredible sense of perfect structure, of perfect order. The structure of lines is a thing of glory, of wonder, something that seems both abstract and somehow as if it is more real than reality itself.

    To most in the room, it gives a sense of seeing something they are not meant to see and will perhaps never get a chance to see again. To Raven, it's a revelation. The longer she stares at it, the more it makes /sense/ to her. This is her realm, the realm of potentialities, of the threads that make the tapestry of universes and the borders between them. Raven /understands/. She has never herself seen it with this clarity, but every part of it speaks to her soul, to her knowledge. Troia can see, but Raven can understand.

    Troia moves the two orbs through the pattern of threads until they seem to line up with a pair of glowing strands that work there way through the tangle of light that surrounds her, and she follows the two threads back. After a distance, the two threads converge. She studies them, a finger running lightly over the strands, before she turns to look at other strands that twine about them, turning this way and that as she studies the pattern.
Donna Troy     Troia walks back to her throne, without looking anyone in the eye, and sits down. "No," she says quietly after a while. "You're wrong. You're wrong Raven. All of you. I am not her." She gestures to a nexus of threads. "Look Raven. Look there. You'll understand. I'm not her. Do you see the division? The point where two potentialities flip over? Do you see the influx of energy from The Dreaming? That's what did it. When she dreamed that dream... reality reformed around it. A... scab over the injury, a pocket of unreality that surrounds me. I am what is real, because right now, she is not."

    "Raven... the portal to Wonderland." She gestures with a finger towards it. "You'll still need it. You have the power to maintain it. Look closely at it Raven. The corruption in Wonderland cannot be allowed through to here. I created a mask to separate it out, to allow only what goes through it to return. You'll need to duplicate the pattern"

    "But hers is a better reality. Yours is a better reality. Do it Raven. I'll help."
Victor Stone     Cyborg smirks, briefly, at Gar, and /winces/ at Raven's eye twitching. Everything here feels weirdly familiar despite being sort of not-at-all. But, then, it's felt that way from the start. But he keeps most of his focus on Troia, as she speaks, and takes the orb, and follows the threads.

    The threads themselves? His eyes widen. He has /no/ idea what he's looking at. But he can sort of guess. "So we're both right, in a way," he says. "You're real... but you weren't /always/ real."

    He hesitates, then steps forward, and offers Troia a hug. "Before you go... I just wanted to tell you I decided I didn't care if you were 'our' Troia or not. I meant what I said. Any Troia, /any/ Troia out there in the universe, she could be our friend. 'Cause we're Titans."
Garfield Logan Fortunate indeed that Gar is not exactly aware of how close Raven is to doing something. Fortunate indeed that Terry has pinged on to the fact that the Cheshire's chaotic, wild, and unpredictable side is potentially jeopardizing some of the progress here.

That's because as Troia holds steadfastly to her own belief of what is real and what is not, those strings of reality, those threads...the Cat wants to play with them! "Ooooh.."

At this moment is when Terry arrives to provide a distraction, the ears indeed proving to be super effective at diverting attention. Here comes the purring. Here comes the blissful look. Here comes the tail angling toward Terry. Carry on, you Titans!
Terry O'Neil A Cheshire wrangler is definitely what is needed at this moment, and so that is what the team gets. It's a welcome relief, after talking, perhaps a little too much.

"Yes, good Gar. No playing with the threads of reality. Just focus on me for now."
Kate Bishop     Kate is trying her best to follow along with the light show and the exposition. She has some of the sharpest eyes to go with her aim, but it is not entirely helpful when it is threads of reality.

    Gosh darn it though she does her best.

    "Uh..."

    She looks to Raven hoping to hell that she has an idea what to do with this whole thing and the offer.
Rachel Roth     "Technically." Raven notes, watching the orbs essentially generate for them a multicolored light show that represents the whole of reality. Interwoven, and understood. She sees the ways these lights interact, and to describe what exactly she is looking at and what she /understands/ would take something other than words.

    It would require Raven to ingrain /concepts/ into the very minds of her friends that cannot be explained or understood unless you were, perhaps, created as a door. Created as something that broaches realities, separates them, brings them together. It makes little sense unless you are Raven.

    "We are not wrong in the way you think. To say that you are our Donna is only incorrect in that currently you are what she /feared/ as a /potential/. You are the nightmare that consumed her. You come from her, and in that same breath you /are/ her. It is a complex concept. To be and not to be. TO exist as something that isn't and wouldn't, but to exist all the same. To come from something that isn't only because you are, and yet to be that thing despite that you are not. There are more words to describe it. They simply add confusion. Now is no longer the time."

    Having explained this, Raven takes to the sky again, pulling her hood up about her face and flinging her arms wide. The cape attached to her hood and clasped to her dress billows out beside and behind her, the wind that unfurls it unseen and unfelt by anything other than the cape.

    "I begun maintaining the portal when I arrived. I have already considered the solution to the problem. It will be incredibly pleasant, very cordial, and will involve some sand... After a fashion. We will heal Terry, we will heal Wonderland, and the Titans will be whole again."

    It is then at the apex of her flight, that around Raven's hands there comes a glowing purple energy, mixed with the living un-light that she constantly conjures with the rest of her magic. Her eyes are gone, replaced with similar shaped coronae of white light surrounding an impossibly deep pool of nothingness.

    "I am sorry, Troia. We return you to non-being. But, as we perform this untangling, understand... Take heart, that this existence, however brief, that you hate and that has left you so miserable- it has never come to pass, and it will not. You do not exist, and never will. That is the only solace that I can offer."

    With that, Raven's voice booms, echoing off of the walls. "/Azarath./" There is a soft tune that begins echoing through the room, as if one tuning fork has been struck, and is resonating now at one frequency. It is bright, and harmonious, to those that call themselves the Titans- to all those that are not Troia.

    "/Metrion./" Her voice now seems to have some strain to it, and yet it does not show at all on her physical form. She seems frozen in midair, hands extended, all of reality splayed before her, and when this word finishes, another tune seems struck, this one deeper- it feels /wrong/ to the Titans, and yet to the Last Titan, it resonates fully.

    Finally, Raven's voice causes the throne room itself to shake and shudder as she calls: "/Zinthos!/" and the two disharmonious tunes briefly pass back and forth in dominance. Where the tune that represents the true reality and that which represents the dream reality containing the Last Titan are battling for which will replace the other.

    It cannot be seen, but it can be felt, that Raven's gaze is upon Troia. Her words do not echo through the room anymore, but the volume and urgency are extreme regardless as she calls.

    "NOW!"
Garfield Logan "Ooh. Here it comes, here it comes!" The Cheshire is /mostly/ behaving while the more serious things are going on, thanks in large part to Terry helping because he knows exactly what's going on.

But, watching Raven doing Raven things, Gar just can't help it. Springing to his feet amid the good feelings, he figures out how to conjure up glittery pom-poms, which he waves about in tune with Raven's recitations. He twirls, he backflips, he somersaults, and when the 'NOW!' hits, he cries out, "Yaaaaay! Bring her back!"

He'll have to apologize later. If there is a later.
Donna Troy     Troia accepts the hug from Vic, though her heart just doesn't seem to be in it. "Thank you," is all she manages by way of reply.

    And then she's girding herself for what is to come. She takes a deep breath, raises her head, and studies the threads of light again. "I am what she might have been, Raven. But never was. For a short while, you became something you might have been, too. The difference is that I was never who she was. I am someone else. A person who never existed, but might have done. What you were, what you became, what you are again -- you have always been the same person. I do not know whether you feel that way about it, but I am convinced it is true. And... and I suspect... I know... that she does too."

    She studies Raven's form as the sorceress of Azerath starts to work on the process of untangling the web, watching subtleties in the way Raven's power resonates with the potentialities laid out before them that she herself had never really understood, had never trained for, for all the clarity with which she could see the loom. And when Raven calls now, she joins her power to Raven's own, an overlay of light like moonlight on a summer's day blending and interweaving Raven's purple, the two energies ebbing and flowing together in a perfect harmony.

    Slowly, the room around them begins to fade. The milky oval begins to take the form of the familiar screen of the Titans main room. The arc of thrones softens its line, beginning to resemble the sofas once more. The skyline of Metropolis gradually asserts itself over the starscape and the shattered moon.

    And Troia too begins to fade, becoming increasingly ghostly, until the bare outline remains, still dotted with the glow of stars sprinkling her robes and her hairs.

     Farewell, all of you. Good bye, and good luck... Titans.
Rachel Roth     The noise of the realities shifting and one reality overtaking the other by force is like standing in a maelstrom. It is loud, it is chaotic, and there is no certainty that all present will make it out alive. What it does not, or should not, contain, is voices. Raven is no longer calling magical incantations. Troia has added her power to hers, and what Should Be and Has Been is reasserting itself. Among, however, the din of that horrible noise, at the center of all of that power rearranging reality, comes two faint words, in a deep voice made of malice.

    "/Found/ You..."