Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.
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Raven was silent as she read the letter for the sixth time. It was no different this time around. No loopholes, nothing negotiatable, no way that she would be able to turn down his request. She sighed and rolled it back up, tying it with the black ribbon that it had come with.
Her father was summoning her to take part in an arranged marriage. So that two domains would be united when the third (and largest) attacked. Because of the war.
She ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath, trying to visualize strength entering her (inhale) and uncertainty leaving (exhale). It didn't work very much, because, at the moment, her emotions weren't quite as calm as she'd like them to be, due to the newly-allowed freedom her father had granted her.
Earlier in the month, she'd gotten a similar letter stating that she was being called to an informal meeting with her father concerning her marriage arrangements. This came as quite a surprise, as she hadn't ever thought her father could be this civil, much less warn her about their encounter, not to mention the fact that the words 'marriage arrangements' had appeared. Intrigued by his actions, she didn't try to prevent him from summoning her to a connected dream while she was asleep.
Their conversation was heated, as usual, with her tossing typical rebellious statements at him, and him pressing his point on how she couldn't get out of what she was born with. However, Trigon wasn't one to beat around the bush – neither was she – and the topic quickly turned to that which had been stated in the letter: a marriage was required, on her part. She had argued that she had thousands of siblings and he had replied with everyone older than her was either dead, married already, or missing – quite possibly captured or kidnapped by the enemy.
The idea was that a favored native of the opposite domain would be agreed upon by both rulers, and then a formal wedding would commence, kicking off the pre-battle celebrations. Then, the two selected newlyweds would lead the front lines together – after consummating the marriage. Lucky for her, both rulers were fairly decent in that they would allow their chosen citizens to 'okay' the person they were to do it with, and then would give them a full two months to get to know each other before the wedding. This would lead up to the day before the truce between her father's land and the other three ran out, when she and 'blank' would marry and then…screw.
Her and her father's conversation didn't exactly go well…
"You have one week to make your way to my realm and judge for yourself the suitor we've chosen for you. After that, you will be participating in the ceremony either way."
"See if I care!"
Although her father had given her a time limit, she now had to agree that he had been quite reasonable – preparations for weddings, not to mention war, took a long time. A week would have been an acceptable period of time in which to meet with and 'yay-or-nay' Trigon's first-to-third choices. Not that she'd admit it. She was more worried about the letter she had now – five days later – which stated in an overly-innocent, all-too-reasonable manner that her father, 'Lord' Trigon, 'requested' her to come and begin preparations for the…thing.
It was starting. In two days a big, ugly portal would open up and an escort would take her to the damned palace where she would prepare for the journey to Lady Serpentaye's kingdom. And then…hell.
How was she supposed to explain this to the other Titans? 'Oh, hi, remember my dad? Yeah, well, he wants me to go visit him for a couple of months and marry some guy I've never met before – you know how this goes, right, Star? – and then we're gonna lead two armies into battle 'cause this whole thing actually ties into a war! I'll send a postcard!' That would go over well. As it was, the Titans had noticed that she had been distant this past week, and Robin had asked if this had anything to do with how her birthday was coming up again. She'd replied with a no, but said that he was pretty close, which didn't reassure anyone and made her feel a little more than awkward, since now they had something to cling to if she ended up never telling them anything. Swell.
Should she just start packing? There was no way she could escape, and asking the Titans for help might result in an inter-dimensional war between Earth and Trigon's land, which wasn't worth her not-marrying whoever this jerk ended up being. Raven huffed and tossed the scroll onto her bed, glaring at everything in her room as if her objects could stop this, somehow, and were staying still out of pure stubbornness.
"I hate politics."
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A/N: I'll warn you not to expect long chapters on this one. (I've been reading too many 100-word drabbles. Blame those.) As always, I ask for reviews.