Chapter 1: Not on Azarath Anymore
Rachel wakes with a pounding head. She uses her blanket to muffle a moan and gets out of bed in search of some water and a herb to sooth her. The monks will have brought in a fresh bucket of water for the night but the herbs she'll have to go down to the garden and collect.
She's so dazed by sleep that she makes it four steps before realizing this is not her room, not her bed, and not her cat sleeping on the bed. Confused, she goes to the window that takes up an entire Wall and has a look outside. Not only is she not at the temple, but she is not on Azarath.
The stars are in all the wrong place and the world outside is coated in water as far as she can see. There is only one moon in the sky. Plenty of places have only one moon but she's never been to any of them. She's hardly ever even let out of the temple.
Taking stalk of her situation, Rachel runs through a few possibilities of exactly how she could have traveled to another planet, and how to get back. The best way is to open a portal, the only problem is they require a complicated ritual that harnesses immense power. She has the power but the monks haven't taught her to make portals yet.
As for how she got here, she doesn't have the slightest idea.
Right then. First she'll find out how she got here and maybe that'll be the key to getting back. As far as she can tell she's in no immediate danger. She knows what Trigon's realm looks like--not by experience though, thank Azar--and this is not it. Here she has a bed and a spacious room and a door that opens.
Rachel pets the sleeping cat. Its fur is green and it purrs, stretching in its sleep before settling down again. She wonders if all the animals here are green.
A close inspection of the door reveals it has no handle. Maybe she was too fast to assume she was safe--and what is she wearing? Her cloak is supposed to be bone-white but it's . . . blue? Purple? Hard to tell in the near dark. Beneath that she's wearing a black leotard with long sleeves and a turtle neck.
She moves around the room in search of a mirror, which proves to be a mistake because she finds one--and her reflection is wrong. Her hair has been hacked off and her face and body are older, more womanly.
Jolted, she steps back just as her power lashes out against her say-so and shatters the mirror.
"Wha-what? I'm up."
Rachel whirls around and finds a short man with green skin and darker green hair sitting up on the bed. She blinks. She didn't feel him come in. It's still just the one life form of the cat she is sensing . . .
"You were a cat." Hardly the strangest thing to happen since she woke.
"Oh, hey, you're awake! Robin's had everyone take turns keeping watch. You've been asleep for a whole day!" Cat-man walks to the door and presses his hand to a small panel the lights up and opens the door. "Come on everyone should still be up."
She follows him into a well lit hall. "Where am I?"
"Infirmary," he says and gives her a funny look.
They stepped into a large room with a blue carpet, sofas, and the largest television she's ever seen. Her mom showed her a relic of one once, but technology like that is useless on Azarath. But not here aperantly, as there is a beautiful young woman sitting on the couch watching something on it.
"Hey, guys," Cat-man exclaims. "Guess who's up."
"Raven," the girl with pink hair flies over and touches down in front of Rachel. Her skin is tinged orange and her eyes are bright green. "Are you feeling the okay?"
"Yo Rae, you're just in time for dinner!" Someone comes from the kitchen area clearly visible. He is more machine than man, but his life force is just as individual as any others. "I'm making spaghetti."
Cat-man launches into and argument with Robot-man about meatballs and the pink haired girl starts talking a mile a minute, taking Rachel's hand and bouncing up and down.
Rachel pulls away and steps back from them. "Where am I?" She can't hide the panic in her voice.
Conversions cease.
"You're back at the tower, don'tyou remember?" Robot-man says carefully. "Let's go back to Infirmary, I should double check everything. Maybe a concussion."
Rachel steps back when he steps forward. Silence falls again and the three look at her with surprise. Heart beating faster, Rachel tries again. "How did I get here? I need to go back."
Silence is their response and that's when Rachel really does start to panic. Her hands begin to crackle with nervous energy. "You have to take me back, it's important."
Someone else enters, stepping out of the elevator. This one would be the most normal looking of the bunch were he not wearing a mask.
He takes in the situation, his eyes flicking from Rachel's hands, to her face, to the trio. From the way he eases himself within arms reach of his friends but eyes fully on her, she'd say he's the one in charge.
"Talk to me Raven."
"Where am I?" she demands once more. She still hasn't gotten a straight answer and she's getting sick of asking.
In a hushed voice, Robot-man says to the leader, "We need to get her back to the infirmary. Looks like Bender did something after all."
The leader nods and says, "Raven, it's okay. You're safe here, you're at the T-tower."
"No," she replies and clarifies her question. "What planet is this? Which dimension? Where have you brought me?" The crackling energy stretches up to her elbows.
"You're on earth. We're you're friends." His eye flick to her hands. "I need you to calm down."
She does anything but. "Earth," she repeats. "No, I can't be here. Take me back, I have to go back."
Earth is where she was born, where he mother is from. Earth is the place Trigon wants her help to conquer. She can not be here.
"You don't understand."
What they say next, she doesn't hear. Barely managing to keep a grasp on her powers, she pushes energy at them, knocking them out of her way.
She turns and runs to the wall of glass but the girl flies forward, blocking her path. Rachel is so surprised that she instinctively throws a bolt of energy at her that knocks her to the floor.
The girl cries out and stares up at Rachel in a way she is used to: like she's a monster.
"Starfire!" the leader shouts, struggling to his feet.
"I'm sorry," Rachel says to the girl, then lashes out at the glass that shatters on her command.
She flies out the window just as the others reach their fallen friend.
Rachel flies off what she can now see is an island and back toward the mainland that's lit up against the night sky.
She doesn't know how, but she needs to leave this place before her father finds out where she is. Unless he's somehow responsible for this. A chilling thought, but an unlikely possibility.
Surging forward, she frowns at the guilt that's readily settled into her stomach. She didn't mean to hurt the girl. After all these years with monks, why is her first instinct always to hurt people?
She was raised better than this but her blood is tainted in a way she doesn't fully understand.
Why is she such a monster?