"Azarath metrion zinthos!" Raven shouted as she pushed back, shoving a demon back through its portal. She flinched as a deep, rumbling voice said, "Well, well. If it isn't my favorite daughter, Raven." Raven flinched. "I'm your only daughter, Dad." "Which is why you're my favorite," Trigon replied. "What do you want, other than to torture me?" "Raven. . .you know I love you -" "Yeah. Sooooo much that you want to teach me how to devour souls and enslave entire dimensions," Raven muttered. "What was that, Raven?" "Nothing, Dad." Trigon stalked over. "Raven. What. Was. That?" Raven avoided his eyes. "Dad! Nobody cares. Okay? Least of all you." Trigon's eyes got big. "Raven! You know I care -" "Yeah. About turning me into a demon? Just. . .just leave me alone!" she yelled, tears welling up in her eyes. She sprinted away, entering a portal to escape.
"Ugh! What was I thinking?! That was so stupid! Why can't Dad just leave me alone?!" Raven yelled, kicking a rock near her hiding place. It rocketed away from her foot, going over the trees and crashing onto something. Raven didn't care. A woman in a lab coat looked at her, peeking around the corner. "Raven." Raven whipped around. "Who are you?" she growled, spheres of black energy already formed around her hands. Her cloak's hood was down, but the hood was whipping around. The woman held up her hands in surrender. "Relax, Raven. I'm the Hive's Headmistress. You are the last of my recruits." "Whoa, the Hive? First off, never heard of them. Second, I don't feel like joining some circus of oddballs. I'm intergalactic demon spawn!" she shouted.
"Yes, and, from what I've heard, you want to be good." Raven stopped cold. "Who told you that?" she whispered, the black magic disintegrating, her hands shaking uncontrollably. "Wouldn't it be a shame if your father found out? Oh, what a reward I could get!" The headmistress mused, seemingly to herself. Raven grabbed her hand and twisted it over her head. "No one can know. Especially not Dad," she seethed, raging. "Well then, you'll have to convince me not to tell. Beg," the Headmistress replied calmly, waiting. Raven was scared, but she shook her head stubbornly. "No. I don't beg," Raven replied frostily. "Good. Because otherwise, you would have been removed from the Titans initiative." Raven cocked her eyebrow. "I'm sorry, but I don't quite get what you're going for. I'm demon spawn, so I obviously don't have a choice."
The Hive Headmistress looked her over sternly. "What if you did have a choice? Evil or good? Father or friends?" she questioned, knowing what Raven would choose. She now fully expected Raven to accept, take the purple tablet, and join the Titans. So Raven's response was not expected. "No." "What?" the Hive Headmistress replied, thoroughly confused. "I can't leave Dad like that. He. . .he may be evil, and cruel, and the devourer of a thousand dimensions, but he's my father. I can't desert him." She lowered her head. The Hive Headmistress replied, "Well. This. . .certainly changes things. I thought you really would have accepted, Raven. You are quite the disappointment, aren't you?" Raven looked at her. "Just to you." Her eyes multiplied, showing four instead of two, glowing red. Her cloak became ragged at the bottom, showing black magical claws and tentacles. She grabbed the woman and was about to throw her away, but a sudden red blast threw Raven off balance.
"Raven?" Trigon asked, looking in confusion from Raven to the lady in her demon claws. Trigon had gotten so used to Raven defying him and refusing to become demonic that this came as a shock to him. She turned. "Father," she acknowledged, then turned back to the lady. The lady's face was turning red, but she used her last bit of strength to fire a purple tablet into Raven's gaping maw. Raven choked, trying to eject whatever-it-was that the lady had shot. Trigon noticed Raven's grip slipping, saw her face turning blue. He let out a full blast of red, raw power. It forced the tablet down Raven's throat, and she gasped lungfuls of air.
"You. . .passed. . ." the Headmistress said, gagging. Raven and Trigon looked at her confusedly. "I passed what?" she asked. "Why, the test, of course! To become a Teen Titan! You passed!" Raven backed up a step. "A. . .Teen Titan. . .Is that like demon school or something?" The Headmistress laughed. "No, my child! It's a team of superheroes, working together for the greater good!" Trigon stepped protectively in front of his daughter. "My daughter is not going to be good. Unlike you and your sorry little team of misfits, Raven is evil," he growled. "Actually, the Hive is a team of elite supervillains, but Raven didn't qualify for that." "Oh? And why not?" Trigon snarled. Raven's eyes returned to two, purple ones. "Dad. Please, just let me go. I can't stay with you forever."
Trigon looked at her. "But you could, my gem. You could stay here." Raven rolled her eyes. "Really, Dad. I have got to get out of here sooner or later. Can I just go now?" She turned to him, her four red eyes winking at him before disappearing. It was a trick she'd learned to fool her father, making him think she wanted evil. Trigon stroked his chin. "Well. . .alright, my portal. Just don't stay away long." Raven smiled. "I won't, Dad." The Headmistress swept her out of the cave, Trigon reaching after her.
