I'm not sure how well this will be accepted... This is a Teen Titans/His Dark Materials crossover. (The Golden Compass, Subtle Knife, and Amber Spyglass.) If you Titans fans have never seen or read the Golden Compass or the rest of the trilogy, I've written this story so it will still make sense. If you're in the dark, so are the Titans, and they'll figure everything out eventually, so you will too. Alright? Great.
I don't own Teen Titans or His Dark Materials. This may contain indirect HDM spoilers.
Enjoy!
"Are you alright?" Robin asked, kneeling beside the man.
"I'm dying," came the whispered reply.
The Titans formed a huddle around his prone body, watching him with wary eyes, empathetic of his pain. But pain from where? Beast Boy became a dog and approached the dog lying across the man's chest. His nose came within inches of the real dog's before the man burst into liveliness for a moment and swatted the changeling away.
"Don't touch her," he warned, comforting his companion in death. The dog looked sicklier than he did, but she eyed them all with a deep level of understanding. Her coat was slick and gray and beautiful, but she was dying. That much was clear. The dog turned to the man and appeared to whisper to him. A comforting look passed over the man, and he stroked his friend's head. Their eyes were glazed over with death, but death from where? Raven's mind reeled. There were no injuries on either of them, not even from Dr. Light's attack minutes ago. Then why were they dying? They seemed to draw their energy from each other, but there was no energy left. Why were they dying?
Sensing her question, the man turned to her with a heavy head and said, "We cannot live so far from home. She cannot live…we cannot live…" The dog was shaking now, and she licked the man's aged face fervently. She trembled and shook, and so did the man. They were dying.
"Please, let us help you," Starfire crooned, engrossed in their pain. Jericho silently laid a sympathetic hand on the man's shoulder. "There must be something we can do."
Raven stepped forward. "I can heal you," she offered. "I can-" The dog painfully twisted her head around to face Raven, who fell silent. She looked from one Titan to the next, studying each of their faces. Then she opened her mouth and, much to the shock of the team, she spoke.
"I know you mean well," the animal crowed in a voice low and reverberating, "but please leave us alone. There is no cure for us. There is nothing to heal our wounds. It's been ten years…" but the animal trailed off, lost in the growing darkness of her mind. Seeing her weakness, the man continued for her.
"It's been ten years since we came here. Almost eleven. She cannot live so far away from home…we cannot live…" The man was becoming repetitive in his fight for life.
"Is there a cure back home?" Cyborg asked the man, desperate to help. The man laughed manically, tossing his head left and right.
"Going back won't help us now. We can't go back. The window is gone and we can't go back…ten years…now the window is gone…they're all gone…" The gray dog let her head rest on the man's chest, and she would talk no more to the Titans. Robin turned to his team. They couldn't continue to be distracted—there was still Dr. Light, after all.
"Beast Boy, Cyborg," Robin spoke, demanding their attention. "We're going to get rid of Dr. Light. The rest of you guys"—he gestured to Raven, Starfire, and Jericho—"stay here and get him some help." The Titans reluctantly nodded, questioning not the judgment of their leader but how they could possibly help. The man had said himself that he was dying, Raven wanted to point out. He had said there was nothing to be done. But even she was anxious to ease his suffering, and the suffering of his strange friend. Their pain was radiant, and she felt it seep into every portion of her body. Whatever was happening to them, it was terrible. She wanted to help.
At least they have each other, Raven decided. It's a terrible thing, being alone. As the imprisoned Dr. Light disappeared from view, Raven turned to the remaining Titans. Jericho's green eyes reflected nothing but worry, and Starfire was so lost in grief that Raven was shocked by the weight of such a negative emotion in the Tamaranian. Her tall form was bent over in sorrow, and her bright red hair fell over her face. Raven took a moment to swallow her heart back into her chest before speaking.
"I want to get him to the Tower," she told them. "There must be a spell to save him, whether he thinks he can be saved or not."
"Oh, yes!" Starfire cried at once. "Come, I shall help you carry him…" Jericho nodded in agreement. Raven wrapped her mind around Jericho and the dog as Starfire helped the man to his feet. A growl of protest rumbled from the dog's throat as she was lifted into the air away from her man, but she was too weak to disagree wholeheartedly. As they soared into the air toward the tower, the man continued to wail in a half-mad slur of words.
"The window is gone…we cannot get home…too late anyway…shouldn't have left…oh, my heart!…the window is gone…Maya will die…oh, my heart…"
And for some unutterable reason, Raven felt entirely sick for ripping the dog away from the man.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Starfire asked once more, unwilling to leave Raven and the man.
"No," said Raven. "Go on, I need some quiet." Despite Raven's demand, Starfire stood defiantly in her place. Jericho also lingered, unable to leave her alone. He had only recently joined the team, but he had quickly become a member of their quirky family. Raven's face softened. "I don't need any help. Really." Jericho gave Raven a weak smile and a quick nod, but followed Starfire's example. They weren't going anywhere.
"We will be here in case you do," Starfire told her. Raven knew it was no use trying to persuade them anymore, so she sighed and allowed them to stay.
Raven drew a familiar book from the shelf and flipped through the pages. The man lay weakly on her bed, and the dog ("Maya", they had learned) had snuggled up against his chest. Closer to his heart, Raven realized. The two entities before her intrigued her to no end.
"I want to help you," she told him—them? It should have felt strange to address a dog, but she had been through stranger things. "But…I need to know what's wrong. I can't heal you unless I know why you're sick." Maya had not spoken again yet, and it was the man who responded. Raven sensed a fog in his mind, but he wasn't gone yet. There was time to save him, if she could hurry.
"It's not an illness you can cure," croaked the man. "A dæmon cannot live in another world…Maya cannot live here…"
Raven's blood ran cold, and Starfire involuntarily uttered a small gasp. Jericho glimpsed at them both, a look of confusion and horror frozen onto his face.
"A…demon…?" Raven reaffirmed it. Her heartbeat accelerated, her temple began to pound…
"No…" The man waved a hand drunkenly at them. "In your world a demon is something evil, a servant of the devil. A dæmon…in my world, everyone has a dæmon. She is my heart. She is my soul. When I first came here, I was horrified…but your people are whole, so you still have dæmons. They're inside of you… but we were not born here, so we will die. Not in this world…You cannot help us…"
Raven stared at the man stupidly, exchanging a glance at the others. The dog was not a dog…Well, that had been clear the moment she had spoken. The man's words about dæmons had not stirred questions inside her, but rather the words that had alluded to an even greater concept. They were from another world.
"Do you mean another planet?" Starfire asked him excitedly. " I also hail from an alien world."
Raven considered the situation carefully, unsure of how deep to prod, yet knowing that she must. Almost as soon as the question left Starfire's lips, Raven realized what he had meant. He was from another dimension. Another world entirely, like her Azarath. He must have found a window into Jump City and… Raven cleared her throat. "You meant…"
"Another world," repeated Maya weakly.
"Another dimension, like Azarath," Raven repeated aloud, for the sake of her confused teammates. Raven breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. The bizarre and unusual was usual business for the titans, but he was speaking of matters she could not understand. She didn't know what a dæmon was or why it couldn't live here, and (notwithstanding the man's assurance) she and her friends clearly had no such thing. There was one thing she did know, though, and maybe that would be enough to help.
"I can open portals to Azarath," she began, certain that at least one of the beings heard her words, "so I may be able to open a portal to your world. Another window. I…don't know why you're sick, but if you could return to your own world…maybe you could find the help you need."
"Please," was all he said. Jericho took a step forward, his hands moving in a wave of concern.
'Are you sure that's a good idea?' he signed. 'You don't know what could happen…'
"I don't know what will happen," Raven affirmed, "but it's the only thing I can do. What could happen?"
'Don't say that,' Jericho warned with a smile.
"Do what you think is best," Starfire advised.
"Alright," she answered. Then she turned to the man. "What is your name?"
"David."
Raven closed her eyes, gathering her emotions deep inside herself. Her room burst into life. Books, candles, sheets flew from the space, creating a clear site on her floor. Getting into Azarath was difficult; only those who have been there before can find the door. She hoped finding this world would be simpler. Jericho and Starfire backed out of her way, giving her plenty of space. Raven turned away from her bed and faced her companions. Her wandering mind settled as she concentrated heavily. I've done this so many times…I can do this… She sat on the floor, her mind clearing completely. She cleared her mind and sat down. A cooling calm eased into her veins, and her mind was entranced, hovering in a state of complete evanescence. She began her familiar chant.
"Azarath, metrion zinthos…"
Raven felt the air with her mind, seeking out a point…any point… no, the point that would take her…take her mind away to…open… She groped the intangible air, seeking the tangible.
"Azarath, metrion zinthos…"
She pictured David, Maya. There were so many worlds at her fingertips, a number so vast she could bare fathom the immensity of it all. Which one? Maya, David…dæmons, humans. Somewhere…closer…
"Azarath, metrion zinthos…"
Snag. She felt the edge. It was the world; a deep prodding in her heart seemed to confirm it.
"Azarath—
Raven penetrated the opening, stretched it, felt it give way.
"Metrion—
Her mind tore the rip even more, sliced through the air itself. Bigger, bigger…
Her friends watched in wonder.
"Zinthos!!"
A rush of wind chilled the air. Raven opened her eyes. In front of her, right in the center of the floor, the room opened into a wooded mountain. There was a waterfall, rainbows dancing, the cool, fresh scent of pine. It was another world. David's eyes widened, and Maya lifted her weary head to gaze at the beautiful scene. Raven trembled.
What had she done?
"Thank you," whispered David. "You've brought us peace…Thank you…" He hugged his dæmon tight against his chest and carried her into their own world. The purple carpet of Raven's room became a rocky mountainside, but as he passed through the window, Maya vanished into the air. A moment later, he fell into the rocky grass alone.
