All Who Are Mortal

Chapter 1

Author: Death

Disclaimer: I, Death, do hereby state that I neither own,
nor have any relationship/agreement with those who do own, the rights to Teen Titans.
This story was written for nothing more than enjoyment and the love of my fans.
I am making no profit off of this story, nor was that ever my intention.

Read and Review. Use Your Voice.

Raven stood quietly at the roof's edge, buzzing currents of electricity crackling over her cape and winding static through her hair. The night air reeked of storm, its wet humidity choked in her nose and fusing with the putrescent stenches of seawater and dank soil. Violet eyes narrowed beneath her hood, glowering at the spitting surf as it crashed against the shore.

Raven's gaze swirled with defiant chaos, her fingers sparking with black lightning in her fleeting control. The bolts danced around her fingertips, snapping with paramount surges that far surpassed the sparks flickering in the clouds above. She winced as the pressure began to concentrate, the tiny fissures of tissue-like powers weaving and tightening. With a hiss, she fought for control of her mutinous emotions, but her mind was occupied with fatigue and her dominion was quickly overruled.

A strangled cry tore from her throat as the energy exploded from her gloved fingertips, streaking black and green into the sky and slashing through the clouds. It jump-started the tempest and a ruby chain of lightning erupted from the storm, splitting the soil with a thunderous clap. It shook the earth like a giant's fist, hurling a mighty tremor across the grounds and through Titan Tower.

Raven swayed with the roof as she panted, massive drops of rain pounding against the metal roof and her vinyl hood. Her ears rang from the blast, beads of sweat running down her temples and curving along the sides of her face. She placed a tingling palm to her forehead, her chest heaving as she fought for inner peace. In her eyes, her panicked despondency sparkled with clarity, and Raven balked at that unsettling fact as the rain hammered her shoulders. She couldn't leash them anymore; it was too late. Futile. And the repercussions were getting worse.

Each moment of every day, she could feel her emotions pulse and writhe throughout her nerves, thirsting for release and destruction. In whispers, they muttered their aggravation at her refusal, and all the while they revolted, her powers grew.

The new strength and accuracy of her telekinetic skill alone was overwhelming, and Raven regularly found herself shut up in her room, pouring frantically over her mantra in order to drown out the conversations of her fellow titans. Mental and vocal alike, she could hear their voices easily from anywhere on Titan grounds; and Starfire's giddy pop records and screeching sing-a-longs were starting to press her nerves.

Her vision was changing, heightening, and had already become so unnaturally crisp that there were moments in the day where Raven would find herself, to her immense vexation, distracted by the fantastic shapes of the dust particles in the air. Their mischievous shadows would catch her eye, and she would watch with fascination as they twirled and circled on tiny, inconceivable air currents.

Night was little more than a gray-scale of day; and Raven found herself constantly awed and terrified by her clear, easy vision in the earliest hours of morning.

Raven closed her eyes and titled her head back, allowing the cool, thundering rain to strike against her cheeks. It stung, but she couldn't rouse enough attention within herself to care. A roaring thunderclap brought her head up, and her gaze shifted from the ugly clouds to the churning seawater below.

The storm's fury sent it crashing hard against the rocky coast, and she watched the gray waters froth in the agitation. She marveled silently, consumed by the notion that such a large, deadly element could so easily be made helpless by a simple, whistling wind.

Her wonder faded as the similarities between herself and the sea stirred her mind. The thought cemented a bitter taste in her mouth; for what s her father, but her own whistling wind?

Raven stared down at her hands, her eyes heavy, "…What am I going to do?"

Her disquiet was fissured by a directing voice, "Where's Raven? That storm's getting worse."

Raven scowled; and she had been blocking them out so well… One boy's stupid notice of her lack of presence and her progress was instantly for nothing.

As her carefully built wall crumbled, the buzzing bleeps and horns of Cyborg and BeastBoy's video game instantly flooded her ears, as well as Starfire's off-key humming and the heavy, metallic plunking of rain against the roof.

Raven rubbed her temples with wet fingers, willing away the noise and her grim situation.

"I don't know. The roof, I think," she heard Cyborg mutter, his fingers clicking away his controller.

She heard an additional click and then the soft "bleep" of the Pause Screen, followed by Beast Boy's scratching voice, "You want me to get her?"

"Hah," Cyborg snorted, "She'll love that."

"Hn," Robin acknowledged softly, "No, I'd better do it. Be right back."

Raven sighed as she heard the elevator door close and the game recommence, her irritated face smoldering beneath the cold rain. When had she become an incapable child?

Robin's boots were loud on the tiled floor as he left the lift, and they clunked against the top-level stairs with his approach. Raven frowned, turning to meet him as he opened the door.

She glared, and he ignored her, "What're you doing? It's a hurricane out here."

Raven's shoulders stiffened, "I'm meditating."

Robin blinked slowly, "In a severe thunderstorm…."

"Yes."

Robin raised his eyebrows, the corners of his mouth tilted unhappily. She didn't speak, and after a few uncomfortable minutes, he sighed and scratched the back of head, "Well alright, I guess. Come in when you're ready."

Raven's anger flared and she didn't watch him leave, turning on her heal and lifting her eyes to the sky. The door banged closed behind her and she felt her fingers shake with an unsettling, unprovoked rage. It scared her more than she dared to admit, and she closed her eyes and forced her mind to clear; the shaking stopped.

She couldn't decide if it was that Robin had become more irritating to her on an unconscious level, or if her control was simply that far gone. Lately, everything he did bothered her, incensed her, enraged her.

She wondered if it was because he believed that she was tormented over their last battle with Slade, and she knew it angered him to think of her morning such a creature. Often, Raven wondered if their leader was just a tad resentful about how the whole ordeal had played out, but she decided not to pry. She had shut his mind out long ago.

Robin's aggravation with her was infuriating, quite like everything else about him nowadays. The battle was hardly anything to be regretful about. It had been a fierce, violent affair that they had triumphed over, even after most of the Titans had given up hope. They'd fought hard and true right until the closure-less end, each broken in new ways and heavily wounded. They had shattered as a unit- however, once it was silent and the rain had stopped, the Titans were they only ones left standing. They had succeeded. Beaten an enemy in a way they had never beaten another. Slade was finished. He would never come back...

Raven glanced up as another flash of lightning illuminated the sky. The Titans were dispersed, hiding in the blinding light and trees.

Rain dripped from her fingers and the tips of her boots, rolling down her cape and nose and pit-pattering against the ground below. She mentally scowled and pulled her hood over her head; her face was instantly shrouded in darkness.

Feeling rather apathetic, she flew above, dragging her gaze over the scattered bodies of Slade's soldiers and her woodsy surroundings as she searched for her companions.A loud cracking sound shot through the air and Raven swung around, watching as Starfire stretched a glowing ball of green light between her palms. The alien floated a few yards away, her ruby hair plastered against her shoulders, her emerald eyes bright and locked on the man below.

Despite the comet sized hole smoldering in the soil to his right, Slade seemed to disregard Starfire as a threat, and instead of counterattacking, he raised his gaze to Raven.

The second ball of emerald light hit him square in the chest, and he shot backward, crashing hard into an old oak tree.

Raven's powers danced around her gloved fingertips as she flew to her female teammate. Starfire's features were twisted into a mask of exceptional anger, her flawless face so tightly contorted with hate that she hardly looked like herself.

"He nearly killed Robin." She hissed, sparing Raven a glare, "Where were you?"

Before Raven could so much as mutter a reply, Robin called to her from behind. She turned to see him sprinting toward the clearing where they hovered, his uniform mud stained and his face red with blood. There was a furious joy in his eyes when his gaze met hers,

"Yank him loose!"

Raven nodded, raising her arms over her head and muttering her mantra. Slade's armored body ripped away from the bark just as Star's green fire suffocated under her dark energy. She held him just above the ground, releasing him a moment before Robin's foot connected with his head.

A sick crack sounded among the thunder as Slade's mask split and he hit the dirt, splashing mud across Robin's face. The tromping vibrations of Cyborg's metal boots shook the ground from behind them.

A shot of electric blue power whizzed across the ground, singeing the wet grass before slamming into Slade's body and tossing him into the air. He hit the tree again, this time breaking through it; he flew for a dozen yards before skidding to a rough stop. The Titans scattered as the tree tipped in their direction, regrouping below under Robin's command and advancing.

Slade lay motionless in the wet grass as they crowded around him, earth caked on his armor and broken mask. Had Raven been capable of pity at that moment, she may have felt sorry for him. But emotions were indispensable; they needed to end this.

A look of mangled hatred on Robin's face, the Boy Wonder remained motionless, rain pouring off his chin as he clenched and unclenched his fingers. Raven had never seen him so uncontrolled, and she felt her nerves prickle from his intensity. Beast Boy's cheetah face was full of dark curiosity, his head cocked innocently to the side. He was the first to break the silence,

"Is he dead?"

Robin's jaw locked and he narrowed his eyes, "Doubtful."

Raven stared idly down at the crippled man, thinking it suddenly odd, despite their last agonizing hours of battle, that this was a man who had once been a great threat. He looked meek, tame. It was almost disgusting.

Robin's face seemed to reflect her thoughts as bent down to get a better look. There was a soft beep, and then a red light burst from the center of Slade's chest, sending Robin stumbling backward as it expanded and consumed the whole team. Blinded by red, Raven heard her teammates call for her and called back, trying to reach them mentally and finding her telekinetic abilities blocked. She called again, and a high-pitched scream was her only reply. It was gone as quickly as it came.

"Star!" Robin's voice cut through the silence and Raven's heart skipped a beat, "Beast Boy? Cyborg?"

Silence.

Raven snarled and jumped into the air, her body breaking past the red. Her vision instantly cleared and she glanced around her, searching frantically for her team.

"Raven?"

She shook her head and dove down, zooming through the red and yelling for Robin. He answered to her abrupt left and she swerved to get him. Snatching his wrist, she yanked him up, lifting him with her powers once they cleared the crimson dome. His eyes darted around the grounds, anxiously hunting for their fellow titans.

"Can you see them?"

Raven shook her head, "No."

She saw Robin's shoulders tense out of the corner of her eye and turned to face him. He was watching her with narrowed eyes, and she returned the look with equal merit.

"What?" She snapped.

"Your lack of concern is irritating."

Raven stared at him in disbelief, and then anger, "This isn't my fault, Robin, so spare me the punishment. We'll find them."

With a glare, she lowered him to the ground, "You search out here. I'm going back in to make sure we didn't overlook anyone."

Robin nodded his agreement and she left him, diving back through the red mist.

Her vision was immediately worthless, and Raven pulled her senses forward and used what little she had to guide her. The air was thick in her lungs, suffocating. She cleared her throat, veering to the left and pondering the properties of the mist surrounding her. 'Strange, but somehow eerily familia- A heavy blow to the gut brought her to an abrupt stop, and with a strangled cry she hit the ground.

Raven's head hit the soil hard and she winced, lifting one hand to her head and tangling the other in the wet grass at her thigh. She tugged harshly against the weeds, her head screaming as she yanked herself upright. A swift boot to the sternum stopped her and she fell back again, the air whooshing from her lungs.

A low chuckle rumbled in her ears as she fought to breathe, and then an immense pressure was on her throat. The slimy feeling of thick mud slithered down the sides of her neck and pooled in her hood; Raven scowled.

"I should have known it wasn't over."

At the malice in Slade's voice, chills broke out across Raven's skin, sending an unconscious shiver down her spine. He noticed and pleased with himself, ground his boot harder against her esophagus. Raven sputtered in her blindness, willing her powers to her aid; but they remained nothing more than a soft buzzing in her fingers. She could not summon them.

"Such a hindrance, those powers, aren't they? Here one minute, and then…" The sound of snapping fingers bellowed in her ringing ears, and the slight buzz in her fingers died altogether, "Gone the next."

Raven clawed her fingers down Slade's leg, scratching and pushing at his boot; it was futile.

"There, there, little bird, all in good time. I have a message for you first."

In an instant, her vision cleared and Raven found herself face to face with a man she had so foolishly believed to be tame. Part of his mask had fallen away, revealing the peculiar shape of his mouth, and two rows of yellow teeth. His smile chilled her heart.

"He wants you." His voice was cool, professional almost, in his conquest. Raven felt her stomach churn, and Rage set her claws deep into her mind, enraged, demanding; he wouldn't be able to restrain her powers for long.

"Your father told him everything. Every detail of your childhood, your mother, your powers, our...rebellion. He says 'It's time'" Slade shook his head in amused awe, his single eye completely bemused as he studied her, "...Absolutely exquisite, your family."

A flash of white light alerted him to his wrist, and Slade flipped a small panel open just as the red dome surrounding them vanished.

"Ah," He sighed, sparing her a glance as he slightly relieved the strain on her neck, "It's finished."

Raven coughed, wheezing as a large wave of air rushed down her throat and swelled in her withered lungs. It was all the relief she needed, and Rage was liberated.

With a swipe of her arm, she sent Slade sprawling, his armored torso clashing against the dirt with a dull thud. She lunged, a low growl slipping past her lips and she landed sharply on his stomach, her claw-like fingers wrapping around his throat.

Raven hardly noticed the slow of time, but all around them the rain had halted, suspended beautifully in purgatory. The wind, which had so fiercely been tossing leaves, was quelled, and the brown, wilted foliage found refuge from torment. Lightning chains froze in the sky, and yet Raven and Slade were unchanged.

Dark energy poured free from her hands, Slade's authority over her powers broken in her loss of control. She roared as she heaved him from the ground, their feet dangling as she lifted them into the air. With a hiss, she swung him with the strength of a titan and sent him flying through the thick trunk of another oak tree.

The crackling snap split the silence as the trunk splintered, and Raven sped over, a buzzing ebony cloud of rabid lightning. Slade's mangled form was deeply indented within the earth, his mask destroyed and crumbling away from his face. She ripped him free, strangling him- and yet, as her fury inflated, so did a cold sense of alarm. She was too lost, too demoralized, and her anger was still increasing; something was wrong.

Through her arduous haze, she panted, "What… did you… do?"

A smile split his bloodied face, and as the last pieces of his mask fell away, Raven felt the world perish. She knew him, had seen him in her dreams...in her dreams about him...no.

"You," he wheezed, "…are…so perfect. But you hide from your perfection. The mist was a gift and a task given to me by your brother- a concoction he forged in the heart of hell with the aid of your father. With it, he said, we would set you free again."

Raven felt her heart cripple, die, and in its place grew a seed of hatred so large it consumed her soul. In a motion as fluid as water she swung him around, blasting him with dark energy. Slade shredded through soil and grass alike, creating a crater in the earth until Raven blasted him to a halt. In a moment, she had him pinned, her eyes ruby and hate filled; the expression on his familiar face was nothing less than pure rapture. Raven ground her teeth,

"He will destroy you."

Slade's laughter was manic, "Somehow, I doubt he'll have the opportunity."

Time remembered itself then, and the rain was ravenous. Raven felt it sting her through her cloak, but she ignored it, her ire seething as it ripped through her veins; Rage would have him.

Her fingernails dug, ripping through armor and cloth and flesh, "They will not have a victory."

A strong gust of wind raked over them, twisting Raven's violet hair in the currents and whipping it against her face. Her ruby eyes glowed, her teeth barred, and she felt her fingers sink deeper into Slade's chest.

He gagged, and the dark part of Raven rejoiced in the sound, until his gargling became laughter. She snarled, slicing her fingers through ribcage, and yet still he laughed, gasping between fits.

A shrill 'caw' pierced Raven's ears and she felt a set of talons hook onto her shoulder. They bit through cloth and flesh, demanding attention, and Raven turned her crimson gaze. A raven, poised and perfect, stared back at her through red eyes.

It cawed again and Raven felt her powers surge to an unbearable potency. She cried out at the sudden pain, closing her eyes. Relief came like an explosion, her power ripping free and pouring from her fingertips and into the man beneath her.

She could hear someone yelling for her, screaming her name. Where were they? Why wouldn't they come? Come and stop this madness.

She heard Slade chuckling below and her vision was instantly hazed in red. She met his gaze and felt something stir within her, something dark and twisted and evil. It distorted its way through her veins, entwining with her powers. He felt it, and Raven watched as his smile began to fade, and his eyes widened in agony.

The darkness was coming, and she felt it vividly within her power, like tar among water. It slunk its way along, through the tips of her fingers and out with her power. Like sludge, it seeped, thick and slow, creeping into Slade's heart.

Raven watched him writhe, his limbs contorting as his body fought the inevitable. A retched scream fled his mouth and filled her ears. The noise provoked her darkness. Whatever control she may have had up until that point was lost, fled from her to make way for her ugliness.

Her eyes turned black and her vision faded, her fingers twisting within him as she poured her hatred into his heart. His screams were loud in her ears as his chest began to glow black with her powers, and the energy that was escaping her grew thicker, darker, and extremely painful...

Robin had watched from afar, screaming Raven's name as he supported Beast Boy with one arm and fought to restrain Cyborg with the other.

Raven screamed and Cyborg roared, fighting Robin until their leader was forced to drop Beast Boy and wrap both arms around his second in command.

Beast Boy sunk to the ground, withering right next to where Starfire lay unconscious in the grass. Blood stained her purple uniform, originating from the large gash in her side that stretched from rib to hip. She would be fine once Raven saw to her, or so Robin hoped. The alien had lost a lot of blood.

A flash of black light suddenly illuminated the grounds, followed by the loud bang of an after shock. The earth shook in the blow's wake, and as the ringing subsided in their ears, everything was still, silent.

The struggling titans paused for a moment, shaken, for what had once been Slade's body was now nothing more than a bloody pile of flesh and unrecognizable bits of organ. Blood splattered the grass for yards, and Raven was stained with it, her body shaking as the glowing around her hands began to recede.

Robin held Cyborg tightly, the robotic boy straining against his superior in effort to reach their fellow titan.

"Stop it, Cyborg! We can't help her right now!"

"Let go'a me, Robin! Raven needs help!"

But what help they could give her, Robin had no idea. Raven was swaying in the wind, her head tipped back as tears poured down the sides of her face.

"Rae! Hold on, I'm comin'!" Cyborg fought him still, and Robin found himself less and less inclined to hold him back.

The glow died as slowly as Raven tremors, but eventually she was powerless and still. Robin released his companion, and Cyborg took off at a run, leaping over fallen branches as the rain thundered against his armor.

He pulled up short as Raven's black eyes met his. The guilty pain in her eyes pierced his heart. Her eyes snapped closed as he faltered and she jerked sporadically, her lips parting in a silent scream before she toppled over and landed with a soft 'thump' in the grass...

Raven sighed and fazed, re-solidifying in her room below. Slade had been sent to awaken her corruption, and now that he had, there was no turning back. Her powers were restless in their consciousness, thirsty, and becoming more and more defiant each day. If she was grieving over any part of that day, it was that she hadn't killed Slade sooner.

Exhausted, she fell back on her bed, and yet she found no sleep to comfort her. Her world was changing for the worse, and she was going to drag her friends down with her. She needed answers, and unfortunately, the only person she knew who would have them was by far one of her least favorites.

Well. Chapter 1 down, plenty more to go. I hope you are enjoying yourselves so far, and I hope you will stick around. There's a rough future ahead of Raven, and an alternate ending to the original story. Wait and see what happens, I'm not giving anything away. -Death