Chapter 3
[Azarath – A week before.]

The guardians of Trigon were worried. Over the last several months, their prisoner had become more and more agitated. He burned at the fact that his own daughter had defeated him on Earth when she was supposed to not only be reduced to a child, but, a weak and powerless one at that. He had also made it impossible for her to escape her fate.

First, she was his portal into the plane where Earth resided and as soon as she did that, all of the people on the planet, in fact all living things were instantly petrified where they would remain forever…or until Trigon had need of their very souls.

Then, he cast his own daughter to Hell itself. To that end, he brought back Slade with a promise: Serve Trigon, lead his army and force Raven to be the portal. In return, Slade would be given a flesh and blood body.

But, Trigon was over confident and overestimated Raven's love for the Teen Titans. She granted them a fraction of her power. That saved the four remaining Titans from being turned to stone and sharing Terra's fate forever.

Trigon, of course, turned on his servant and instead of giving Slade the body he longed for, stripped the undead creature of his role and powers. That forced Slade into a temporary alliance with the Titans, especially his former apprentice Robin. Slade knew where Raven was and convinced Robin to descend into the Pit itself to rescue Raven.

Oh, that didn't change a thing between Robin and Slade. That, they both agreed on readily. But, for rescuing Raven and for Slade getting a real body back, differences were set aside.

Slade and Robin split up at one point. Robin recovered Raven, but, was stunned beyond belief to see her as a frightened seven year old girl in white. It took some doing, and a long chase, but, Robin convinced Raven to trust him. On the way back, Robin told Raven her own story.

Slade managed to defeat the guardian and regained his body, but, not before being forced to explain what had happened after Terra killed him. It was a major admission on the master criminal's mind to have to tell Robin why he was a charred skeleton under the mask.

Robin and the pint sized Raven returned to the destroyed surface and the fight was on between the exhausted Titans…They had been forced to fight their dark halves to keep Trigon distracted. For all the good it did. Evil Starfire told Trigon the plan and they were shocked to discover that Trigon was aware of the rescue.

Well, the good Titans switched to different targets and easily defeated the evil twins, proving that Cyborg could kick Beast Boy's butt.

Trigon proved too powerful, though. He was defeating the Titans when Slade also returned and setting aside long standing issues, sided with the Titans. First, he was able to sever one of Trigon's antlers, then, another one was removed, enraging Trigon.

Raven, though, realized that her father was not impervious to injury and seeing her friends and even Slade about to be killed, struck back. She was able to tap into her own powers and return to her adult form. Trigon decided he had taken enough and moved to kill Raven.

Raven reclaimed the shards of power from her friends and blasted Trigon with her powers, now white as she was cleansed of the evil. Finally, her soul self, also pure white, banished Trigon back to Azarath. The massive release of power on Raven's part restored the planet to the moment people were petrified. If Terra had been on the surface, she would probably have been freed as well. Raven also freed Edward from a stony prison…but, she didn't know that and Edward, like everyone else, would never remember that.

But, that was then. It's been several years since that happened and Trigon had come to realize that there was a second half of the prophecy regarding Raven and it needed her to fall in love.

He knew that once she had fallen in love, it would be her other weakness. She'd be distracted by her boyfriend. But, the prophecy required that Raven fall for a dragon. Trigon had come close to escaping once when she fell for Malchior. But, it wasn't a true love. Malchior turned on her the moment he was released. So, the bonds holding Trigon were still tight.

When Edward came into her life, though…that changed the game. Both were deeply in love with each other and shared a deep bond.

Trigon had managed a few things, though, despite being locked up and that was to give orders to his sons. One was to sneak into Raven's room and look for a certain book. Once that book was in their hands, they were to release Malchior from his prison. They waited until the Titans were out on a mission and thus distracted.

Jared said to his brothers, "Father wants to release this creature from the book. It will be easy to prey upon his desires to act against our traitorous half-breed sister. And, once we transport this thing into her mind, it will be easy pickings. She'll be a mindless vegetable when we are done."

Jesse said, "And, there's nothing that Barnes can do to save dear sweet Raven. He'll be too afraid to hurt her."

So, the three of them released Malchior and told him what was needed.

"You don't have to ask me twice," Malchior said, "She was so easy to trick, it will be a pleasure to rape her mind. She deserves every ounce of pain I can give her."

So, the three Sons of Trigon worked their dark magic and transported Malchior into Raven's very mind.

What they didn't count on though was Edward charging to Raven's rescue right away and after the long fight in Raven's mind, Malchior was ejected and ended up back where he started.

Unbeknownst to Edward and the other Titans, they were watching the final fight and saw how angry Edward could truly be.

"Our father can use this," Jesse said, "This Barnes is a prideful creature. We can use his devotion against him, should the need arise."

As they were talking, Terra had opened up the earth and then buried Malchior alive.

"DAMN!" Jared hissed, "They just eliminated our of our minions. Father will not be happy. We go now."

They teleported away in a flash of red fire to contemplate their next move.

That came a few weeks later, where the Brotherhood of Evil was in suspended animation.

Jesse licked his lips as they moved Mallah to the machine and reversed the effects.

Mallah agreed to attack the children to lure Raven away from the Titans. They didn't know, though, that Melvin was missing Raven and bugged the monks into letting them talk to Raven, thus getting Raven and Edward where they could strike.

That played into their hands, but, again, their plans were derailed by Edward's interference.

In fact, the kids helped Raven to heal her mind faster. Certainly not something that Trigon would have wanted.

Finally, though, Trigon was able to escape from his cell. After killing the guards, he started to tear through the rest of the prison. Anyone who got in his was brutally massacred. Their souls feeding his bloodlust.

He burst through the roof of the building and started to systemically destroy every building in Azarath, killing all who stood. The Azarathians had no chance and within hours, there was only one left: Arella.

Trigon picked her up in his hand and growled, "You I will allow to live. You will tell our daughter that her days are numbered for when I return to Earth and claim my prize…she will be the first to die for I will not allow her to defeat me again."

"Raven will defeat you, monster," Arella said, spitting in Trigon's face.

"For your insolence, you will suffer!" Trigon roared. He set Arella down and gave her a moment to run into the temple…which he promptly destroyed.

Trigon moved on, then. His bloodlust was by no means satisfied, but, with everyone dead, Trigon waited.

Arella spent the next week waiting for rescue and knowing that the chances were slim and none. She tried to escape, but, her broken legs made that impossible. She had resigned herself to die.

As she lay there, she thought of her daughter and prayed that she'd find peace. She prayed that Trigon could be stopped again.

She was drifting in and out when she heard the rubble being moved away and she was certain that Trigon had decided to finish the job. She was surprised to see Raven and Edward there. She was already too weak to move as Edward's dragon form continued to move pieces of building away.

But, she realized that they were working together to remove everything, and the compassion shown by Edward. Arella was immensely grateful for the pain relief as well as she was sound asleep when they arrived at the tower.

There was another problem…the sons of Trigon also knew that Arella was at the tower and they were determined to stop her from warning the others that Trigon was coming back. This time to exact his revenge first, take over the world second.

"My sons," Trigon ordered, "It is time for my daughter to know what it means to defy the will of Trigon. Kill Arella first, then, her boyfriend. Anyone else that gets in the way, kill them slowly. Their souls will be all the sweeter."

"It will be done, Father," Jacob said, his four eyes glowing with an evil intent.


Looks like Trigon has something major planned for the world...and for Rae. Will the team be able to figure things out before Trigon makes his move? And what will Trigon's boys be planning. They certainly have had mixed success (and, yes, this does "solve" the mystery how Malchior was released to torment our favorite empath).

Stay tuned...and thanks for the major increase in the stats. There's been major upswings in the states for this story as well as others, especially The Dragon and the Titans. Don't expect this to be a cakewalk as Trigon could be Edward's biggest challenge.

See you guys soon :)