Philipus blinks at the sudden brightness she finds herself in; the world around her is completely white to her except for the two figures in front of her. Philipus clears her head as she sees Raven standing in the black leotard she wore when she arrived at Themyscira, with no hint of emotion on her face or in her eyes as she looks at the figure in front of her. Philipus gasps as she sees herself standing there with lightning crackling up her arms and a red glow in her eyes as smiling wickedly.
"You are pathetic." Her mirror image spits. "You have no place amongst us, and even less one amongst mystics!" The mirror image throws up her right arm and a lightning bolt strikes Raven, who doesn't even blink before she collapses on the ground writhing uncontrollably as the electricity plays across her body. She begins foaming at the mouth and groans in pain. "Oh don't worry, I've just begun." The Philipus image assures as she raises her other arm.
"STOP!" The real Philipus yells as she throws a ball of lightning at her counterpart, hitting her square in the chest, sending her flying and breaking the electricity playing over Raven who flops motionlessly onto the ground.
"You should have waited your turn." The image says as it gets to its feet. "Hey maybe we can share?"
"You won't touch her again!" Philipus warns as her arms begin crackling with electricity.
"Aww…" The image complains before it is torn apart by bolt of lightning sending bits and pieces of it flying everywhere before they vanish. Philipus sees the ghost of a small obese demon with orange skin before it disappears like smoke in the wind. She grunts in satisfaction as it vanishes with a screech, before turning to Raven who hasn't moved.
"Sister?" Philipus asks as she sits Raven up, resting her head in her lap. She notes that Raven has a completely vacant stare in her eyes, as if she is not seeing the world around her. "It is I, Philipus. Can you hear me?" Raven closes her eyes slowly before opening them again.
"Just do what you are here to do." Raven sighs.
"Sister?"
"You are another vision, saving me from it all only to turn on me later." Raven mumbles.
"No, no I am not, and I won't turn on you." Philipus says as she begins cradling Raven. "We are all here to save you." A single tear runs down Ravens cheek as Philipus says this.
"Dude, warn me next time." Beastboy says as he rubs his head before looking around him. "Umm guys?" He is surprised to find himself on Titans Island, with the tower behind him and the beach and bay waters in front of him along with three figures. He sees Raven crouching protectively in her cloak in a corner between two boulders. Between her and Beastboy, stands two figures both idly juggling a rock each with one hand.
"You know BB, you were right to bring me back. Even what I did can't compare to what she did." Beastboy is stunned; the speaker is Terra, his Terra. Still wearing the suit of armor Slade equipped her with. "And with that healing power of hers, we can just keep doing this!" She says before hurling the rock at Raven, striking her on the side of the head, causing her to collapse on the ground with a groan.
"Yeah Terra, it was good Robin came to his senses." Beastboy is stunned even further, the other speaker, is himself. "What do you think Rae, we are together and no one wants you. Heck Robin and the others left it to us to get rid of you." He says while tossing his own rock striking Raven's shoulder, she doesn't do anything other than curling up with her back to them. "Aww, I think she is sad because she has no friends. But who wanted to be friends with something like you Raven? You're always putting people down with your lame comments, but of course that could be excused if you weren't a lying monster." He continues ranting as he walks over and kicks Raven in the back, causing her to curl up even more. "Ah boo-hoo, Ter do you thing, she's no fun anymore."
As Beastboy watches, Terra has a swarm of rocks rise off the ground as his counterpart walks aside. Something clicks inside Beastboy as he realizes Terra is going to stone Raven to death. "NOOO!" He screams as he transforms into a tyrannosaurus and charges Terra, completely rage blind, Terra looks around confused just in time to see the large foot descend on her, crushing her into a footprint in the ground.
"Hey I wasn't done with that one!" The fake Beastboy complains before turning into another T-rex.
"How dare you treat her like that?!" Beastboy screams as he charges his oncoming double.
"Why shouldn't I? She is always mean to me!"
"So? Are you going to kill Cyborg for all the times he's hit you as well?" Beastboy asks as the two collide, head to head, sending the two dinosaurs stumbling back, changing into their humanoid forms.
"You know, it's an idea." The double smirks before changing into a humming bird to avoid the tiger claw that's it swiping at him. "What's it like having such friends?" He taunts as he changes into a velociraptor and pounces on the green gorilla, digging his claws into its belly as its teeth is kept at bay a lower arm. Beastboy is forced back up against one of the rocks Raven is lying at.
"The best." Beastboy replies as his other hand grabs a large rock and slams into the side of the dinosaurs head. The duplicate changes back into himself as he clutches his head.
"Dude, that hurt!" His closed eyes doesn't see the large ape blocking out the sun above him or the large stone in its hands.
"Now you know how she feels!" Beastboy spats as he brings the rock down, crushing his double under it. He stares at it for a few seconds as a small ghost with red eyes emerges through the rock before disappearing. Turning to Raven he fears he is too late, as he hasn't moved from her spot. Gently he lifts her up as he sits down, still in the shape of a gorilla; she seems so small in his arms. Slowly he pushes back her hood, revealing her empty staring eyes. "Raven? It's me Garfield."
"Just do what you're here to do." Raven sighs without looking at him. "You're just a vision…"
"No Rae, no I'm not. I'm here to save you." He says while hugging her gently, unseen by him, a tear rolls down Ravens cheek.
"Men…" Antiope sighs as she gets off the ground, grumbling about the hard landing. She finds herself on one of Themyscira's archery lanes. Looking around she finds herself looking at herself standing alone with her bow, and Raven at the other end, impaled thought her hands and feet to the large target at the far end of the range. Antiope can tell Raven is strung up so her heart is over the center. She is dressed in the white toga she was issued during her stay on Themyscira, what is happening is obvious, as Raven has besides her hands and feet, two arrows lodged in each leg and arms, and one in her shoulder.
"You know, I always thought we were missing something when we practiced, and that was the screams of the targets when we hit them." Antiopes double says as she draws and fires an arrow into Ravens other shoulder, Raven just grunts slightly but continues to hang limply. "Hmm, maybe you have screamed too much to be able to? Maybe I just need more?" As she speaks, seven Amazon archers appear besides her, each readying to fire.
The real Antiope doesn't say anything she pulls out her own bow and begins firing at the abominations in front of her. In the span of eight seconds she fires as many arrows and brings down as many of the illusions. Her own copy gurgles and stumbles as she dies slowly as an arrow goes right through her throat. Antiope doesn't wait to see the bodies evaporate as she runs to Raven.
"What have that monster done to you sister?" Antiope asks as she quickly studies the wounds, noticing the ones not pinning her to the target, are meant to hurt as they are all lodged in bones. As Raven doesn't reply Antiope notices the shallow breathing and the vacant stare in her eyes. "Sister? Hold on I'll get you down." Antiope works quickly as she breaks the arrows holding Raven in place. "This will hurt." She warns before pulling Ravens limbs over the shafts and puts her down on the ground. "Raven?" She asks as Raven doesn't seem to register the movement.
"Just…finish what you started." Raven whispers.
"Come now sister, I am real, and I can tell you those wounds you have now are not lethal." Antiope tries to sound positive.
"Matters not…soon one will be added that is."
"Maybe, but it won't be today. And by the gods it won't happen for a thousand years! And it won't be by the hand of a cheap imitation of me. Now show me the person who stood up to the Deceiver for the sake of a distrusting people." Ravens features harden a little as she sheds a single tear.
"Now I'm gonna show you how much of a big bro I am." A duplicate Cyborg says as he stands before Raven in her old attire as she is welded with uneven pieces of iron to the gurney in Cyborg's old room. He pushes her hood back to reveal her vacant face and short purple hair. "Now I made this just for you, since big brothers pull their sisters hair, I made this to slowly pull it off, along with a fair part of your skin." The copy says as she fastens a handful of her hair into a clamp next to her head.
"RAH! Get away from her!" Cyborg bellows as he shoots his doubleganger away from the gurney, slamming him into the desk and the wall behind him. Cyborg runs into the room and places himself between the copy and Raven. "Rae you all right?"
"…"
Cyborg turns around at the lack of response and takes a look into her vacant eyes, Cyborg is horrified to see this, he knows that everything Raven cannot show emotionally is always present in those purple depths, now there nothing but pain. "My god Rae, what have they done to you?!" He turns around and see's his double getting up. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER!" He fires his cannon again before leaping onto the double and begins landing heavy blows onto its head." I'LL KILL YOU!" He screams as he keeps pounding and pounding until he has punched a hole in the floor surrounded by scrap metal, broken circuits and brain matter. "Freak." He huffs as he gets up from the mess, being a little surprised as the remains disappears in small puffs of smoke. Turning around he walks over to Raven and tears off the restraints cradling Raven in his arms before moving out of the room, ending up in nowhere, the world has gone completely white with nothing to break it. "Guess it's just you and me."
"You will hurt me too…" Raven whispers, it breaks Cyborg's heart.
"Huh? What? No…no won't." He says in disbelief as he sits down while holding onto her.
"You will…" Raven continues.
"No, don't say that." Cyborg replies while a tear forms in his human eye. "I'm sorry Rae I couldn't be there for you when you needed me and I swear I'm gonna get the guy who did this to you. You're my sis and I will keep you safe." He says while trying to hide his own tears from her by hugging her gently. Like him Raven never thought it was cool to be different from everyone else, unlike him she was calm about it. As about almost everything bad that happened around her, she kept totally calm about it. He had raged for weeks after his surgery before meeting the other Titans, to him she was always the strong silent one, the one he looked at when he felt bothered by his looks. The woman in his arms now is not the one he remembers, her stay here has broken her, and it has broken Victor Stone's heart. Unseen by him, tears begin rolling down Ravens face, landing on Cyborg's shoulders.
"Ow! Softer landing next time!" Io complains as she regains sight and a sore butt. "What am I doing in my forge?" She asks out loud before a crunch is heard behind her. Spinning around with her mace ready, she sees her own back standing at the foot of the gurney, raising a bloody blacksmiths hammer over her head. Io wastes no time, knowing what will happen if the hammer descends again, and leaps forward and smashed her mace into the back of the tormentors head. Death is instantaneous for the illusion and it disappears in a puff of foul smelling smoke. "Well, that took care of the baddie…Raven?" Io is wide eyed and horrified at what her mirror image had been doing; Ravens right arm and the lower half of her left leg is completely smashed, the bone beneath having been crushed with the hammer. Raven just stares at the ceiling, but Io can see she is breathing. "Raven?" Io asks again as she moves to the side of her.
"Continue where you left off…"
"An odd request to the woman who stopped it." Io replies while looking around for something to contain Raven's limbs.
"And you will turn on me, like you have before." Raven replies flatly.
"And how many times have I done that?" Io asks, figuring keeping Raven talking is taking her mind off the injuries.
"Seven."
"Well eight time's the charm." Io replies cheerfully having found a semi circular piece of metal. "Bought the whole squad of friends with me when we came looking for you."
"You always say that too…"
"Well I'm the real one, and you better believe it sister." A small drop of water rolls out of Raven's right eye, going unnoticed by Io on the left side.
"I knew it, we only went draw by pure luck!" Artemis says as her red eyes stare at the fallen figure on the ground, and the severed left arm lying a meter from the stump it used to be attached to. "And to think you lasted that long with Diana." She spits at the fallen person, who flinches as the water hits her face.
"Butchering the unarmed was never my style." The real Artemis says before her blade sings, and the abomination wearing her image is suddenly a head shorter as it is sent flying away from the body. "Now then Sister, why did you not defend yourself?" Artemis asks the fallen Raven.
"It matters not, I would lose eventually." Raven replies without looking up. "Make it fast."
"No, I won't grant you such a request." Artemis replies flatly. "You came to our home an outsider and proved even before the godswater took effect that you had what it takes to be one of us. I refuse to believe a mere amputation will stop you."
"I am a failure, I know." Raven sighs without turning her head, Artemis smirks before shaking her head.
"Do you remember what I said when you found me drunk in the alley?" She asks as she sits down next to Raven who is growing paler, Artemis know she has to convince her that the cycle of torment and death is over before it turns again.
"You said you were a horrible person."
"And you said I was just hard to like, I suppose that's true, but I have always felt I needed to prove something in front of the others. But I live by an honorable warrior code, and you brought me home after I fell asleep in the alley and didn't tell anyone. For that I owe you, this is me repaying you the way I can."
"By letting me bleed to death while talking to me?" Raven asks.
"Oh you are only dying because you think you are, because your mind tells you the injuries warrant it. But you are not, and I can prove it." Artemis says as she reaches over and grabs the severed limb. "I once spent some time down here as well, I wasn't as deep in it as you are, but the rules are the same and sometimes I got something like this you are going through now. Anyways this is the point, you think your arm is severed at the elbow and that the blood loss will kill you in a matter of minutes?" She asks while holding up the limb in front of Ravens eyes.
"You're holding my own hand in front of me? Even my constitution can't sustain that."
"So what if I do this?" Artemis asks before shoving the arm onto the stump, getting a grunt out of Raven.
"And that hurt."
"Try sitting up." Raven sighs but does as asked. "Do you feel lightheaded?" Artemis asks with a smirk.
"No." Raven replies while lifting the previously severed arm to her head. "That's new." Raven says as she notices the arm has completely re-grown leaving to trace of the injury. "How did you to that?" Artemis just blows her nails and ignores her.
"And to think I was impressed by you." Penelope says before punching Raven squarely in the face, again, the broken nose and the missing teeth tell of the pervious strikes. Raven is on the ground with the red eyed Penelope sitting on her chest, pinning Ravens biceps under her knees while she punches away at her head. "Even a man could beat you!" She continues.
"There is no honor in what you are doing; only mine has been besmirched by your imitation of me!" A voice behind the imitation says before it finds itself in a chokehold. "Now if you are anything like me, you know you can't get out now."
"Hrk!" The imitation manages as Penelope puts pressure on its windpipe.
"Be thankful I have enough honor to make it quick." She continues before a sharp crack is heard and the imitation goes limp and disappears. "Now then sister, I will claim you have looked better." Penelope says as she stands up to regard the damage.
"You will continue her work." Raven replies after swallowing some blood.
"That would be dishonorable, if I wanted to beat you, I would bid you stand and fight. Now come and stand, we all want you to come home, you have much to learn and a few things you need to teach the rest of us." Penelope says while extending a hand which Raven ignores.
"I can't, I can only teach how to fall." Raven sighs before swallowing.
"Well if that is all, we would have you teach that. But it is not, I have seen you fight and I certainly believe you can teach the rest of us something you learned from the outside world. Now take my hand, you dishonor yourself by lying on the ground like that." Penelope says while grabbing Ravens hand, a small squeeze is all she needs to pull her to her feet.
"I hate when he does that." Shayera grumbles as she gets off the red rocky ground she is on, it takes her one glaze to realize where she is, the same nightmare world Fate and Raven pulled her out of, and immediately takes to the sky. "If I was lost in hell, where would I be?" She asks out loud, while scouting out the area, a yell that sounds oddly familiar to her draws her attention. Flying over a ridge she sees Raven standing immobile, staring into nothingness while a winged figure descends on her from above with a raised mace. Shayera reacts before thinking and swoops towards to intercept, managing to get her mace between herself and Raven while the attacker strains on the other side. Shayera is surprised to come face to face with herself, only this one has burning hate filled eyes. "A little help?" She asks.
"It doesn't matter, my death here is inevitable." Raven replies without moving.
"Not while I'm around it's not!" Shayera snaps back before pushing the copy away as it's momentum is lost, it lands on its back a few feet away.
"Why…why should you care, you were the only one who still thinks I'm bad n…" Ravens complaint is broken off by a sharp slap to her cheek.
"Stop that, now!" Shayera warns while putting a finger to Ravens face, while Raven slowly puts a hand to her reddening cheek. "I may not like you, and I sure don't trust you. But your sacrifice tore the foundation away under Diana and I won't leave her like that!"
"Expected you to use the mace?" Raven replies as if she didn't hear Shayera.
"Look, I betrayed the League and Earth once and have regretted it every day since, but they let me back in, they forgave me. That's why I will fight to my dying breath to prevent another one like me to come into the League." She says before turning the power on in her mace and swings it around behind her; the mace passes through the head of her double like a cloud of smoke, evaporating the specter, before turning back. "From what I have read and heard, you know what it it's like to be the only one suspicious of a new member of a group." She tries getting Raven to focus on her by putting a hand on her shoulder and looking into her eyes as she speaks.
"I…do." Raven replies while Shayera notices a slight shift in the violet eyes she is looking into.
"Poor child, to go through so much." Fate laments internally as he burns thought the images being forced upon Raven, while simultaneously shielding her from having new ones appear. He had started with a vision of himself presiding over a gathering of mystics who had opened a portal into a nether realm, where Trigon was waiting on the other side. While Superman and Batman were forcibly shoving Raven towards it, with a look of panic on her face. "I will need to watch her closely in the future, incase all of this has a lasting effect on her. What did she do to deserve this?" He asks himself as he burns through another image, one where the League was taking turns at using Raven as a punching bag. "Good we are almost done." He notes the progress of the others. "I hope she can pull through this." Another image of the Joker with a razor is burnt to cinders, as is the Scarecrow with the gas bomb next to him.
Diana finds herself in the area she knows from her home, but all the colors are wrong and so is the audience around her. The sky is white as snow, while the sun is a black spot on it, yet everything is brightly lit. The amphitheaters walls are all a dull grey, where they are a weather beaten light brown in the real world. The audience is little more than skeletons with a thin layer of skin covering the bones, all eye sockets are completely hollow, Diana tries looking into one from the arena floor, but it's like looking into a black hole. It doesn't escape her notice that all of the audience is a mix of amazons, Leaguers and Titans. She had already spotted a mummified Superman, Batman and a version of her mother sitting on the seat of honor. The audience is imitating a real crowd as they cheer and clap, but only making dry whispers with their cheers and a sound like knocking small sticks together when they applaud. In the center of this nightmare arena, on the white sand Diana sees a malicious grinning black and white copy of herself busy with slowly strangling Raven with her lasso. Raven herself is dressed in a torn toga, the ripped midsection and the sand marks on it tell Diana is arriving at the last part of a public beating. The doubleganger is standing behind Raven, who is on her knees, with her arms cast wide while holding onto a piece of the lasso in each hand, which is wrapped several times around Raven's throat. What angers the real Diana, is the lack of fight Raven is displaying, while she is straining for air, the wheezing and harking sounds makes it clear, her arms hand limply by her side.
"I hated my mother for allowing a stray like you in!" The doubleganger spits as she tightens the rope a little, causing the noises from Raven to fade a little. "Now look what you have done to them!" She says as she hoists Raven into the air by the rope to force her to look at the audience before dropping her back onto her knees again. "And to think, I wanted more of you! I figure you spiked that wine!" The real Diana strides into the arena ignoring the comment. "Well, no more, for now you will get what you deserve, witch!"
"Raven of Themyscira! Your Princess commands you to fight this foul impersonation of me!" Diana commands in a stern voice, it is exceptional for Diana to pull rank on a fellow Amazon, but this is an exceptional circumstance.
Magala had told Diana, under four eyes, of what Raven might have to endure, and what the rescue team might have to do to break her out. It had come to Magala in a vision that Raven would be tormented by visions of those dear to her in some way. Fighting off the embodiments they would see would work, but they would need to awaken Raven's will to break her out, to do that it is best to have herself fight it off.
"Hrk!...too…strong…hnp!" Raven manages as Diana stands before her; the dark counterpart pays no heed to the person in front of her.
"You are stronger than this! It is only appears stronger because you fail to oppose it." Diana says as she crosses her arms.
"…ine…vi…ter…ble…"
"If you give up now, then you are no longer the Amazon I was so proud to welcome into our midst." Diana replies coldly. "If you will not fight, then you shame us all, but most of all you shame yourself! Mark my words Raven of Azerath, if you do not fight, then you are lost and damned to this fate, for I will not help you, if you are unwilling to help yourself!"
"…Diana…?"
"No, this is something only you can fight." Diana says before turning away and begins heading towards the nearest exit.
"…please…" Raven whispers, while tears begin welling up in her eyes, but Diana ignores her plea and keeps walking.
"What's the matter? Are you ready to beg for mercy?" The double ganger hisses, somehow noticing the change in the woman at its mercy. But it is ignored as Raven looks after the retreating Princess; Diana is halfway across the arena to the exit when something stirs inside Raven, a mix of wounded pride and fury. "What?!" The double is shocked as Raven calms her breathing, returning it to normal as if her throat was not constricted at all and stands up. Grinding wounds open along Ravens throat as she turns around to face her tormentor who wears a face of pure terror, but keeps holding onto the rope. "You're supposed to be dying at my feet!" It says in disbelief as its eyes are locked onto by death-stare Raven is sending it.
"No more." Raven says with a cracked voice while steeling her right hand, willing her fingers to be as rigid as steel, before drawing it back and shooting it forward in a motion that takes less than a second.
Diana hears a crunch and a, "HURNK!" behind her and turns to see her double with a scared and frantic expression on her face as Raven has seized its heart in her hand, still lodged in the creatures chest. The thing finally let's go of the rope as its knees begin to give away, instead trying to remain upright by holding onto Ravens shoulders, but it has no strength to hold on.
Raven stares at the creature coldly as it regards her with scared eyes and black blood beginning to leak from the side of its mouth. "M…mercy…" It pleads, with its last bit of strength it manages to hold onto the arm sticking into its chest, halting its collapse.
"Let go." Raven replies, when the thing keeps holding onto her, she leans forwards a little, forcing the creature to use more strength to keep it from slipping off the arm that still holds onto its heart, strength it doesn't have. With a final panicked expression marring its face, the double slips off Raven arm with a snapping sound as the veins connected to the heart snaps. Diana is not surprised to see the heart emerging out of the chest is shriveled and black and Raven's hand.
Richard Grayson is horrified at the sight before him; he is in Wayne Manor, in the doorway to the room Bruce gave Raven when she needed somewhere else to sleep than in the cave. The sun is shining outside, a mockery of the event taking place in the room. On the bed, is a very naked version of Richard, waering his Nightwing mask, on top of a very naked Raven, the sheets have been thrown back to let Richard have full view of it all as his double forces himself upon her. Raven's face is turned towards the door with her eyes shut and teeth clenched as the double is holding down her arms by her sides, the red mist descends over Richards eyes when he sees a tear roll down her cheeks.
"GET OFF HER!" He screams as he rushes the rapist, kicking it in the side of the chest, sending it tumbling off the other side of the bed. Richard takes a single look at Raven, who remains unmoving, before leaping over her to get at the abomination on the other side. "HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER!" He screams as he grapples with his double who smirks at him.
"Like you never wanted to." The double replies as they wrestle around on the floor. "I am just doing what you secretly wanted to."
"…how dare you?" Richard whispers as the double's words hits him. "HOW DARE YOU PRETEND TO BE ME?! TO BE ANYTHING LIKE ME?!" He screams as he throws a punch at the smirking face underneath him, the smirk persists even after the fist connects, sending the head snapping back into the floor.
"Come on kid, we both know you'll never have the guts to ask her." Richard blinks in confusion as the person beneath him speaks with the mechanized voice of Red-X.
"Shut up!" Richard punches again, yet the smirk remains. "That is not how I feel about her!"
"Now Robin, you shouldn't lie." This time it speaks with Slade's cold voice. "We both know you want her."
"Stop talking!" Richard aims a deliberate punch at the things nose, breaking it with a crunch.
"Take her!" Batman's voice commands, resulting in another punch.
"Stop it! Stop smiling damn you!" Richard says, the shape beneath him blurs for a second taking on a different appearance.
"I didn't even get to work on her with the knife this time." The Joker pouts as he looks up at Richard before he smiles broadly. "You should hear how much she screams." He adds before giggling in a low and dangerous voice that turns into that horrid manic laugh. This time Richard keeps punching, as he blots out image he gets at the Jokers words. When he finally stops, with aching hands and heaving for breath, the Joker is gone, but the blood on the floor is not.
Richard sits on his knees for a moment staring at the floor before a part of him tells him get up and help the real victim. He gets up and wraps the bed sheets around Ravens naked body, it doesn't surprise his detective mind that she doesn't move or otherwise notice him; "She's in shock." he tells himself. Carrying her out of the room, he finds himself in his own room for some reason, turning around he notes the door behind him has disappeared. Wanting to deal with only one problem at a time, he puts Raven down on his own on his own bed, making her back lean against the headboard. It's when he stands back, he notices Raven is staring off into the distance. In the past he has often looked into Raven's eyes for confirmations on how she felt about situations around her, since she rarely let it show on the surface. He could tell when she was secretly amused by the antics of Beastboy and Cyborg, how much Starfire's vocabulary sometimes confused her and how much something's really hurt her. Like Cyborg he can see her eyes reflect the tremendous pain she has been put through.
"Raven?" She shudders and closes her eyes as he speaks her name; it hurts him because he knows it is because she fears he will continue where the specter left off. He sits down on the edge of the bed near her feet with his back towards her. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner." He sighs, Raven whispers something but he can't make it out. "Raven?"
"…please, don't pretend to be him…" She continues to whisper.
"Raven? It's me, Richard." He turns to face her, but she looks away with her eyes kept closed.
"…no, no you're not…just another vision…"
"Please Raven, look at me." He says while removing his mask. "Raven!" He says harshly as she refuses to turn. She does as commanded and sees his eyes looking back at her, she just closes hers again as more tears start forming.
"It can't be, I won't fall for it, not again, please…" She whispers almost silently to no one.
"It's me Rae, it really is, please believe me. We have come to bring you home." He pleads, while moving a little closer.
"How can I trust you?" She asks with a strained voice.
"Raven, please look at me." He pleads. "Look me in the eyes." She sniffs loudly once and takes a deep breath before doing as asked. Raven and Richard lock eyes for what feels like a long time, Richard tries to let his love and concern for her show through his. He can see her eyes searching harder and harder from something, while her features gradually harden.
"It's you?"
"It me Rae, it really is." The reaction is like studying a damn breaking as Raven begins crying wholeheartedly and begins fumbling to get her arms untangled to hug him, Richard moves close enough to hug her as well, ignoring the squeeze he gets.
"I was so scared." She cries into his shoulder.
"Shh, don't be afraid Rae, I will look after you." He replies while beginning to rock her back and forth.
