The Longest November Part 9
DISCLAIMER: I don't own emotion, I rent.
"READY!"
"V, I have a gift for you as well." Raven spoke.
"Really? Pray tell."
"I'm giving you a portion of my power. In actuality, it's a piece of my soul-self." she explained.
Raven put her hand on V's shoulder, as black flames flickered around his body. He held up his knives as dark fire spread itself around them.
"Like a small heartbeat." he said quietly.
"AIM!"
Raven turned to her team to give a final word before they faced Mod's forces with the rest of the citizens.
"I can't promise you we can stop all these people from perishing. I can't promise you we'll all leave here intact. But regardless, Mod will pay for his transgressions. Move mountains, send fire from the heavens if you have to! The injustice will go no further from here..."
Raven turned back to V.
"I'll take the few hundred to the left flank, you take the extra few hundred to the right. Then it's a straight shot to Parliament. Ready?" she asked.
"Cheerio..."
"FIRE!"
"TITANS, GO!" Raven cried as she blocked the onslaught of bullets with a wall of her magic. They moved forward as Raven and Starfire shot their beams at the opposition, afterwards taking flight to gain air superiority. Beast Boy morphed into a rhino as Cyborg rode him, firing his sonic cannon and heat-seeking shoulder rockets. Nightwing tossed a device containing a mix of flashbang and smoke for concealment with his left hand while turning the gauntlet on his right hand into a mini-drone which shot tranquilizer darts as he engaged the troops and police with hand-to-hand combat. V made sure the rest fell one by one against his blades, now enchanted with Raven's charm.
"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" V and Raven chanted, as she intercepted a missile that zoomed past her, sending it back at the anti-air vehicle that delivered it. V's thrown dagger transformed into twelve more created through Raven's power, hitting all thirteen of his targets.
Mayhem ensued all around them as the hordes of civilians attacked the authorities. Bodies of both sides covered in blood were either crawling or lying still in the British streets. Eventually, V and Raven made it to the steps of Parliament.
"Go take care of Mod, Rave. We've got this!" Cyborg called out, making Raven turn back to look as she gave him a slight nod. She began to remember the last words of Cyborg to her in 2003 before entering the portal.
She blasted Parliament's doors open as more men with automatics came out of the woodwork, aiming their weapons at the two heroes.
"So taking the elevator is out of the question. Any ideas for these chaps?" V inquired.
"Just one. Azarath...Metrion...Zinthos." Raven's eyes glowed a bright white as a black hole began opening in the center of the room. The men with their rifles screamed and attempted to hold on to anything that would stop them from getting consumed by it, but to no avail.
"Where did you send them?"
"Don't know, don't care. Let's move." Raven relayed back to V, nonchalantly.
They made their way up the stairwell, killing any security they were faced with until reaching Mod's office.
"Would you like to do the honors, V?"
"Gladly."
V kicked down the door, revealing Mod sitting in his chair as he spun it around to greet them.
"That door was FENDI!" Mod complained.
"It's over, you tyrannical asshole. No one is coming to save you." Raven pointed out to Mod.
"I'm afraid my young friend is right, old Moddy." V added.
"You lot may have wiped out my assault teams, but I can wipe out this entire city!" Mod confirmed to them, stepping in front of his desk while spinning his cane. He pressed a button on the side of it to pop open the red gem at the base. Inside, was another button to which he pressed, keeping his thumb planted on it.
"If my thumb is removed from this button, it will trigger a nuclear device placed somewhere in this city. Most of London are out and about thanks to you wankahs, do you really want their untimely deaths on your conscience? If not, you'll kill the girl and surrender! Now how is this going to play out, mah duckies?" Mod questioned.
"With my hands around your neck." V said solemnly.
"Wrong answer!" Mod shouted.
"Raven, now!" V relayed telepathically.
Raven stopped time around herself and her partner as V held up one of his blades covered in dark fiery magic, throwing it at Mod to cut off his hand. Raven unfroze time-space as Mod looked at the stump where his hand used to be as it gushed blood.
"...my BLOODY hand! You right foul peasants cut mah bloody hand off!" Mod screamed.
"I'll put you out of your misery then, shall I?" V rushed Mod to strangle him over his desk. Mod weakly attempted to hit V but had no effect on him. Raven stood and watched as Mod's throat was ripped out. V took a rose from the vase on Mod's desk and let it fall on top of his body.
"It's over." V told Raven, before collapsing. She slid to grab him and began to notice he was covered in blood.
"V...why didn't you tell me?" Raven whimpered, attempting to heal him.
"There's no need for that, cariad...as I have said before, I had no intention of leaving this place."
"I don't want you to go..." Raven uttered, tears beginning to surface on her face.
"Forgive me, Raven. Forgive me for everything." V coughed, his voice fading as the moments passed between them. She took his hand in hers.
"V...there's nothing to forgive. I love you..." Raven whispered.
V's grip soon slipped away, his hand falling to the floor as he gave up the ghost. Raven rested her head on V's chest and cried for a short while before getting up to take the Clock of Eternity and a rose being kept in the same vase on the desk. She placed it on the same spot where she had laid her head minutes before. The white robed heroine took one last look before leaving the building, stepping over the dead guards in the hallways and stairwell.
Nightwing knocked out another soldier before running up to Raven.
"Is it done, Raven? Where is V?" he asked.
Raven shook her head as to tell him he didn't make it.
"Come with me, I want you to witness this." she beckoned for him to take her hand as she led them to the underground where V's explosives were waiting to be set off.
LONDON UNDERGROUND, 11:57 PM
"Whoa...that's a lot of C-4, Rave."
"Exactly."
"I'm sorry about your friend." he apologized. "Who was he?"
"He was...my father."
"Your father?" Nightwing looked over at her, stunned at her response.
"Yes. And my mother." Raven spoke, pulling the lever to the train cars as the city bell rang, signifying that it was midnight of November, the 5th. "He was you...and me. He was all of us."
The train car began to operate, the multiple blocks of explosives lighting up with it.
"Tell me, Nightwing...do you like music?" Raven offered her arm and the two headed to street level as Wilhelm Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" played over the city's loudspeakers.
PARLIAMENT, 12:11 AM
Raven greeted her friends at a safe distance away from Parliament.
"The show's about to start, buckle up." she started.
Once the crescendo had begun, the bottom of Parliament went up into blazes of debris and fire which lead all the way up to the bell tower of the Big Ben exploding, one of its hands landing in the river Thames.
"Magnificent, wouldn't you say?" Raven repeated the words of V that he had told her that very same night a year before. They watched in amazement at the fireworks as a giant V shaped pyrotechnic lit up the London night.
"Now that Mod is out of commission and you've got the clock back, you're probably gonna bounce back to your own timeline huh?" Beast Boy piped up.
Raven ran up to hug him, "All good things must come to an end, BB..."
Beast Boy let out a sigh. "As long as you stay this cute, mama."
The purple haired sorceress sent her best to the rest of the team and started up the Clock of Eternity, but not before giving one last goodbye.
"See you all in twenty years." she smiled and waved, soaring into the wormhole.
TO BE CONCLUDED
